Lend-Lease 2017, major changes to the program
Lend-Lease 2017, major changes to the program
I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but there is a lot of information I would like to express to all of you.
For those of you that have been around the forum since its very early days, you might recall that one of the visions I had for the site was to encourage and support local play of the game. Wings of Glory at its best is played across the table from friends and family. Not all of my attempts to organize local play have been successful, but the one aspect of this that has been hugely successful has been the Lend-Lease program.
Six years ago I took a look around at all the different local groups here in the US and one group really stood out to me in terms of number of players and frequency of play. That group was the Ohio Wing (locally to be known as the Buckeye Gamers In Flight) commanded by CappyTom. They were consistently playing Wings across the state with several Flights operating around the state and coming together for special game days. Another key component that I thought was a big factor in their success was that every year The Cowman organized the group activities for the Origins Game Fair held in Columbus Ohio. After being internet friends with many of the BGIF guys and knowing they had a great thing going in Ohio, I decided that not only did I need to get out to Origins to see firsthand how their operation was ran, but that the Wings of Glory Aerodrome needed an official convention for players from all over the US to rally to.
That first trip out there showed me not only were the BGIF guys doing it right, but having Origins as the official convention of the site was a good call. But there was still something missing. It was a great setup but it did not reflect the Aerodrome quite a well as it could. It was missing the international presence that we had on the site. It also seemed to my American eyes that while we had many members on the forum from the UK, across Europe and as far away as Australia, there were no major gaming conventions for the players over there like Origins (I would later learn that the UK is full of regional conventions and club events). Thinking that not only would it be great to meet some of our international friends here on the site, but also show them how the US does large gaming conventions and hopefully let them bring home ideas for their local groups, I created the Lend-Lease program.
For the past 5 years, a selection committee has chosen a Lend-Lease participant from our "old world" users to come to the US and join us for a week of gaming and comradery. The site as a whole has come together in the true spirit of the game to help raise the funds need to make the Lend-Lease program happen each and every year. For that, I'm truly grateful to each and every one of you. During this 5 year span, not only has the game changed and evolved into something more, so too has the players. We have seen the rise of the first convention dedicated to the play of Wings of Glory in Europe, the Prague Summer Con. Every year the Summer Con grows and draws in more members from around the world. The Prague Pilots are a top notch group as I personally learned when they hosted a special game night in my honor when a work trip of mine made it possible for me to visit Prague on a short vacation. We have also seen the rise of a dedicated UK based convention take shape as Doncastor. In true Brit fashion, only the best location would do for their convention and it takes place inside one of the many flying museums found in the UK. As luck would have it, another work trip put me in the position to take a short holiday in the UK as well. And like their Prague counterparts, the Brits not only showed me around London for a day, Flying Officer Kyte and his good lady shared their home with me for several nights. The hospitality from both groups could not have been better.
Being able to see firsthand how great the pilots of these two groups are and how well they host game days led me to the conclusion that as good as our Lend-Lease program is, it too was missing something just like that first year at Origins. It has been missing the opportunity to allow other North American pilots here on the site to experience the greatness that is the Prague Summer Con and Doncastor events along with their most excellent pilots! No more shall that be the case.
Starting in 2017 the Lend-Lease participant will alternate between a North American member and an Old World member. That is right, next year we will be sending a member from this side of the Atlantic across the pond to Doncastor! 2018 will see the return of a Lend-Lease member to Origins followed by a member going to Prague Summer Con in 2019 and them back to Origins in 2020. I had wanted to honor the Prague Summer Con with hosting the first "reverse" Lend-Lease participant, but logistically it was just not going to be feasible for 2017. I know the Prague Pilots will use the extra time to plan an even more amazing event for their Lend-Lease guest and I'm sure try and out do the Brits as well ;)
In the next couple of weeks we will be announcing who was selected to attend Doncastor 2017 and over the next several months I'll be running fundraisers here on the site to cover the costs of this special trip. So, keep an eye out for these important threads in the weeks to come!
