IPMS Roscoe Turner, Indianapolis, Indiana 5 March 2005
For the third time in four years, IPMS Roscoe Turner has had to move its venue due to escalating costs at their previous venue. This time, they have headed a bit farther east to another school location. As with the previous venue, this one is right off the freeway and was quite easy to find. This was helped by the club putting up signs as one got close so no excuse on missing it. It was held in an elementary school and there was a lot of space for vendors, contestants and for sitting. Being an elementary school, parking became a bit of a problem if one was late, but everyone found a spot.
The club offered the flyers on its web site and that included entry forms so I had my forms already filled out before arriving. This club requires the contestant's name on the form in an area that is folded under, but still easily lifted up to see who built it. I know they won't change as few clubs who do this will, but it would be nice if they did. It is really quite easy to match a contestant's number with a name. I was told they do this to make it easier on the judges to see who got the award. Well, it also can give the impression of favoritism. Even though I'm positive that none of that takes place at Indy, we've all heard stories.
Anyway, with my forms filled out, it was a breeze to get through entry and registration. It was $5 for up to 5 models and $10 for 6 or more. A very fair way of doing things that doesn't over-charge those with only a couple of entries. The vendors were in the gymnasium and the place was packed. There were also a few out in the hall for overflow and it was nice that they could be accommodated. A lot of the 'usual suspects' were vending there as were some individuals. It seems as if the majority of vendors at these events are established shops instead of folks selling off their extras, but regardless, there were deals to be had, even if many of them had disappeared before the public was let in. The truth is that all the really good stuff is gone before the public gets in as other vendors will snatch these goodies up to sell in their stores. If you want the real deals, you have to vend.
The cafeteria room was open for the kit raffle. It was a good deal with 20 tickets for $5. Despite purchasing a huge number of tickets, I won little in the raffle. This does happen. It also seemed to me that the number of raffle prizes was down over what they've had in the past. Raffles were held four times during the day with a final one for leftovers at 4PM. I'd encourage the club to put in their flyer a request for entrants to bring an unstarted kit to give to the club so as to help their raffle situation. We all have kits we'll never build that are not horrible dogs. It helps the club and it also helps make more room in our stash for another kit or two!
The biggest drawback of this event was that there were really no refreshments other than water. The sole vending machine was empty in the first hour and no one in the club thought to provide sodas or other goodies. I'm told that will be taken care of for next year, but I thought it was an odd oversight and a missed opportunity to make some additional money.
The contest room was totally separate from the vendors and was in a large, well lit room. The tables were up on stilts so that little hands couldn't grab things. I don't know the total number of entries, but I can tell you that many of the categories were jammed with entries. There were also a goodly number that had nothing or few entries.
Judging started at about 1 PM and the awards ceremony started at around 4:30. All the awards except 'best of ' were put with the winning entries and that really sped things up for some of us who basically just displayed our models. With no 'best of' to be won, we were on the road back at a reasonable time.
Overall I have enjoyed every Indianapolis show I've ever attended. This is in spite of rarely doing well in the contest (thanks largely to the competition!). There were a few rough spots (like the lack of refreshments, and the rather low number of raffle awards), but other than that, it was a good show. The folks at Indy are all the type that seem to like to do these shows and are always looking for ways to improve the experience.
If you are able to attend this event, then put it on your calendar as you'll be glad you did.
As a parting comment, it would be great if IPMS/USA provided some sort of coordination of events held in different regions so that there would not be any conflict of events. I've known clubs to stop doing shows because of constant conflicts with other regional shows. This year, several IPMS groups that regularly hold events are not doing so and that makes things pretty slim in terms of events. To have two excellent clubs: Roscoe Turner, and Great Plains, (both about the same distance from me) hold their events on the same weekend is a real shame. I'd like to have done both. Now there is but one more spring event until a spate of shows in the fall.
Not more than a few years ago, there were seven spring shows I could attend. Now there are but three and with two of them on the same day it really is a show drought for this kid. It is something that I think IPMS/USA might want to look into as it can't be good for these clubs. Those of us living in between have to choose and it only diminishes the number that could have attended both events.