The Mad City Modelers club in Madison, WI held a Invitational contest on 4/16/05.

by Kevin Powers

---Organization and co-operation: Grade A.
I found the contest listing in the events section of FSM with a Phone # and a email address to contact for further information. I requested a flyer by phone on short notice, and received it in the mail 3 days later.  Many thanks again , Jim.  When I got there, there was plenty of tables and category sheets to write down the info on the kits going into the show. It was quick for me, because, along with the flyer, he also sent a blank form so I could copy and fill out at home.  The form itself was one of those dreaded "fill your personal info, and fold under" types.          

Having said that, however, it had the categories listed on the sheet, and all you had to do was circle the category the kit was going in.  

---Location: Grade A
  The contest was held in the Radisson INN located just off the main Highway I used to get there.  Which made it easy to find.  The contest room was in a large, well lit area, with one small room for vendors. There were plenty of places to eat within a short drive of the location and one Chinese buffet just across the street from the hotel.

---Vendors: Grade C
  There were very few vendors and those that were there, were the hobby shop variety, which led to very few bargains to be had.  I had spent only a few dollars at show,but, I found out that one of those hobby shops, was a hobby store I do regular business with online, was located only a mile from the contest.

I drove over there and bought a lot more in the shop, than at the contest.  Ironic. To top it all off, the owner of the shop gave me a discount for my purchases at his hobby store.

---The contest portion: Grade F
  Most of categories were lumped together creating a ungodly amount of kits in a single category.  As far as I could figure, there were about 40 or so modelers with about 300 + models.  Every category was filled, with 7 or so, needing some kind of subdivision. I asked one of the club members why there were no subdivided categories after they found out the large number of entries in a single category, and all they said was " it kept the cost down".

This kind of generalization would work, if the contest was of the kind that your kit was judged on its own merits, rather than the "beauty contest", variety.   There was also a sweeps rule, so, you had a lot of categories' 1st, 2nds and 3rds that was being won by the same person which made for a lot of unfair opportunities for other modelers.

 The bottom line of the whole thing is that they could sacrifice a few more $ and a lot more people would come back every year, knowing that they could have a chance, rather than be unhappy, and not return.  Get rid of the sweeps rule and there would have been a much much larger amount of people going home with a little something.

  I had heard a lot of grumbling about the contest and this next subject, to make me wonder about my choice to come back.

---The raffle: Grade C  
  The raffle was of the type that when your number was picked, you could go up and choose from a plethora of good kits, such as Quad Cities model club did, although, there were a few"bow wows" in the pot ; ie: Starfix kits.

   The drawing started at noon, and 6 or so numbers was drawn, and you went up with your winning ticket and picked your prize.  If you weren't around, they left your # up for a while.  When those 6 # were gone, they would draw 6 more.   So, generally, you had 40 or so "cattle" standing around "the feeding trough" waiting for their turn.  The bad part of this was it was also held in the same small room as the vendors, with the atmosphere growing increasingly stifling by the minute.  The drawing took place over a 2 hr period, so you could imagine how people felt.

   A lot of people came away with some great stuff, including me. As far as the vendors was concerned, I over heard one or 2 say that because of all the jammed people around their tables waiting for the #'s to be called, left for some bad business on their part.   What could have happened, was they could have held the raffle in the hall between the contest room and the vendors room, and drew 30 # or so, every half hour, that way there would not be such a cluster @#$%^ for the raffle.

---The awards ceremony: Grade D
  The 1st-3rd places was placed next to the winning kits, and the best of's being addressed. It makes for a speedy awards presentation, but, as I noticed while the while ceremony was going on, there was no clapping, just people milling about looking to see what won what.     It was a dry, very one dimensional presentation.

Having reviewed the whole show in general, and great driving distance I have to go, I would probably not go back next year, unless some things get fixed.  I not only speak for myself, but, from the other grumblings I heard, I would say others too, wont be there again either.