IPMS West Central Missouri, 18 September 2004
Let me start with the preliminaries. The club has a website and all of the registration forms could be downloaded from there. There is a separate sheet that has your personal information on it so that none of that will accompany the model to the display area. The sheet with the model has all the data on the model itself so that judges and viewers can see what was done to the model.
The venue is a Vatterod College campus near the stadium in Kansas City. There is lots of parking and the school itself is very easy to find. Registration went smoothly if a bit slowly and the cost was $10 for all the models you can bring. I find this is a great way to fill the tables, though those only bringing a model or two will find it rather high priced. There were nearly 40 categories and it turned out that several were split.
The venue has one large room for vendors and two smaller rooms for model displays. One was an electronics lab with a shelf (which would normally hold test equipment) running around the room and several large tables in the center of the room. The other was a normal room with tables. There was sufficient room to move around without bumping into people. A break area was just outside this with soda vending machines and tables/chairs so that we could rest if we wished. The vendor room contained 20 tables for vendors and an area for the raffle.
No contest is complete without a raffle and this one was about average with tickets costing $5 for six chances. They were divided into air, auto, ship and misc. There was only one drawing and that at 2 PM while judges were tallying up results. No effort was made to tag the raffle prizes so all the 'good stuff' was grabbed up first.
For those who wished to leave for lunch, there were a number of restaurants in the area within short driving distance.
The awards ceremony was held about 3:30 PM and once underway, went smoothly and quickly. Awards are very nice and designed by the club members. We were on the road back home by about 4 PM.
Now a few personal comments. First of all, this event included sweeps, which means that the same modeler can win 1st, 2nd and 3rd in a category. While only a handful of categories had this happen, several had the same modeler win two of the three. Personally, I don't like sweeps as it means that it does not maximize the number of happy modelers who win awards. To my point of view, an event like this is to make money for the club. This means lots of attendees. Those who do not leave happy are less likely to return, especially if it means hours on the road to get there. The organizers have planned to swap between sweeps and no sweeps, but this just adds a confusion factor to things as a happy entrant one year, may be an unhappy one the next when they find out that the rules have changed.
Second, it is my opinion that the way the raffle is run is not conducive to fair play. Besides having the winner grab what they want, I noticed that for the most part, the winning numbers picked were from very close to the same batch of ticket numbers. This means that either the raffle tickets were not well mixed prior to picking them, or it was just coincidence. Holding one mass raffle is also not the way that I'd do things. I feel that it is much better to run the raffle several times a day. I also find it much better to tag each award and then put the matching tag in a box for the winner to draw from. This way, there is usually still 'good stuff' even near the end of the day. Again, just my thoughts, but ones that were shared by a number of entrants.
A third thing that I noticed was that the majority of vendor tables were bought by hobby shops. There were only five of the 20 available tables being used by vendors selling excess from their collections. This is where the cheap kits that I and so many other attendees come from. Even then, due to subject material, not all will have what are being sought. I came away with more than the 2 kits I bought last year, but it was still less than 10. I usually buy a lot more than that. I realize that the organizers first concern is selling tables and not for who the tables are sold to. If they turned away prospective vendors, then perhaps it is time to seek out a larger venue. I should also mention that on this day there were events being held in Kalamazoo and Dayton that may have pulled away vendors or entrants.
This latter comment about a larger venue should be considered as the model display rooms were quite crowded with models and it may be that the event has outgrown the current location. When one does an 'all you can enter' for one price, then it is only natural that modelers will bring in a lot of stuff. Something to think about.
Final comment is about the awards ceremony. Again, the club set up to do a PowerPoint slide presentation, only this time, they were unsuccessful in getting it to work. This delayed the awards ceremony for quite some time before they realized it wasn't going to work and went on with a normal presentation. I fully understand that these glitches happen as I worked in electronics for decades. However, it might be a good idea to set things up ahead of time with all the proper connections and testing already done. Then simply move the materials out into the final set-up location an proceed with the show.
So, comparing this years event with last years what has changed or improved. Well, first of all, the entry fee and the all for one price thing is new and this, in my opinion, is an improvement. Second, there was a change in the entry forms that did not have the modeler's name with the entry, another improvement. The raffle prizes were better than last year with fewer 'lame' items like catalogues and wheel sets, though it seemed the number of items was down a bit. It also seemed as if the lighting in the vendors room was better than last year and they did have full vendors tables, which was also an improvement over the previous year. There may also have been more entries this year, but that is hard to judge as they used different rooms this time.
Overall, the show was better over last years' and I think that is what any organizer shoots for. In my judgment, there is still room for improvement with regards to the raffle and judging style, but it is their club and they can do things the way they think is the best for them. The folks at WCM are fine, friendly folks and everyone there was made to feel most welcome, which I guess is probably the most important thing about it and the main reason that I attend these contests.
As a suggestion to this club and others, it might not be a bad idea to expand the raffle by asking entrants to bring in a 'spare' kit. This will allow for a greater opportunity for people to take home a raffle prize and will boost the number of items offered. The request can be put in the forms that are mailed out and on the club's website.