The First Post-Quarantine IPMS/Gateway Meeting

Last night (19 May), the Gateway Chapter of the International Plastic Modelers' Society (IPMS) (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) met for the first time in two months; the April meeting having been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic-related closings of public facilities. This meeting was the first at the club's new meeting venue, Affton Elks Lodge 6235 (https://www.elks.org/lodges/home.cfm?LodgeNumber=2635).

There were 14 members in attendance at the meeting, and with the large meeting hall, there was no problem maintaining social distancing. The facility got raves from all of us there.

This meeting had a People's Choice Contest for models members built during the quarantine. I had completed two models in that time--a 1:48 scale Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, and a 1:306 USS Fletcher. They were among six entries in this contest, in which attendees voted for the three best models in the contest. My Fletcher got the third-most votes, and my prize was a roll of toilet paper and a cloth mask.

Besides the contest and the show and tell--which included my 1:32 MiG-21PF, a work in progress--I mentioned the Missouri Professional Communicators (https://www.facebook.com/MissouriProfessionalCommunicators) awards for the club's newsletter and press releases that I had received the day before. We also had a demonstration of Tru-Color Paint (http://trucolorpaint.com/), with samples of the paint and literature about the paint line.

I know that several club members stayed away because of lingering coronavirus concerns, which I understand. Attendance should improve as conditions improve for all of us.

Later