HEROICS February/March 2000
Meeting
Dates: March 18, April 15
Meeting
Time: 9 AM to 12 Midnight
Meeting Place: Best Western
Inn at
Turnpike Exit
26 (
straight to
the first traffic light. Turn right onto
follow for
1/2 mile to the Best Western. Use the
Palace of Asia restaurant
entrance and
go upstairs to the New Hope Room.
Dues: $5 per meeting. If you do not play a game, you may visit for
free!
Club
Officers:
President: Steve Cameron epgs@my-deja.com
Treasurer: Bob Hranek robert.j.hranek@lmco.com
Publicity Tzar: Bob Stribula stribula@erols.com
Webmaster: Chris Moffa
chrism@snip.net
Newsletter
Editor: Brian Miller
briancmiller@prodigy.net
IN THIS
ISSUE: Treasurer duties
article, Five-Year financial summary, and Club
News.
EDITOR'S
NOTES
In the past year I have moved more and more
from the traditional means
of
newsletter distribution to exploit the advantages of electronic
distribution, which saves money and effort.
Producing and mailing a
hard-copy
costs 68 cents (unless I have coupon to reduce copying costs); it
costs
nothing to send an electronic copy. It
also requires considerably
less time
to staple/fold/address 50 copies as opposed to 150 copies, which
the
February 1999 distribution required.
The present distribution ratio is roughly 2
hard-copies to 5 electronic
copies. As more members sign-up for internet access,
this ratio will move
accordingly,
provided new e-mail addresses are reported to the Club
Treasurer,
who collects and maintains the membership data.
In addition, I have taken steps to further
push this ratio in favor of
electronic
distribution: over-all distribution has been reduced; and,
organizations will be sent electronic copies instead of hard-copies where
possible. These steps I have taken are arbitrary
answers to important
questions,
which nevertheless may need to be discussed, possibly leading to
other
answers.
Who should receive a newsletter? I have stricken two groups from the
mailing list
who were receiving hard-copies: 1)
members who have not
attended a
meeting since January, 1999, and 2) individuals who have
expressed
interest in the club, but have not yet attended a meeting after
receiving two
or three issues of the newsletter. Who
does receive a
newsletter? Everyone (even pre-1999 attendees) who has
provided an e-mail
address,
past EPGS officers, affiliated organizations (retail outlets, other
clubs,
game manufacturers), and individuals who have attended a meeting in
the past
year or recently expressed interest in the club by contacting the
PR
Czar. Should there be others who receive
the newsletter?
The other question is more
fundamental: does putting the newsletter
on
the
computer screen instead of into someone's hand lose its impact? Is it
easier to
ignore one format over the other? Is it
easier to share with
colleagues a
hard-copy or an electronic copy? I don't
know the answers to
these
questions, but I assume there is no fundamental difference between the
two
formats, so affiliated organizations will now receive the newsletter in
the electronic
format, unless another opinion comes to prevail.
On a different note, contributions from
non-officers for the newsletter
are
lacking. In my opinion, the officers
shouldn't have to devote even more
time to
the club then they already do to provide the content to justify the
regular
publication of a newsletter. I want you
to seriously consider
writing an
article related to our hobby for future issues.
I think everyone
has
something to contribute. Articles can be
as brief as a paragraph to a
few
pages in length.
Submissions must be in a written format and
given to me at a meeting or
transmitted to:
briancmiller@prodigy.net
OFFICER
ELECTIONS
Nominations are being accepted for the
elections scheduled for the July
meeting. Please tell me if you are going to run for an
office so the
Voters'
Guide will be accurate.
EPGS
TREASURER DUTIES
By Bob Hranek
EPGS Treasurer duties
are best defined by describing what needs to be
done
before, during, and after our meetings. Before each EPGS meeting, I
ensure I
have the following:
1. A beltpack
containing $50 EPGS starting change (30x$1s, 4x$5s) and
extra
pens. The beltpack
is quicker for making change and keeps the
EPGS money secure and completely separate from your own cash.
Most
people
don't carry pens, so they are convenient to have on hand for
people
filling out the EPGS Personal Data form.
2. Raffle Tickets - I find it very
convenient to attach the roll of
raffle
tickets to the beltpack.
3. A well-organized, easy-to-carry 3-ring
binder containing:
* the current
Treasury page (taped to the front to easily annotate the
current
raffle value as tickets are purchased);
* the Membership
Attendance spreadsheet (if you've ever tried to collect
dues
without a well-organized hardcopy, you'll appreciate having
the
Membership Attendance as the first thing in your notebook);
* the current MemData spreadsheet (contains all EPGSer's
Personal Data,
which is
necessary in case of emergencies to contact a member or his
family);
* about 30 blank
EPGS Personal Data forms (very convenient and allows
people to
identify any data they want kept private {i.e., off our website});
* about 50 EPGS
Flyers (hand these out to 1st timers and leave some on
the
freebie table for members to take and distribute at work, local game
stores and
conventions).
During our EPGS meeting dates, I arrive
before 9AM to pick up the room
340 key at
the front desk. They will take an
imprint of the credit card
used to
reserve the room. The room is usually
close to the configuration I
provided, but
could be further adjusted to efficiently use the room, which
should
comfortably accommodate about 60 gamers.
It's much easier to move
tables
flush with the wall and properly space the rest BEFORE players start
setting up
games, because we will never know which meeting will need to
exploit the
room's potential. It is important to be
a good tenant. At the
end of
the day I make sure the trash is in the bags, the lights turned off,
the
doors locked, the room key returned, and the credit card receipt signed.
I keep the
room's TV OFF to avoid any disputes regarding our room charges.
All players need to pay their dues, be
given the chance to participate
in the
club raffle, and EPGS needs to maintain up-to-date information on all
its
members. It's better to do all 3
activities at once rather than to
interrupt
everyone 3 times, so I perform these tasks.
I try to lessen the
PITA factor
of the job by collecting money and information from people as
they
arrive so I won't be interrupting a game.
Also, I'm less likely to
miss
people this way than if I try to sweep the entire room after it has
filled
up. One reason I start the day with a
game like Axis & Allies is
that I can
play it and still collect dues when it's not my turn. Since most
members
arrive by 3 PM, I announce the raffle winner about then, the PITA
factor
lessens, and I can concentrate on more involved games.
Players are marked off on the Membership
Attendance spreadsheet as they
pay
their dues. If they don't want to pay
right away, then I put a small
'v' by their name so I can easily recheck with them
later. It's a wonderful
help when
people actually approach me to pay their dues instead of having to
hunt them
down (hint!hint!).
Dues collection is the life-blood of EPGS,
but we would not make ends
meet
without the cash raffle as well. The raffle winning value tally
increases by
half the amount of the purchased tickets every single time
tickets are
purchased. I annotate the current raffle
value on the Treasury
page as
tickets are purchased. (It's far too
easy to lose track unless both
these
actions are done simultaneously!) For
example, every month I buy 5
raffle
tickets myself, and I have the Treasury buy 5 tickets directly to
help get
the ball rolling (I write "RJH" on my tickets and "EPGS" on
each
ticket
purchased by the Treasury). Therefore,
at the start of the meeting
the
raffle's pay out tally is $6 (one-half of my own and the Treasury's
purchase).
Having the Treasury buy raffle tickets helps boost the drawing's
value to
an interesting level, about $40 or so, and gives the Treasury a
chance to
win the raffle as well.
When purchasing raffle tickets, the buyer
receives the half with the
name/address lines on it. If he has to
leave before the drawing, then he
can
write his name on the ticket, give it to the Treasurer, and still win.
Just ask
Greg Jablonski; he won this way! For the raffle drawing (usually
around 3
PM), all the ticket stubs are put in an opaque mixing vessel,
stirred
well, the value of the raffle is announced, and a neutral party
(like the youngest kid) draws the winning ticket. The winner is paid. If
not
present, then the winner is mailed a check.
Note that the cash raffle
nets the
club $6 less than the raffle winner receives, since EPGS buys $6
worth of
tickets out of the Treasury itself.
After the raffle drawing there should be
enough cash to pay the
Newsletter
Editor for any copying/mailing fees and the Publicity Czar for
any
authorized advertising fees. The
Treasurer continues to collect money
from club
fundraisers such as book and game sales throughout the day. These
items
should be immediately written onto the Treasury report. Accurate
notes now
are vital to prevent headaches trying to get it right afterwards!
While collecting dues and pushing raffle
tickets, I check the "Need
Data"
column for each member, because the club must be able to contact all
its
membership and handle emergency situations (we have had medical
emergencies in
the past, requiring a call to a member's family). The blank
Personal
Data form is the tool employed to record updates for the club
database.
After each EPGS meeting (within a couple of
days), I work about 4 hours
updating the
EPGS attendance, MemData, and Treasury
spreadsheets. Our
current EPGS
records were put onto computer files with an enormous
investment of
my time and are vastly superior (ease of use and accuracy) to
the
mainly hand-written notes I was given dating back to 1992. Now that
they are
done, I believe any Treasurer that doesn't keep them current should
be the
subject of a war-crimes trial! I do
these updates ASAP so my memory
can help
resolve any confusing notes and data irregularities that may have
occurred when
I had tallied all the money and data that was collected during
the
meeting.
There are 3 Excel spreadsheets: (1) the
5-year Treasury report (1-page),
(2) the 1-year Attendance record (8 pages as of 1999), and (3)
the perpetual
MemData file
containing contact information and game preferences (13 pages
as of
1999). The second two files never delete
any living member. In the
long run
it's easier this way and they serve as an EPGS history-tracking
mechanism as
well. It's important to note that every
member has the right
to keep
his data private. All EPGS officers are
required to respect these
privacy
concerns; it is our responsibility to prevent any unauthorized
release of
members' information. This includes
keeping control of the
hardcopy lists
brought to our meetings and providing the files to EPGS
officers
only.
The MemData file
currently contains 425 names and the mailing addresses,
phone
numbers, e-mail addresses, and gaming preferences of most members.
For the past
year, members have been solicited to update their record and to
either
specifically authorize or explicitly refuse the release of this data
for
placement on the club website. Unless a
member specifically asks to be
excluded, at
least all members' names and game preferences will eventually
be
included on the Members part of our www.epgs.org site. By the way, once
per year
we will need to pay $35 to Network Solutions to keep our website
name
registration.
After the monthly distribution (via email
and/or disk) of the latest
versions of
these three files to the other EPGS officers, all the 'N' (new)
and 'U'
(updated) annotations from the "Need Data" columns of the MemAttend
and MemData files are removed.
Then I add a 'U' for any member who had a
MemData
update and put 'N' for any new entries.
Keeping these notes up to
date is
very helpful for maintaining correct and complete information for
EPGS newsletter distribution. I try to keep the MemAttend and MemData notes
identical for
each member. When the monthly update is
finished, I print a
copy of
all three files to take to the next meeting and save copies to disk
just in
case.
The Treasury spreadsheet, which is updated
monthly, records credits
(dues paid, etc) and debits (how much got paid to whom and
when). I keep
$50 of the
club's money in the starting change I bring with me to the
meeting, and
the rest is assumed to be in my bank account.
If you become
Treasurer
and decide to set up an independent EPGS bank account, then you
could
easily add an "Interest" column on the Treasury report to record this
additional
revenue stream. You may even decide to
change the cash raffle
scheme, but
I've found $2=1
ticket,
$4=3 tickets, and $6=5 tickets works well.
Other changes are possible as well. Shall we resolve the raffle later
in the
day? I have been wondering if any of the late arriving members would
want to
purchase tickets for the next month's raffle? How about some
feedback, any
takers?
Summary:
The short version is that being Treasurer is a pain-in-the-ass
(PITA), but
someone's got to do it, and it makes sense to have one person
collect
dues, sell raffle tickets, and solicit membership data. My files
have made
the job easier and should be self-explanatory, but I will be
available to
answer any questions. All Treasurers
will be expected to
maintain
accurate, complete, and transferable records.
You do get the
satisfaction of knowing you're keeping the EPGS alive, but the only really
good
thing I can say about this job is that I believe it takes less time to
do than
doing the newsletter well.
FIVE YEAR
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
By Brian
Miller with Bob Hranek
1999 was a year of change for EPGS. Besides our successful move to the
Fort Washington
Best Western Inn, several other steps were taken to address
the
Club's financial health: increasing dues
to $5 per meeting; ceasing the
sale of
discounted charter memberships; and, restructuring the Club raffle.
These steps
have halted the Club's slide to financial ruin, which I will
attempt to
describe in the following paragraphs.
The changes in this past
year need
to be seen in the context of the years that lead up to 1999.
1990 through 1994 appears to have been a
period of bounty for EPGS. I
don't know
enough of the details from this period to explain the rapid
Treasury growth, and any article from one of the early members that
could
explain this
phenomena would be welcome. The fact is
that by the end of
1994 the
Treasury balance was $1,279. Outstanding pre-paid dues (the
discounted
six-month charter memberships) contributed $446 to this amount.
One way to
look at pre-paid dues is to view them as loans.
Members pay in
advance for
attending future meetings with the expectation the Club would
provide a
service, principally in the form of a comfortable meeting place.
For this
advanced money, the Club makes what amounts to a hefty interest
payment by
discounting the fee to attend those future meeting. By accepting
these
monies, the Club is responsible for providing this service, or, in all
fairness, to
refund the members for their unfulfilled expectations. At the
end of
1994 this ratio of assets to liabilities was almost 3:1.
At the end of 1995 this ratio declined to
3:2. In spite of a $158
increase in
pre-paid dues (to $604) contributing to the bottom line, the
Treasury
declined to $993. I don't think this was
necessarily a bad turn of
events. In a perfect world, we would want assets to
equal liabilities, plus
maintain a
"rainy day fund" in order to sustain the Club through the rough
times that
are bound to occur from time to time.
How large the "rainy day
fund"
should be is a discussion for another time.
I can say the surplus at
the end
of 1995 was sufficient to cover rent for a couple months. The
largest
factors affecting the Treasury this year were the free March meeting
celebrating EPGS's fifth anniversary, which was attended by 54 members,
and
the free
July meeting attended by 31 members, which went head-to-head with
the
ORIGINS convention in Philly that weekend.
For the entire year paid
attendance was
537.
Despite a 15% increase in paid attendance
in 1996, the ratio of assets
to
liabilities dropped to nearly 1:1 by year's end. Outstanding pre-paid
dues
accounted for $664 of the Treasury's $698 after the December meeting.
Eight of the
year's twelve meetings negatively impacted the Treasury. There
were two
factors at work here: the cost of rent increased 10% over the
previous
year; and, 2/3 of the paid attendance was purchased through the
charter
membership plan, which discounted the monthly dues plan by 33% ($12
for 6
meetings instead of $3 per
meeting). There is no reason why a
regular
member wouldn't take advantage of this discount, if he had the cash
on
hand, but the result was that the dues was not adequate to cover the
Club's
increased costs. This was an instance
where the practice of charter
memberships
proved harmful, although a few years later the benefit of this
mechanism would
be realized.
This situation was corrected in March 1997
when the Club approved a
dues
increase ($4 per meeting or $18 for 6 meetings). The charter
membership was
still attractive as demonstrated in the growth of outstanding
pre-paid dues
to $732 by the end of the year, but the dues increase was the
right
medicine. From March until the end of
the year only two meetings
failed to
meet costs. In the face of a drop of
paid attendance to 474 from
the
previous year's total of 614, the Treasury still rebounded to end the
year with
$988 in the till. The assets/liabilities ratio was now roughly
4:3.
1998 was a stormy year for EPGS. Our "rainy day" had arrived. Paid
attendance
continued to plunge from the peak in 1996.
It dropped 25% from
the
previous year to 357. Some of this decline is attributable to moving the
meeting
site, induced when our rent at the Plymouth Meeting Inn jumped 150%
to $265
a month, but not all of it. There was an
obvious decline in the
second half
of the previous year, 1997. Paid
attendance for the first six
months of
that year was 278; the last six months it dropped to 196. I don't
know what
happened to cause this. Some members
just stopped coming to the
meetings. Back to 1998, nine of the year's meetings
drained money from the
Treasury. Unused pre-paid dues remained high ($706) at
the end of the year,
but if
it were not for this mechanism, the Club would have gone bust. At
the end
of the year only $422 remained in the Treasury.
For the first time
liabilities exceeded
assets; not by a little, but by nearly $300.
When it rains, it pours. Except for the February meeting when 54
people
crammed into
2 modest rooms at the Church on the Mall, every meeting in the
first
three quarters of 1999 further drained the Treasury. If it were not
for the
enthusiastic response to the restructured raffle regime introduced
in
February, the Treasury, despite the artificial inflation of pre-paid
dues,
would have gone into the red by September.
The response to the raffle
had been
so tremendous that the money raised in 1999 ($419) exceeded the
prior four
years' raffles combined ($351). Other
signs of improvement were
an
increase in paid attendance (441 in 1999 compared to 357 in 1998) and a
substantial
reduction in the outstanding pre-paid dues ($550 compared to
$706). The Treasury's ending balance for 1999 was
$380. Assets are still
lower than
liabilities, but things are now moving in the right direction.
There is every reason to view the Club's
financial future with optimism.
In the last
quarter of 1999 the Treasury netted $106, and paid attendance
averaged 40
per meeting. Only 23% of this can be
attributed to discounted
purchases
through the charter membership plan (a major reversal from past
practice). Because we stopped selling discounted
charters in June, this
percentage will
continue to dwindle with the passage of time.
Our meeting
site is
another reason for optimism. We have
room to grow. Using space
judiciously, we
could comfortably fit 60 gamers (with tables and chairs!) in
the
room. We have just extended our contract
for this room through December
2001. This stability will allow us to grow our
membership, if we all take
active
steps to do so (for the record, 36 people attended their first EPGS
meeting in
1999).
Historically, the first three months of the
year are some of the
best-attended meetings (this may be related to the winter weather). We hope
to see
some faces that have been absent for some time, along with the
familiar
ones. We want to see new faces, too, so invite a friend to an EPGS
meeting.
CLUB NEWS
Diplomacy
Mark Donovan is trying to arrange either a
Diplomacy or Colonial
Diplomacy game for the February meeting to start at approximately
10 AM. So
far
three players have been confirmed. If
you want to join, then contact
Mark ASAP
at: mdono70000@aol.com
EPGS Mailing
List
Jerry Smolens has
created a club mailing list for members to communicate
with
other club members. For example, if you
wanted to organize a Titan
game, you
could post this message to the club list, which would distribute
the
message to all other registered users.
Only club members are invited to
join this
community. You must register to access
this tool. You may
register by sending
a blank e-mail message to:
epgs-subscribe@onelist.com
Direct questions to: jsmolens@voicenet.com
Raffle
Winners
The winners of the December and January
raffles each won $48 and a book.
Congratulations
to Pete Bentivegna and Mark Donovan! Raffle tickets are one
ticket for
$2, three tickets for $4, and five tickets for $6. The winner
receives
one-half of the raffle proceeds; the other half benefits the EPGS
Treasury.
Financial
Report
Paid attendance for the January meeting was
thirty-six. Outstanding
pre-paid dues
declined slightly to $548. (For your
information, members may
still
pre-pay dues, but there is no discount for doing so. For instance,
$22 in
pre-paid dues was used and $20 (4 meetings) in pre-paid dues was
collected in January). Raffle and book sales totaled $44. The hotel
incorrectly
charged us $10.80 too much for renting the room and has promised
to
reduce next month's rent to account for this overcharge.
The Treasury gained $46.20 in January. The cash balance at the
conclusion of
the January meeting is $426.20.
IN ACTION
The following is a list of some of the
games played at the January
meeting (I
unfortunately lost my December list):
Axis &
Allies (MB)
Dragon Dice
(TSR)
1870 (
El Grande (Hans im Glueck)
Europa
1945/2030 (Euro Games)
Joan of Arc
(Tilsit)
Justinian
(GMT)
Lionheart
(Parker Brothers)
Napoleonic
miniatures
Paths of
Glory (GMT)
RoboRally
(Wizards of the Coast)
Die Siedler von Catan (KOSMOS)
Sternenfahrer (KOSMOS)
Super Giant
Monster Showdown (Cybergecko)
Vinci (Euro
Games)
CONVENTION
SCHEDULE
Cold Wars
'00
March
10th-12th
Sponsored by
the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society Eastern Chapter (HMGS
East). For additional miniatures information
contact:
www.angelfire.com/pa/therogues
Historicon '00
July
20th-23rd
World
Boardgame Championships
August 1st -
6th, 2000
Marriott's
Hunt Valley Inn
Six days of the
best boardgaming on the planet featuring the 100
tournaments
of the
Boardgame Players Association's Century group and including World Dip
Con X. Specially designed BPA plaques and Centurion
shirts featuring the
art of
Rodger MacGowan for the winners. Contact: doncon99@toad.net or
www.boardgamers.org
QUARTERMASTER
CORPS
The
following suppliers of gaming merchandise have agreed to post our
newsletter or
an advertisement for EPGS. To show our
support we will list
the
names of these outlets.
The Gamers
Realm
(609)
426-9339
www.gamersrealm.com
Mon. 12 Noon
to 6 PM
Tue.-Fri. 12
Noon to 9 PM
Sat. 11 AM
to 6 PM
Sun. 11 AM to
6 PM
Days of
Knights
Main
Street/P.O. Box 4577
(302)
366-0963
www.daysofknights.com
Legends
& Heroes
(856)
461-7090
Mon.-Fri. 12
Noon to 8 PM
Sat. 11 AM
to 8 PM
Sun. 12 Noon
to 6 PM
Buys, sells,
and trades used games
The Complete
Strategist
(610)
265-8562
Mon.-Thu. 11
AM to 6 PM
Fri. &
Sat. 11 AM to 8 PM
Sun. 12 Noon
to 5 PM
Jenkintown
Train & Hobby
Greenwood
& Leedom
RPG Outpost
(215)
887-4416
www.rpgoutpost.com
Mon.-Thu.
3:30 PM to 7:30 PM
(10 PM by
request)
Fri. 3:30 PM
to 10 PM
(Midnight by
request)
Sat. 12 Noon
to 10 PM
(Midnight by
request)
Sun. 12 Noon
to 6 PM
HEROICS
February/March 2000