The E-Board has been busy this fall and approved two items of note at our November board meeting.

First, the People's Choice (PC) tally was eliminated for regular points contests; this was an extra 50-point award judged by club members for models in each skill-level category. However due to time constraints and other reasons, such as the PC award often lining up with the Best of Show winner, it was eliminated. However, it will be maintained for our end-of-year Model of the Year contest.

Second, a preliminary contest schedule was approved for 2022, consisting of five "Open" points contests instead of our customary themed points and special contests. This was done in an effort to increase participation in our contests, with a month in between contests to allow extra build time. The non-contest meetings will be taken up with clinics, guest speakers and show-and-tells. Members are still welcome to sponsor contests concurrent with our Open points contests, and to bring in works-in-progress entries to any meeting.

Our traditional "Moe Blalters" Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Real Space/Science special contest will continue and is scheduled for January 7th, 2022.

In addition to the Model of the Year contest, our December meeting will include a special event; members- and their wallets- are encouraged to attend.  Remember, our meetings are scheduled from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM and UNM rules require masking. Due to pandemic, only regular members and invited guests are allowed entrance.

At the 1 October 2021 club meeting, the following members were re-elected to the E-Board for 2022:

President:  John Tate

Vice-President:  Dave Epstein

Contest Chairman:  Ken Liotta

Secretary/Treasurer:  Frank Randall

Pro Tem:  Robert Henderson

Pro Tem:  Scott Jaworski

Elected as a new Pro Tem member for 2022:  Victor Maestas

Appointed Positions:  Mike Blohm continues as Webmaster and Joe Walters continues as Newsletter Editor.

The November 5 meeting will be fairly busy, with a guest speaker—Kathy Myers of the USS Iowa battleship museum—and a points contest covering the Pearl Harbor attack. Hope to see a good turnout as the year winds down and some of our 2021 modeling projects end up on the contest table.  We're all used to this by now but remember UNM masking requirements are still in force for our meetings.

Well it's been two years since our last one, but it's election time again. All elected E-Board positions are open for nomination at our October 1st meeting, with election to be held at our November 5th meeting (or at our October meeting, if nominees are unopposed). At a minimum, there is an open pro-tem spot that will have to be filled by the membership.

If a member is interested in standing for an E-Board position, please review the By Laws to determine if candidacy qualifications are met, then volunteer at the meeting for nomination. Everyone with an interest in serving the club is encouraged to participate.

I want to keep member participation in the club as democratic as possible, so at our September E-Board meeting I proposed a By Law amendment, which was subsequently passed by voting members of the Board, that club members are limited to one voting or non-voting Board position per term, which will prohibit Board members from accruing more than one position on the Board. This will ensure more openings on the Board for club members who wish to participate.

If a member would like more information on the practical duties of a particular E-Board position, any of us on the Board will be happy to fill them in.

In addition to club election nomination night, we also have a Special Contest on the schedule for October 1st, Hawker Hurricanes, dedicated to that redoubtable WWII RAF fighter which is given large credit for stopping the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain and then going on to serve in every theatre until the end of WWII.

At our November 5th meeting, we will have a special guest speaker, Kathy Myer, a docent aboard the USS Iowa battleship museum at the Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro), CA, who will give a talk on the USS Iowa (BB-61). If you have an Iowa-class battleship model in the works, that would be good meeting to show off your efforts. The November meeting will also have a points contest, "Day of Infamy," covering the Pearl Harbor attack.

Looking forward to our October meeting and hoping as many of our members will be there as possible. Just a reminder though, masks are still required per UNM and state directives.

Plenty going on at our next club meeting on September 10th, the Friday after Labor Day:

First up, there will be a Points contest, with theme open to models that were entered in virtual contests during the club's 13-month pandemic lock-down.  This is a chance for virtual models to show their stuff, but if you had no pandemic models or would prefer entering something else, remember that points contests are open to any qualifying non-theme model, except they're ineligible for Best of Show and don't pick up 10 extra "theme" points.

A number of our club members participated in the August 2021 IPMS Nationals in Las Vegas, NV, and Contest Director Ken Liotta will provide a rundown on the winning models and convention contest.  Following ASM tradition, members are welcome to bring their winning models and trophies to display at the September meeting- thanks to all ASM members who represented our club in Vegas.

The club will have a guest speaker at the September meeting, Harvey Chace, COL, USAF (Ret.), who will give a presentation on the final few weeks of the WWII in August and September 1945.

ASM picked up an honor in August when Regional Coordinator Mike Mackowski notified us that Mike Blohm won IPMS Region X 2020 Webmaster of the Year; thank you Mike for your dedication to our website and ASM.

A reminder to all members that the Plague Times are still with us and per UNM directive, pandemic rules are in effect i.e. masks required by all in attendance at our venue.  Additionally, our club pandemic rule is no non-members at our venue except guest speakers and others invited by the E-Board.

 As ever, if you have any ideas or suggestions that will enhance our club or correct any issues, by all means let me or another E-Board member know about it.  See everyone on September 10th.

Our July 9 meeting featured a talk by author Doug Dildy on USAF air superiority in the Korean War, specifically air combat over MiG Alley. As with all of Doug's talks, I learned a lot; for instance, the frictions within the Communist air forces and how our Sabre pilots used that to their advantage towards the end of the war. Doug's talk not only put the events of seventy years ago in a new light but also got my imagination working towards future modeling projects. Doug mentioned the possibility of giving a few talks to the club in the coming year and I'm already looking forward to them.

By way of thanks, the club presented to Doug a base with F-86 and MiG-15 fighting sticks, for which he was very appreciative. Thanks again to Dave Epstein and Scott Jaworski for building that pair of great-looking models.   Webmaster: See pictures inserted below:

Coming up at our August 6 meeting is a club swap meet, the first we've had since February 2020, so dust off those stacks of kits you've accumulated and bring them to our meeting to sell. In past years our swap meets sometimes have been open to the public but this year, due to what is shaping up to be another pandemic wave, we've decided to restrict the meeting to members only. So no outside vendors, please. By the way, if you have any extra kits you'd like to donate to the club's eBay effort, bring them to the August meeting.

Lastly, no one needs reminding that the IPMS National Convention in Las Vegas is right around the corner and now is the time to put the finishing touches on those contest models. We're lucky as a club to have some world-class modelers in our ranks so let's see what kind of trophies we can bring back to Albuquerque. And don't forget to participate in an ASM tradition at the September meeting by bringing your winning models and trophies for display and photographing- hopefully we'll fill a couple of our meeting tables with winning models.

Best of luck to our Nationals modelers and I'll see everyone at the swap meet.

July Article

If you have any questions or concerns during our lockdown phase, feel free to contact me at abq95@hotmail.com.

Well, here we are with the last newsletter of 2020, a year that many of us would prefer to forget, I'm sure. We all know what's been going on in the news and I hope that everyone is taking this seriously now. I think that most of you are and I am relieved about that. Obviously, if you don't, that's your choice. Or your funeral, as we say in England. Maybe literally...

Anyway, the current outbreak obviously means that we are still not going to be meeting in person any time soon. Even when we are able to do so, there are many questions that we still have to address. Will we only allow people into our meetings who have been vaccinated? If so, how do we prove it?
Maybe we can have a numbered tag stapled to everyone's ear in an agricultural manner? Well, okay, maybe that's going a bit far... Do we still require masks? Do we limit ourselves to, say, 20 people per meeting and continue to socially distance throughout? There are clearly many unanswered
questions currently, although the current (acting) E-Board have been discussing these already in the hope that vaccinations will soon become available and also that people will take them. If you refuse to do so or refuse to wear a mask then I don't know what we will do about that, as yet. I certainly wouldn't let you anywhere near me or my family, personally, but what steps the club will take remain to be determined.

There are some difficult decisions facing many of us in the coming months anyway both personally and within the hobby and many clubs of our size (or larger) are going to face some serious issues. There will no doubt be people who will not want to be told what to do and whether they are even able to
remain members of our own, or other clubs, or whether they will be allowed into regional or national conventions again remains to be seen. We don't have anything in our by-laws about that and I doubt that anyone who's not Mayan had actually foreseen this calamitous event or prepared their club for it. I think it's important for us to acknowledge that it's not going to instantly return to normal as soon as a vaccine is available. As I said, we haven't made any of these decisions as a club yet, but once we do, you can rest assured that you will be told about it as soon as we know ourselves.

You may wonder why I am discussing issues that may still be several months away. Well I thought I'd mention it since it was fresh in my mind, but also it's a discussion that I won't be involved in guiding or shaping as club President, as I am about to step down from that role. I had expected, honestly, that we would have elected a new E-Board by now and that many of us on the board currently could have handed over our roles and responsibilities to a new
generation of club members, to take the club ever onwards. None of us expected things to turn out the way they have though.

As far as my own reasoning is concerned, I have too many other things going on outside of the hobby at present (again) to be able to devote the time
and energy to this role that it both needs and the club deserves. Consequently, I am going to pass that mantle on to someone who does. I am delighted to say that I will hand over my current duties in the next couple of weeks to an exceptionally capable replacement in John Tate, our current Vice-
President. As you probably already know, he has been a member, both of ASM and IPMS, for many years now and is a talented, well-known, and widely respected modeler with a huge trophy haul to his name and a large number of contacts within the hobby, that can only benefit us as a club. He's also a thoroughly decent, friendly and approachable guy too, which also helps. There's basically nothing about this hobby that John doesn't know and I know that he will do a splendid job as President. I can't think of a better man for the job. He's been President of the club before, too, so what more could you ask for? I know he'll do a better job than I did!

Anyway, I will close here by saying thanks to all of you for your support over the past year-and-change and I wish you and your families a wonderful
Christmas and a Happy, prosperous and above all, safe New Year. Be careful out there!

So another month has come and gone and another article deadline appears. Tsk, tsk. What to write about....? It was suggested by our illustrious Webmaster that we all write about what would we have done at the Nats this year? Just for something different and that was indeed an interesting idea. But, this would be a short article if I just did that, as I wasn't going to attend, even before the Covid thing arrived. It's only one state over from here, but it's still an insane drive and I'm getting too old for that kind of thing. Phoenix was far enough for me, so the answer is "nothing" on that one. You have to remember that anyone such as myself who grew up in the UK is just not used to it. Even the distance from Albuquerque to Phoenix is pretty much the same as driving from the southwest tip of England to the northeast tip of Scotland. Even leaving aside risks like tidal waves of rain, low-flying cabers, and Haggis poisoning, the distance alone means that no one in their right mind would do it. So adapting to the vast distances between cities over here (and especially in the Southwest where we’'e so well spread-out) takes some doing.

Anyway, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Now, moving swiftly on and to news affecting the entire club, the current board had thought about at least a partial shutdown of the club services recently, while the Covid-restrictions remain in place, particularly given the low turnout for the recent virtual contests.

We will, I think, continue the monthly newsletter for now even when there isn't a lot in it. We had considered making that quarterly since we have had little to publish lately (hint, hint) but we'll keep it going monthly for the moment and see how it goes. Remember though, if you want this to carry on--contribute!

Contests are another matter, however, and these are going to be scaled back. The next one starting at the beginning of October--probably the 6th but I expect Ken will confirm that to everyone--is going to be an Open Contest, obviously incorporating the Battle of Britain theme that we had originally intended. So hopefully we'll get some more entries this time around, as the response to recent contests has been disappointing to say the least. This one will also be the last contest for 2020, unless Scott's rotary wing special contest comes to pass. And it may. Rules and submission instructions are on the website by the way, if you are unsure of what to do, but to cut a long story short, all you really have to do is build something new, take three or four pictures of it with your cell phone and email it to us. It would definitely help if you tell us who you are, what it is, what kit you used and whether you did anything in particular to make it look the way it does. Otherwise we're going to have to do some heavy-duty crystal ball work, here. But that's all it needs. It's very simple. Definitely not rocket science. Just point, click and try to keep your thumb out of the way.

One other change to tell you about, is that we were due to have elections next month (November) for the new E-Board, to take us through 2021. We think that there are going to be too many practical issues in doing that virtually, so the current board is going to continue in an acting capacity until we can meet again in person--at which point, the first order of business will be to elect a new board. As I have often said before, please consider standing when the opportunity arises to do so. We can't keep having the same old people doing the same stuff or the club will go as stale as an Albertson's donut. And surely you don't want that? 

Hello my fellow plastic model building enthusiasts. It has been waaayyyyy too long since we have all been able to visit with each other to share in our mutual love of the hobby, thanks in no small part to the health crisis that has plagued the world, our country, our state, and our community. Undoubtedly you have all been affected by the COVID virus in one way or another.  I am certain that I speak for the entire ASM E-Board when we send all of our best wishes for safety and good health to each and every one of you, your families, and your friends.

As you also may have noticed, our little escape from the real world (ASM club meetings) has also been impacted. Back in March/April, we had originally hoped that our meeting times and place would only be slightly altered (for a month or two), and that we might have been able to meet again, as a club, by now. Unfortunately, this rat-bastard of a virus has not only prevented that from happening, but we learned last month that UNM had to take the precautionary high road of safety to maintain the Continuing Education Center closed through the end of this year (not to mention the still-current gubernatorial mandate, restricting large group gatherings). And there still remains the possibility that the UNM-CEC will remain closed a few months (or more???) into 2021!

Looking back to April this year, when it was becoming more likely that we would not be able to meet as a club any time soon, the E-Board developed the (first ever, in ASM history)  “Virtual Model Contest,” to be tested out in May. That May VMC had some promise with 10 total entries and the staff figuring out how to make them fun, enjoyable, and fair. As our (E-Board’s) concerns grew, when the chances of us meeting as a club any time soon were diminishing, we modified our club’s schedule to include several VMCs through to the end of the year.

In July, VMC #2 had 7 total entries. Then this September’s VMC #3 received 5 total entries. For the last 2 VMCs, in an effort to inspire the membership to build, finish, and participate in them, the E-Board staff made up about 40% of the entries. (Please, be assured that ASM’s President Tony Humphries, and I as your Contest Director, have followed an airtight method in which all entries have remained anonymous throughout the entire judging process where I and two other judges have looked closely at the digital images that were submitted for each entry). Once the three judges arrived at the results, the anonymity was maintained until publishing on the club website and in the club newsletter.

So… where am I going with this? 10, 7, and 5… do you see a trend there? (Perhaps 10, 4, and 3 is more accurate, if you only look at the membership participation part of it). Our concern is that you (the membership) are losing interest. Or are you busy with… life? Or are you all still building, (when you can) but you don’t know how to take the pics and forward them to the club’s dedicated email address where Tony is constantly monitoring incoming receipts? Or do you all miss the in-person “show-and-tell” aspect? Or is the “Virtual Model Contest” a lame idea? Because of this uncertainty, and after significant email discussions, we have chosen to cancel the October VMC, but have left the November “OPEN” VMC on the schedule. To provide a little extra “cushion” (for those who wish to finish up their little masterpieces on Saturday), a midnight Saturday, Nov 7, image entry cutoff date was assigned. I wish to stress the theme of “OPEN,” because this will still include any “Battle of Britain” entries that would have been entered in the October VMC. The “open” part also leaves the subject matter choice, wiiidddeee open. Your collective participation could have an impact on how we as members and as the E-Board move forward with how we participate in 2021. So I am asking all of you, if you are on the fence whether to participate in this part of the ASM adventure, please give some serious thought to doing so. While all of us on the Board truly miss sharing all of your in-person participation in club activities, we hope that as many of you as possible can remain active and stay in touch with the group through this little adventure.

I wish to express our gratitude to the membership for your participation so far, in the VMC trials. In closing, the results for VMC #3 are being posted on the website as I write this, so I am anxiously anticipating the results. And lastly, best of wishes to all of you for safety, good health, and prosperity for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021. Model on, Brothers of the Sprue.