Report on Council of Five Nations XXXI

The results from Council of Five Nations (three weeks ago, for those of you who missed it) are in.  We thought you might like to hear about how things went.


ATTENDANCE
We had about 225 attendees this year; up 18% from last year's 190. 

Of special note, forty (18%) of you got $5 off your entry fee by registering in a group.  We love that kind of group commitment to attending Council.

Also, nineteen (8%) attendees got in at the heavily-discounted student rate.  Today's students are tomorrow's gamers, and we're happy to make it easier for students to attend Council.


EVENTS
We had roughly the same number of events as last year (125).  We're very happy to see so many of them filling up, and there were far fewer "did not run"s this year.  We'll keep working to build attendance and have even more run at full in the future.

Highlights: Our Star Fleet Battles tournament was, once again, the largest in the country - even larger than the national championships at Origns.  RPGA D&D and TC Realms D&D were particularly well attended. And most of our historical miniatures events ran at full or near-full.


THE FACILITY: PROCTORS CONFERENCE CENTER
This was our second year at Proctors, and we learned from the mistakes we made last year.  Registration and the dealers area were on the ground floor, making them easier to find.  RPGs were upstairs, to better manage the sound levels.  We had fewer tables down in the basement, again to mitigate sound issues.

We've received mostly good feedback about the facility and how things went this year.  We're finalizing our report to Proctors' management; do you have anything you think we should add?  Please reply to this email and let us know.

After things went well last year, we entered into a three-year agreement with Proctors, so we're very confident we will be there at least two more years.  And since there is more space for us to grow into, expect us to be there even longer as long as things continue to go well.  The Schenectady Wargamers Association is happy to be part of the Downtown Schenectady renaissance!


PROFITS
Even with the expense of about $800 for all our GMs to receive a Council logo t-shirt, we still made a decent profit this year.  Thanks to all of you for your support!  Having a nice little treasury means we can do good things:
* not worry about spending a little extra money to make everyone's Council experience better
* do even more to promote Council & the SWA so attendance at all our events improves.

Watch for even more good stuff from us in the future!


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many, many thanks to all the Council of Five Nations XXXI Game Masters:
Jonathan Abrams, Eric Alexopoulos, Philip Armstrong, Bill Ashbaugh, Gene Beirne, Eric Belser, Paul Bennett, Chris Bernardi, Grant Bolling, Dan Bostwick, David Bostwick, Carey Bostwick, Mildred Cady, Veronica Cano, Tim Carleton, David Carr, Tersha Choy, Tom Ciampa, Michael Crossman, David Cuatt, Brian Damour, Charles Davis, Troy Ferris, Joe Fox, Jaime Francis, Mike Griffin, Mike Haggett, Austin Hogan, Alex Jurkat, Robert Kirker, Art Lobdell, Frank Luberti Jr, Ralph Mabb, Tom Marli, Chris Martino, Dan Mazzola, Ben McFarland, Brett McLean, Ewan McNay, Dage McNitt, Robert Mulligan, Doug Neet, Chris Nichols, Ben Ossenfort, Mike Paine, Jennifer Paperman, Steve Parenteau, Jane Pattison, John Robb, Andy Roy, Mike Russman, Karen Seiz, Gerry Seypura, Rodney Sheldon, Christopher Tosh, Bernie Trombley, Michael Tutt, Marvin Veeder, David Waxtel, Nathan Whitchurch, John Whitehead, Mark Zaslavsky & Andrew Zorowitz

The SWA Leadership Team organized the event:
Jonathan Choy, Bill Dickerson, Jarrod Ferullo, John Fitzpatrick, Stephen Kent, Stephen Keyer, Nick Klercker, Jason Murphy, Eric Paperman, Mike Reynolds, John Rigley, Eric Rocque (currently serving in Iraq, but with us in spirit), Vince Romeo, Robert Rowe Jr., Robin Toll, Joe Tomasulo & David Cheng

And Thank You to our local retailers in attendance:
Zombie Planet
Coopers Cave Games & Paintball
Silver Eagle Wargame Supplies


COUNCIL XXXII in 2009
This is the time of year when people buy their calendars for the upcoming year. Please mark October 9-11 as Council of Five Nations XXXI.
We'd love to see you there.

... and we'd love to see you at our monthly Game-a-thons.