Boardgame Players Association Newsletter — January 2008
Jan. 17, 2008

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SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR: Congratulations to Rebecca Hebner who won the third leg in the BPA triple crown of annual awards in what was the most lop-sided membership voting to date. There are those who liken the Sportsmanship vote to a popularity contest. If that’s so, there’s little doubt remaining who is WBC’s sweetheart after this year’s vote.

It seems like just yesterday that this young lady made hobby headlines by being the first person to win four tournaments in one WBC. The enthusiastic teenager showed us old folks how it was done on the gameboard at the ripe old age of 14 and apparently she made an impression, because this year’s voting was the most lop-sided in the history of the award. The Stanford junior received 73 of 267 votes cast to garner 27% of the vote among the 17 nominees. Runner-up Bruce Wigdor followed with 16%. Rounding out the top six finalists were Andrew Chitwood, William Cooper, Tedd Mullally and Greg Smith.

In a year when another woman is making political history in presidential politics, Rebecca showed that being the lone representative of her gender is not a disadvantage in an election. The Stanford junior was nominated for leaving an event to fill in for an absent GM in the Junior’s room. Although jeered by her peers for being such a soft touch, she’ll be the one laughing this summer as she takes in WBC from the comfort of her free room courtesy of the BPA. Thanks, Rebecca for being such a good citizen. See the details at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/sportman.htm.

WBC TRIALS ANNOUNCED: The event lineup for WBC 2008 is now complete, pending GM commitments and sponsor additions. The Annual Survey of the membership admitted four new events (Making of the President, 1960, Yspahan. Conquest of Paradise and Vegas Showdown) while welcoming back 21 returning favorites from 2007 and earlier in the December membership drive. 123 votes were required to make the cut. See the voting totals at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/trialvote.htm. We’d like to thank everyone for participating in our event selection process. The 2008 membership drive is now over and so are our 2007 price levels. However, you can still join or renew your BPA membership throughout the year and enjoy $10 savings over WBC At the Door rates. Upgrading your membership to Tribune level grants free admission to any and all WBC pre-cons and gets the new Yearbook. All other 2008 attendees who are not now members will need to purchase a Yearbook separately if they want one. See http://www.boardgamers.org/bpaterms.htm for details.

GM RESERVATIONS:
All GMs are reminded that their event "reservations" for the WBC events they ran in 2007 expired on Jan. 1. To retain GM status of your event, you must submit a new event form at http://www.boardgamers.org/forms/EventForm.htm and renew your membership. Otherwise, those events will be listed as OPEN on the Orphan’s List in an attempt to attract a new GM. Prospective Game Master volunteers are asked to submit their event forms for WBC 2008 now. Many openings are listed on the Orphans Page at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/orphans.htm. Any event listed as Open needs a GM commitment by Feb. 28 or it will not be held. Prospective GMs are urged to reread the newly revised GM Guidelines at http://www.boardgamers.org/gmguide.htm paying particular attention to the new formats for multi-heat events which have been modified since the prior distribution.

2007 UPDATES: The 2007 chapter summation of our Virtual History page is now on line at http://www.boardgamers.org/archive/history07.htm to commemorate WBC 2007. Supporting archives for Laurels and event wins are likewise provided at http://www.boardgamers.org/l_sumsall.htm and http://www.boardgamers.org/medals.htm.

TENTH SEAT: The annual summation of our Board Meeting is now on line at http://www.boardgamers.org/tenthseat.htm. It covers MESE issues, discusses the new Yearbook policy, talks about the GM Breakfast and GM Votes, describes a clarified BoD Nomination Procedure, a establishes that all items to be sold at the Auction Store in 2008 must be preregistered. There is also a brief essay From the Director's Chair—not to be confused with a Mission Statement—about the validity or lack thereof—of our name World Boardgaming championships at http://www.boardgamers.org/directorschair/directorschair2008-01.shtml.

BoD NOMINATIONS: All BPA members are hereby notified of their right to nominate members for the three Board seats whose terms expire at the next WBC. To appear on the ballot, a member must be nominated in writing by at least three members; one of which must be himself/herself. Nominations must be signed and received at BPA, 1541 Redfield Rd, Bel Air, MD 21015 no later than February 28th to be eligible for election in that year. NOTE: Email nominations are NOT acceptable, nor can a member nominate more than one member for the Board. When contemplating nominations, members are urged to consider that the BPA conducts most of its business by email and needs Board members who are able and willing to offer their time and skills to the organization in a timely manner. Board members should be considered more for their ability to contribute to the running of a successful company than for their attachment to any particular game or genre. Besides forwarding a signed nomination for himself/herself, each nominee should submit by March 1st a statement not to exceed 100 words summarizing what they can contribute in service to the Board of Directors of the BPA. The nomination form is on line at http://www.boardgamers.org/bpanom.htm.

WAM VI: Our next gaming conference is on Thurs., Jan. 24 through Sun., Jan. 27, 2008, in Timonium, MD. The Winter Activation Meeting is again the week before the Super Bowl. The focus of this four-day event is two-player historical "card-driven" games. We offer the following titles as BPA tournaments with expectation of full laurel awards: Paths of Glory, Wilderness War and Twilight Struggle. An Open Play and "swiss open" format will allow gamers a chance to play a favorite all weekend, or to enter a number of events, even returning to later rounds of events after failed attempts to win the championship in others. Other CDWs such as Hannibal, For the People, We The People, Empire of the Sun and Trimuph of Chaos will be played in a less formal setting, and should attendance justify it, tournament status will be granted the winners of those games after the fact. The Open Play match-up system features GMs matching players of like records as soon as they have an open time slot to play the game (thus allowing players to fit short games in between rounds of longer games).Opening day on Thursday, starting at 2PM will be Open Play First Rounds for all events. Win and you are one round deep into that tournament. Those who arrive on Friday will still be able to join any tournament without missing the First Round. There are no Mulligans in 2008.For more details see http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/wam08ann.htm.

PBeM NEWS:

ADEL VERPFLICHTET: The Adel Verpflichtet PBeM tournament set to begin on January 19th. If you thought internet bluffing was limited to offers of Nigerian wealth you should get back to basics. For real intrigue, try collecting "art" to display at European castles everywhere. Everyone will get to play multiple quick games in parallel on SpielbyWeb in just 3-5 minutes a day. Whether you call it By Hook or by Crook, Hoity Toity, or "that German game with the name I can’t pronounce," check out all the details at http://www.gameaholics.com/adv_tournament.htm. Sign up today!

SARATOGA: A new PBeM tournament for the Battles of the American Revolution series is scheduled to get underway on January 31st. For details see http://www.battlesofamericanrevolution.com/pbem/2008pbem.htm.

WILDERNESS WAR:
Round 4 of the Wilderness War PBeM Tournament has started and shall conclude on March 31 at the latest. The tournament is being played on ACTS and the format is Swiss Elimination. The four players with the top scores after this round will advance to the semifinals. The undefeated players after three rounds are Tom Drueding, Ron Fedin, James Pei, Rob Winslow, George Young, Grant LaDue and Adam Deverell. Check out the action at http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4bc94/index.html.

VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC
: The first round of the Victory in the Pacific PBEM Single-Elimination tournament has ended. The introduction of Vassal as a playing tool was very successful—speeding and clarifying play. The initial 42 entrants (vs. 35 for the previous tournament) were ranked by AREA rating and paired top half to bottom half (such that #1 played #22 and so on). Ed Paule, Sean Druelinger, and Bill Thompson pulled off big upsets to start their Cinderella run! Ed won his game by a half POC margin. The second and third seeds are gone already. 18 games were won by the higher seed. The Japanese won 15 games vs. the Allies’ 6. Bids ranged from 1 for the Allies to 5 for the Japanese. Look for the IJN edge to narrow as the 21 winners tangle! As the top seed, Nathan Zietlow will get the first bye from the carnage this coming round. See all the details at: http://www.gameaholics.com/vitp_bpa/vitp_bpa_single_elim_07.htm
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Anyone interested in running an email tournament is invited to inquire. BPA members who would like to see an email tournament for their favorite game are encouraged to step forward as the GM of such an event. BPA does not run tournaments. Rather, we are an organization of gamers lending support to one another so such events can happen. No one cares as much about your hobby as you do. Get involved. See the requirements to host a BPA email tournament at http://www.abovethefields.com/top_pbem/pbemgm.htm

All BPA PBeM tournaments require current BPA membership when the event starts. All multi-day paid attendees to WBC are current BPA members for the balance of that calendar year. Associate Calendar year memberships enabling play in all PBeM events starting in that year cost only $10. You need not keep your membership current in order to finish a PBeM event. Players may join the BPA throughout the year. Members are reminded they can upgrade their current memberships at any time by remitting the additional funds. See http://www.boardgamers.org/bpaterms.htm for details.


Visit the BPA website at http://www.boardgamers.org

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Don Greenwood
WBC Convention Director


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