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« on: March 24, 2021, 02:35:07 PM »
Hi Everyone,
Just received this email message from HMGS (the organization that runs the game convention Historicon.)
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Members/Guests/Exhibitors,
As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced HMGS to cancel a year's worth of conventions. Last year, the pandemic restrictions and the cut back in operations at the Lancaster County Convention Center and attached Marriott hotel resulted in the cancellation of Historicon 2020. This was the first time in our history that we were forced to cancel a convention. At the time, everyone understood the gravity of the pandemic and the reasoning behind our decision.
As I previously communicated, the health and safety of our attendees will always come first. Many of our attendees are in high risk categories; elderly, with underlying health problems. This is not something to take lightly.
Now it is one year later, and the current restrictions in Pennsylvania and at the facility once again make it impossible for us to hold Historicon in July 2021. We had extensive - and sometimes exhausting - conversations with the venue to make this work. The main attractions at our conventions are the games, the exhibit hall, and socializing with friends. At the current venue capacity restriction of only 25%, combined with the social distancing requirement of only 3 players per game and significant inter-table space, our games and exhibit hall just don’t work. It makes it impossible for us to hold the type of show that we want; and if we went ahead we run the risk of a significant financial impact due to low attendance.
At the urging of the venue, we delayed our decision as long as possible in the hope for more clarity on when restrictions would be lifted. While we recognize many statistics are trending in a positive direction, we cannot continue to put off this decision any longer. Many people need to start planning now for any potential July convention - exhibitors need to place product orders; attendees need to make travel arrangements and vacation requests from work, etc.
The current environment makes it impossible to run a successful show in July, and further, it could hurt our finances, reputation and future shows as well. Other options, such as a much smaller show, were considered and also deemed not feasible for the cost and effort involved.
The Board wants HMGS' first post-COVID to be something special. Therefore, instead of cancelling Historicon 2021 outright, we are moving it to early November and holding it at Valley Forge in place of Fall-In! We will be adding an extra day to make it the same 4 day convention as would have been held in July. Since Historicon is considered our flagship convention, and we are only holding one convention in 2021 instead of three, we felt it should be Historicon.
We are also well aware of questions regarding membership renewals and possible extensions or credits. For those who already renewed their membership in such a trying year, your support is greatly appreciated and will not be forgotten. All the options discussed so far require us to have some certainty on when our conventions will be restarted. With November looking highly likely to be our first post-COVID convention, details regarding these issues will be addressed very shortly.
Best regards,
John Spiess
President, HMGS Inc.
president@hmgs.org
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