Nats Turn out?

Scott A. Bregi wrote: : Any word on the total turnout for the IPMS Nats? Entrants? Models on the : table? : I believe the count was 1523 entries, with 500 odd registered entrants.

Bruce

Plus one extremely odd registered if Az showed up. :-)

Tom

Tom commented on:

with:

Don't think he made it past the entry table, as of the close for judging on Friday, there were no models of fecal matter in sight.

Rick

####

The final official count was 511 members registered and 1504 entries in the contest.

Mike Brickman #12894 IPMS/USA 2nd VP (ret.)

How does that compare with previous years? It sounds a bit low.

Stephen,

2002 Va. Bch. 681 modelers, 1736 entries 2001 Chicago 821 modelers, 2092 entries 2000 Dallas 731 modelers, 1629 entries 1999 Orlando 691 modelers, 1985 entries 1998 Santa Clara 658 modelers, 1397 entries 1997 Columbus 1093 modelers, 2176 entries 1996 Va. Bch. 828 modelers, 2026 entries

The drop off from the first VB in '96 to the second in 2002 is alarming.

9-11 travel restrictions? the economy? burnout? old age and putrefaction? :-)

Art

Some odder than others!

Does the low turnout have anything to do with the online persona of Rusty White and certain statements he has made including:

happy >to send you packing. I hope you wait until 2003, because I would personally >like to disqualify it myself.

I think there is a difite connection between what he says and what people did. The 4th was a factor, but this is something else to consider. When a show does not as good as the last west coast show (107 more models!!). I know I was not alone in staying home instead of going to Oklahoma (what the hell is there to do there besides roast in the sun watching the cows shit?) because of the words and actions of Rusty

BTW, I think the 2002 turnout was low becasue most of the Atlantic Fleet was at sea at the time and that could certainly account for many modellers to be asbent.

Raanan

I had to be sold on the idea of going to a place like OKC; it's not somewhere I'd ever go if there weren't a convention there. Rusty White never tried to sell anything but his own agenda. I skipped this year and I'm glad I did.

Also OKC was a central convention, not western; the west convention is next year in Phoenix. Central conventions should always have a higher turnout than eastern or western as more modellers should be able to fly in cheaper. That's why central conventions should always be near airline hubs: Chicago, Denver, St Louis, etc. Phoenix and Atlanta are big hubs too, so they'll be cheaper to fly into. OKC is very central, but couldn't be considered a hub for anything.

I will be at Phoenix next year and at Atlanta the year following; these are places I'd actually like to visit.

i forgot the name of the airbase in okc, but at the gate there is a large static display of some really cool aircraft. you can see it from the hiway. i made an entirely unplanned stop to gawk and spent 5 hours crawling around them. there are other things in okc, some museums and very nice victorian buildings. if you're a truck guy, you can see almost every model 18 wheeler ever made. don't sell okc short, it's a lotta bang for a small buck.

in article snipped-for-privacy@news.mindspring.com, Stephen Tontoni at snipped-for-privacy@springmind.com wrote on 07/20/03 12:41 PM:

I went to the OK City nats and had a good time. Since it was "next door" so to speak, I couldn't afford not to go. I'll be in Phoenix too. But OK City was a smaller show, no doubt about it. Never saw any evidence of Rusty White's influence on entries and never heard his name come up in that context.

OK City was very quiet. It was the quietest downtown of a state capitol I've ever seen but that was just a matter of local economics. They've had problems with downtown businesses since the Federal Building bombing and the hotel was just four blocks away. As for the entries being down from previous years, the last four shows I've been to have been down. Don't think that was Rusty's fault either.

MB

send you packing. I hope you wait until 2003, because I would personally >like to disqualify it myself.> >

Hey, easy to make a point when quotes are made out of context huh? My statement concerned one model from one particular modeler that openly threatened to bring a model of a human turd to the Nats just to challenge the rules against entries of that kind. And yes, he did build it. He published a photo for all to see. Anyway, I may have over-reacted a bit but I still stand behind what I said. BTW, there wasn't ONE questionable entry that had to go behind the screens at OKC. I (or any judges) wasn't called on one time concenrning IPMS/USA's display rule. In short, a lot of hubub about nothing I guess.

Rusty White

2003 National Convention Chairman