Early Saturday morning (5 August), after waking up and getting groomed and dressed, I packed up my bags and departed from the Airbnb rental house I had stayed in since the previous Wednesday. I left the homeowners a brief note thanking them for their hospitality.
Packing up the car, I then drove to the Embassy Suites and San Marcos Conference Center for the final day of the 2023 IPMS/USA National Convention. I attended the National Business Meeting, where the Society's Executive Board (E-Board) presented their reports on the state of the group. Overall, IPMS/USA is in particularly good shape.
This meeting was followed up by bid presentations from two groups hoping to host the 2025 National Convention. First up was Hampton, Virginia, which gave a most confident bid. (Hampton had hosted four previous National Conventions, most recently in 2014.) This bid outlined the venue, expected dates of the convention, spaces for contest and vendor rooms, hotels at or near the convention venue, and planned tours. After they fielded some questions from the floor, Hampton yielded to the other bid presentation. This was from Lakeland, Florida, and they also covered the same items as the previous bid. However, this was Lakeland's first bid for the Nationals and their presentation lacked the polish of Hampton's. The IPMS/USA E-Board would meet in private later that day to vote on the 2025 National Convention Host.
I went through the contest and vendor rooms a few more times to admire some more models and to do some late shopping. That afternoon, I attended a seminar on "Creating Great Dioramas," as the presenters offered their ideas on how to create dioramas that really stand out.
This seminar was followed by the meeting of the National Contest Committee. They discussed this year's contest and any suggested changes in rules and categories.
Soon after this meeting, the vendors began to pack up to close the show. I made a last visit to the vendor and contest rooms before they were closed. There was an early evening social hour in the Conference Center hallway outside of the banquet room. Besides the drinks and conversation, there was a mariachi band to entertain us.
While some attendees went to dine at the closing night banquet, I settled for a snack from the hotel front desk. I went to one of the seminar rooms, where a video hookup to the banquet room was set up. Quite a few other attendees were there waiting for the post-banquet presentations to be made.
The presentations began with Convention Chairman Len Pilhofer battling laryngitis to thank all who attended and put on the Convention. He also said that there were 3110 contest entries (second highest in IPMS/USA National Convention history), 963 registrants, and 625 guests (day pay attendees).
Pilhofer was followed by IPMS/USA President David Lockhart, who gave thanks to the Convention hosts and presented lifetime memberships to two notables.
Director of Local Chapters John Figueroa then presented the Regional Coordinator of the Year Award to Region 6's Sean Glaspell, and the awards for Webmaster, Newsletter Editor, Chapter, and Member of the Year.
Second Vice President Joe Bonnani spoke briefly before introducing 2024 National Convention Chairman Jeff Hearne, who invited all to Madison, Wisconsin next year. The 2025 National Convention host was revealed as Hampton, Virginia (just as I figured).
After these speeches, it was time for the contest awards to be announced. Bill Devins and Aris Pappas took turns announcing the results, which they have been doing for many years. The category and sponsor slide was shown first, followed by the Third Place, Second Place, and First Place models. This enabled us to know which model took what award.
My IPMS/Gateway clubmate Rick Keasey won four awards in this year's contest. His Puma armored car took a First in Armor: Basic Kit Build. He placed Second in Armor: Dioramas for his Normandy Counter Attack diorama. In Figures, Keasey took Third for his bust Revolutionary War Soldier and Second for his bust Badass 1970.
After the individual category awards were announced, the special awards were presented. These culminated in the Most Popular Award (the shadowbox Rendezvous over Bougainville) and the Judges' Grand Award (Renault FB Caterpillar Crawler).
That concluded this Convention. Everyone headed to the contest room to pack up their models, congratulate those who won contest awards, and say their goodbyes. After I made by last circuit of the Conference Center, I took my packed model to my rental car and began the late-night drive to Austin.
To be continued...
Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:
Airbnb: Find homes on Airbnb
Embassy Suites and San Marcos Conference Center: Embassy Suites by Hilton San Marcos Hotel Conference Center
IPMS/USA: IPMS/USA Home Page | By Modelers... For Modelers (ipmsusa.org)
IPMS/Gateway: IPMS Gateway Chapter (google.com)
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