2021 IPMS/USA National Convention (4)

Day three of the 2021 IPMS/USA National Convention in Las Vegas was a Friday (20 August). After getting up and getting dressed at Hostel Cat, I drove to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino for the convention.

Arriving at the Rio, I then made way to the Hash House A Go Go restaurant there, for a breakfast meeting. I attended as IPMS/USA Region 14 Coordinator, along with six other Region Coordinators (RCs): Paul Helfrich (RC-4), Jeff Neal (RC-12), Jeff Herne (RC-5), James Corley (RC-3), and Mike Mackowski (RC-10). Also present were Neal's wife Cathy; John Noack, President of IPMS/USA; and David Lockhart, IPMS/USA Director of Local Chapters.

We all enjoyed generous sized breakfasts as we socialized and talked IPMS/USA business. Noack spoke about a new website and the Wild Apricot operating system coming to IPMS/USA in the coming months. Lockhart and several RCs (including myself) spoke about conflicts arising from chapters holding shows on the same date as those in adjoining regions. This would affect attendance by vendors and modelers. Helfrich, Hearne, and I agreed to be in contact soon regarding this issue, as our regions have chapters fairly close together.

I then checked out the vendor room, where my IPMS/Gateway colleague Mike Brickman told me that our club's founder, Del Miller, had died earlier that morning from a stroke. Mike and I made sure our clubmates in Las Vegas knew about Miller's passing. A down note to carry forward during this convention.

Besides making the rounds of the vendor room, I also made more circuits of the model room, where more models were entered into the contest. I also made sure to cast my vote for the Popular Best of Show Award.

That afternoon, I attended a seminar given by Scott Cohen, co-founder of Tru-Color Paint. He talked about his company and their products, which I examined at his firm's stall in the vendor room. Cohen also passed around model parts painted with his product. I was impressed with Tru-Color Paint and will consider it for my future scale modeling needs.

David Lockhart hosted another seminar I attended that afternoon, regarding the Dynamics of a Model Club. He used his experience as president of IPMS/Atlanta on how to effectively run a club--Promoting the club and hobby, running meetings, encouraging involvement by members, and keeping things fun and interesting. I walked with a woman from St. Louis who was in town occasionally and did my best to answer some questions she had regarding model club members.

Late that afternoon, I grabbed a snack from a convenience store at the Rio, before making my way back to the convention area for the Contest Judges Briefing. There were over 120 judges on hand for the meeting, held at one of the meeting rooms and conducted by Mark Persichetti, Chairman of IPMS/USA's National Contest Committee. 

Persichetti introduced the head class judges and went over judging procedures. He then recognized contest judges for their 3-, 10-, 20- and 30-year anniversaries at IPMS/USA National Conventions. Among those recognized on their three-year anniversaries was yours truly. I received a certificate recognizing this, along with a blue and silver pin.

After the briefing, we headed into the contest room around 6:30 pm to begin our work. I gathered with the other aircraft judges in one part of the room to learn our team assignments and the first categories we would judge. I was drawn into team 10, led by Lee Forbes from IPMS/Alamo Squadron in San Antonio and Tom Henderson joined us. Our team was asked to judge category 120. Aircraft; Medium and Large Prop; 1/48, Out-of-the-Box. The three of us spent over 20 minutes evaluating some 15 entries in this category before deciding on the top three places in the category.

After finishing that category, our team judged two more aircraft categories: 107E. Aircraft; Small Prop; 1/48--Axis Radial; and 105C. Aircraft; Small Prop; 1/72--US/Allied Radial; Other. We carefully evaluated the entries in these two categories before agreeing on the three places in each category. After that, our team judged entries eligible for one of the Special Interest Awards: The Jack Morris Award for Best Korean War US or Allied Aircraft. After surveying several candidates, we agreed that an F-86F-25 Sabre was the best of these entries and would receive the award.

After judging, I signed the book confirming I was a judge at this contest and received a pin for doing so. This went with the convention's registrant pin I received in my packet two days before.

After checking to see if I was still needed to help judge other categories and being told I was no longer needed this night, I left the Rio sometime after 9:30 pm to return to Hostel Cat. I understand that some judges were up until 1:30 am Saturday finishing the judging. Some categories were so close to call.

After arriving in my room, undressing, and charging up my battery and cell phone, I went to sleep. Another big day done, with one more to go.

Later.

Websites of entities mentioned in this post:

IPMS/USA: IPMS/USA Home Page | By Modelers... For Modelers (ipmsusa.org)

IPMS/Gateway: IPMS Gateway Chapter (google.com)

Hostel Cat: Hostel Cat | Las Vegas No.1 Hostel

Las Vegas Tourism: Las Vegas Tourism, Official Site

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino: Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino Las Vegas | Caesars Entertainment - Official Site

Tru-Color Paint: Tru-Color Paint | When You Need Tru-Color (trucolorpaint.com)

IPMS/Atlanta: Home | ipms-atlanta