2026 MPC Communications Honors

Yesterday morning (20 May), I came to Janice Denham's house in Kirkwood to pick up my Missouri Professional Communicators (MPC) 2026 Communications Contest awards. Den ham is co-president of MPC. The awards were presented one week before, but I was unable to attend the awards luncheon due to a St. Louis CITY SC match early that afternoon.

All five items I submitted for the contest were winners. I earned two First Place awards, and one each of Second Place, Third Place, and Honorable Mention. One of the Firsts was for editing The Arch Scaler News, the monthly member newsletter of the Gateway Chapter of the International Plastic Modelers' Society (IPMS) in St. Louis. I submitted the October 2025 issue for consideration here.

One of the MPC judges commented on that submission: "One of the best organized newsletters I've seen/ The news is clear to read, and the array of model photos is easy to browse through. The meeting's minutes are long, but they are presented in an organized way." 

The other First Place award I received was for writing and distributing the press release for last September's Gateway Regional Model Contest and Vendor Fair in Affton. For this category, I submitted a statement of purpose for the release and some screenshots of websites where the release appeared along with the release itself. The judge wrote about my entry: "The writing is clear, concise and informative. There is nothing wrong with that!" The judge suggested leading with what this contest was about and perhaps showing the range of competitions to help readers envision the event. 

A build article I wrote for The Arch Scaler News earned Second Place in its category. "'Vengeance' of an Old Kit: Building Frog's 1:72 Vultee Vengeance Mk. II" ran late last year. The contest judge remarked: "Author narrated their experience of building this model wonderfully, and explained the kit very well. I found it interesting even though I'm not a model builder The photos complemented the narrative nicely, too."

Placing Third was another article I wrote: "Trumpeter's 1:72 F-8II 'Finback'-B." This ran in the Asian Air Arms Special Interest Group Newsletter. The judge wrote of this entry: "Well-written article with great background and detail. Photos also compliment the article well throughout." The judge did suggest that I could talk more about how I came across this model, why I built it, and how it was selected. The judge though that I might draw more readers in by adding this content to the article's lead.

Finally, the Honorable Mention was for my blog post "Trivia Night, Museum Tour, and Soccer Refereeing: My Weekend," which I posted here about a year ago. Of this entry, the judge wrote: "Writing is clear and photos help enliven the various scenes." The judge thought I should relate the day's events with what they mean to me or how they connect to the wider world.  That person thought that by digging deeper into my emotions that I will have a blog that can resonate with more readers.

Overall, the judges' comments were fair on all five entries. Having such constructive criticism to go with these awards has been a help to me in the years since I started entering this contest. Certainly, the awards look good on my wall and on the Awards section of my Linkedin profile.

Those two First Place awards are now eligible for honors from the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW), ofn which MPC is an affiliate. The NFPW's Communications Contest awards will be announced at its National Workshop this September in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

Missouri Professional Communicators: Missouri NFPW affiliate | Missouri Professional Communicators | Clayton

Gateway Chapter IPMS: IPMS Gateway Chapter

Asian Air Arms Special Interest Group: Home | asianairarms

National Federation of Press Women: Home

2025 IPMS/USA National Convention (1)

Having spent nearly a week unpacking, getting back to work, and dealing with high heat around St. Louis lately, I can now start to tell you about my recent vacation.

It was a Monday morning (4 August) when Julie and I set off for Hampton, Virginia. She picked me up at the house, I packed my luggage, and we set off. We were going to Hampton for the annual National Convention of the International Plastic Modelers' Society/USA (IPMS/USA).

The weather was good on the eastbound route and Julie and I had wonderful conversations as we made our way towards Virginia. We stopped in Huntington, West Virginia for the night before resuming the trip the next morning.

Late Tuesday afternoon (5 August), Julie and I arrived in Hampton. We checked in to the Embassy Suites next to the Hampton Roads Convention Center, the IPMS/USA National Convention venue. As I am IPMS/USA's Director of Local Chapters (DLC), I was booked in a room at the Embassy Suites. The room Julie and I stayed at was a very nice suite.

That night, Julie and I went to a cinema in nearby Newport News to see "The Naked Gun." This is the new version starring Liam Neeson. We loved it! This movie was an absolute hoot. (This is coming from a guy who thought the original with Leslie Nielson was terrific.)

The Convention opened on Wednesday morning (6 August). Julie left for a couple of days to visit relatives in Maryland. I helped out right away volunteering to help with contest registration. It was a long line for the first three hours of the convention with registrants checking in their contest models. I particularly helped with those registrants who forgot to print off their contest entry forms from the online registration, or who could not register online for some reason. It was slow at times helping some attendees with registering their models online, but our team of volunteers got it done.

After my shift ended, I made a first visit to the vendor room to buy raffle tickets and to see the vendors. Many of these vendors are people and organizations that I have known for some years now and it was great to see them again here in Hampton.

Later that afternoon, I went back to get my convention packet and to register my models. I had one model I had just completed, a 1:600 scale HMS Repulse that I entered in ships.

I also brought four models for the Tiger Meet display-only area. Three of them--an Indian MiG-21, a Chinese J-8, and a Chinese J-10--were placed on the Asian Air Arms Special Interest Group (SIG) table. (I arranged this display on behalf of this SIG, which I belong to.) A fourth model--a 1:48 A6M2 Zero--was placed in a display paying tribute to Tamiya chairman Shunsaku Tamiya, who died the month before. He was also commemorated at Tamiya's vendor stand.

I returned to my room late that afternoon, where I inspected the contents of the Convention packet. In addition to my name tag, I got a t-shirt and some stickers, pins, and a decal sheet.

That night, I hosted a social for IPMS/USA chapter leaders at the Convention Center. It was a very nice and relaxed happy hour, meeting several chapter officers and having conversations with them.

More on the Convention in my next post. Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

IPMS/USA: IPMS/USA | IPMS/USA Home Page

Embassy Suites by Hilton Hampton Convention Center: Hotel Amenities - Embassy Suites by Hilton Hampton Convention Center

Hampton Roads Convention Center: Home - Hampton Roads Convention Center : Hampton Roads Convention Center

Asian Air Arms Special Interest Group: Home | asianairarms

Tamiya: Tamiya USA