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Updated September 29, 2023 |
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Alan Applebaum, term ended in
2003
Alan is a corporate lawyer in Boston. He traces his birth as a gamer to 1961 with exposure to Risk and D-Day. He has attended every AVALONCON and been a GM for six of them, standing ready to serve as an alternate when needed in his areas of expertise. He is the principal contributor to the GM Guidelines which serves as the BPA bible on how to conduct tournaments. Alan has also contributed a number of in-depth strategy articles to the AH General and the
Boardgamer magazine.
Favorite
Games: Victory in the Pacific, Breakout Normandy, Up Front, Advanced Third Reich, Titan.
Issue: His major concern is to preserve and promote serious competition in two-player games (primarily, but not exclusively, wargames) in a format that rewards skill while providing an enjoyable experience for all entrants. |
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Bryan Collars, term ended in 2023
Andrew s archivist for the State of South Carolina where his focus is on electronic records and digital imaging. He has been gaming since 1978 when he purchased a coy of PanzerBlitz at a yard sale for a dollar. He has attended WBC every year since 2006, experiencing the convention from many different perspectives, as a player, game designer, game developer, and GM. In the latter he has GM’d the Combat Commander Tournament since 2010 and successfully introduced and GM’d the Space Base event in 2019. He was elected to the Board in 2020.
Favorite
Games: Combat Commander, Here I Stand, Angola, Pro Golf, Terraforming Mars, and Space Base
Issue: To insure the continued growth and stability of the BPA by preserving its history and traditions while modernizing its administrative systems to make WBC more responsive and accessible to the members, the GMs who run events, and the convention staff. |
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John Emery, term ended in 2000
John owns and operates a small chain of game stores in SC. He was first introduced to AH-style games as a freshman
at the University of Nebraska in 1973. He has led a very successful contingent of Carolinians which import large quantities of plaques to the SC area annually for the past eight years.
Favorite
Games: Up Front, World in Flames, Backgammon, Britannia, Bridge
Issue:
Increase contact and involvement with manufacturers of games to encourage them to exhibit and/or otherwise participate
in our conference. |
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Kaarin Engelmann, term ended in 2014
Kaarin is a freelance writer, editor, and business consultant based in Springfield, Virginia. In 1989, she and her husband formed Engelmann Military Simulations, which published three games: Rise and Fall, Shattered States, and Crisis Games: Colombia. Kaarin became truly addicted to gaming after attending the last AvalonCon, in 1998. Kaarin has attended almost every WBC and has served as a GM for both adult and junior events. She received the BPA’s Sportswoman of the Year award in 2002 and 2008. She was appointed to the BPA Board of Directors to fill out the remaining term of Stuart Tucker who resigned after the 2004 WBC and won election in 2005. She served on the board of directors through 2014. She has been WBC Assistant Convention Director/BPA Webmaster since 2005.
Favorite Games: Here I Stand, Puerto Rico, Stock Car Championship Racing |
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Russ Gifford, term ended in 1999
Russ is a Regional Manager for TelePartners Cable in Northeast Nebraska. He is also a member of the South Sioux City City Council, various other boards and commissions, including chair of local technology commission that created local
FreeNet, a Distant Learning center, and IT academy. On the gaming side, he created and ran free regional convention for wargames that pulled 300 people per year for seven years—no small feat in Nebraska—which still continues today. His
gaming career began with chess, Stratego, Risk and Broadsides, but one of those old ads in Boys Life for Gettysburg really started the wargaming bug, sealed when he purchased Anzio in 1972. He was the ASL GM
throughout AVALONCON and has won five Best Six GM nominations over that period. He also maintained the ASL AREA ratings
in the wake of the Avalon Hill decline until forced to give it up by his work schedule.
Favorite
Games: ASL, Terrible Swift Sword, The Russian Campaign, Speed Circuit, Diplomacy
Issue: Continuance of wargaming as a viable hobby, by fanning the embers via exposure of gaming to potential players, young and old, especially via highly publicized events
like conventions and tournaments. |
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Josh Githens, term ended in 2019
Josh is the Retail Management Representative for HASBRO, Inc. in Greenville, SC. He has had gaming as part of his life from a young age, spending family time playingParcheesi, Battleship, Trivial Pursuit, etc. Josh was introduced to the Greenville, SC gaming group via his high school soccer coach. Since 1998 he has enjoyed playing a wide range of games from Acquire, Circus Maximus, Napoleonic Wars, Dominion, the list goes on. He looks forward to meeting up with the group every week to enjoy games but more importantly friends. This is the same way he feels about the WBC, having attended since 1999; it is the highlight of the year. He has been GM for Air Baron, and currently is the GM of Formula De. He looks forward to serving the convention and its members in ways that both strengthen and support the WBC.
Favorite Games: Circus Maximus, Napoleonic Wars, Titan, Dominion
Issue: Promote a healthy growth of new attendees while maintaining the focus and traditions that have acted as the pillars of the convention. |
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Issue: Promote a healthy growth of new attendees while maintaining the focus and traditions that have acted as the pillars of the convention.
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Don Greenwood, term ended in 2021
Keith is a former VP of the Avalon Hill Game Company in charge of boardgame development between 1972 and 1998. He started gaming in 1960 with the purchase ofTACTICS II. The original founder of ORIGINS, he ran four of them before and after its acquisition by GAMA. Disenchanted with the commercial aspects of the major conventions, he originated AVALONCON in 1991 under the premise of a return to basics with the emphasis on the players rather than on designers or manufacturers.
Favorite Games: Breakout Normandy, Up Front, Settlers, Football Strategy, Air Baron, Aladdins Dragons, Napoleonic Wars
Issue: Preserve the traditions of AVALONCON by maintaining the high degree of camaraderie and competition at the world’s best boardgaming convention. |
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Keith Hunsinger, term ended in 2006
Keith is the Senior Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Defiance, OH. He is also the volunteer chaplain for the city police and fire departments and the county sheriff’s office. In addition he serves as adjunct staff to Trinity Lutheran seminary as an Intern Supervisor. Keith’s interest in gaming goes back to his earliest childhood with family games and his first venture into wargaming was in the late 60’s when he was introduced to Afrika Korps, D-Day, and Battle of the Bulge by a history teacher and fellow student. His first games purchased were Waterloo and Blitzkrieg. He has attended all but the first Avaloncon/BPA though his participation in
2002 was by phone and e-mail due to a family illness. He has GM’d six different events and assisted at seven others.
Favorite
Games: Wooden Ships & Iron Men, Atlantic Storm and ’64 Midway
Issue: To maintain diversity within the BPA family, to increase exposure of the BPA, to continue to provide the best tournaments we can |
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Keith Levy, term ended in 2010
Keith is a Center Director for an educational facility in Columbia, MD. He is also the Founder and President of Games Club of
Maryland (GCOM). Keith discovered gaming with Risk, in his junior high school days, back in the 1970's. Axis and Allies and Titan were the other two games that started weekly gaming sessions in the late 1980's and eventually led to the discovery of Avaloncon in 1993 and to the formation of GCOM in 1996. Keith has been a GM for more than 10 years; running Risk, History of the World, Titan, El Grande, Power Grid, and many WBC Juniors Events. Disenchanted with not
being able to find opponents to play games, Keith wanted to ensure that no one else would have the same problem, while making
the hobby widely available to the general public, by forming GCOM. Keith served as Organizer of the WBC Sampler Showcase
pre-con event.
Favorite Games: Axis and Allies, Power Grid, Princes of Florence, Medici, RA, Risk, Union Pacific, and many others.
Issue: To act on behalf of BPA members, make gaming a mainstream hobby, and increase WBC attendance. |
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Larry Lingle, term ended in 1999
Larry is a retired railroad conductor for Conrail in Harrisburg, PA. He has been gaming since 1959, when as a 10-year old, he beat his dad, uncle and two older brothers at Risk in a game that ended at 2:30 AM and began a lifelong addiction to boardgames. A familiar face at most gaming cons, he has been active in AVALONCON since the Camp Hill days, most notably as the Waterloo GM.
Favorite Games: Titan, Waterloo, War in Europe, Risk, Shattered States
Issue: To continue the spirit and camaraderie of AVALONCON in the BPA by continuing to emphasize the gamer over commercial interests. |
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Andrew Maly, term ended in 2001
Andrew is an Environmental Engineer in Bel Air, MD. He learned to play Chess at 5 and graduated to wargames in 1975 with the purchase of SPI’s Normandy. Blessed with a photographic memory, he has the ability to remain current with an inordinate number of game systems…and even studied ASL at the foot of the
master, Bob Medrow, in his University days. He has GMed at every convention, doing the honors for eight different games. Most recently, he has gained renown among gamers for his stint as an undefeated champion on tv’s JEOPARDY from November 30 — December 4, 1998.
Favorite
Games: Up Front, We The People, Third World War, The Russian Campaign, Frederick the Great Issue: Ensure that the enthusiasm for the convention continues without the need for corporate sponsorship. |
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Greg Mayer, term ended in 1999
Greg is a Technical Analyst for Anheuser-Busch in St Louis. He has been gaming since 1968 when he made the crossover from Dogfight to D-Day. A huge fan of Stalingrad, Afrika Korps and Blitzkrieg in his younger days, he has attended AVALONCON since its inception and been an active GM ever since…most notably for Merchant of Venus, one of our largest tournaments for which he has garnered Top Six GM status three times. He is a former Director of the Conflict Simulations Game Club of Indianapolis (1984).
Favorite Games: Merchant of Venus, Empire Builder,
Eurorails, British Rails, Manhattan
Issue:To maintain the focus of the convention in the wake
of the Avalon Hill sale to Hasbro. Maintaining the proper mix of old favorites while adding titles currently in print to allow growth without getting lost in a sea of games will be a constant challenge. |
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Tom McCorry, term ended in 2013
Tom is a Program Director for Lockheed Martin and lives in Northern Virginia with his family Katherine, Katie(19), and Megan (16), all of whom have been long-time attendees at the WBC. He started in the gaming hobby in the 1970s playing SPI games, especially Quadrigames, and a little bit of D&D with a group that ranged in age from 6 to 63 years old. After a tour on active duty as an Army Signal Corps officer, Tom became an ASL fanatic/playtester for many years, earning a leader counter in the Gung Ho! expansion. Tom did a short stint on the dark side playing CCGs but as the kids got older became more involved in Euro games travelling to Essen each year for the Spiel! fair. He is now playing many 18xx titles and PBEM games, especially Twilight Struggle. Suffice it to say his passion is board gaming no matter the genre.
Favorite
Games: ASL Starter Kit, Twilight Struggle, Carcassonne, Agricola, 1846, SPI Battle of Nations
Issue: Ensuring the BPA maintains its professional operation so it can continue to offer the preeminent conventions for the playing of all styles of board gaming (War, Euro; Tournaments, Open Gaming; Multiplayer, Two Player; Classics, New Releases). |
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Bruce Monnin, term ended in 2020
Bruce is a substitute math teacher and a high school sportswriter in Minster, Ohio. He published the BOARDGAMER magazine until he became editor of MMP’s Operationsmagazine. He has been gaming since 1980 when he discovered Battle of the Bulge ’65. He has attended every Avaloncon/WBC, serving as GM since 1995 in seven different events and was honored with the Best GM award for his shepherding of the War At Sea tournament in 1998. He was appointed in 2000 by the BPA Board of Directors to fill out the remaining term of Russ Gifford, who retired for health reasons, and elected to a full three year term in 2002 and has served through 2020.
Favorite Games: War At Sea, Wilderness War, Across Five Aprils, March Madness, Circus Maximus, Twilight Struggle
Issue: To steadily grow the BPA PBeM tournaments and the WBC while maintaining the focus on the play of games. |
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Glenn Petroski, term ended in 2001
Glenn is an electrical-mechanical technician from Wisconsin. Glenn started wargaming in 1965 with D-DAY.
He has attended all the Avaloncon/WBCs and has served as the Victory in the Pacific GM since the outset. His work in that area has earned him five Top Six GM nominations and appointment to the Avaloncon Hall of Fame as a GM in 1997. A born-again Christian, Glenn has been instrumental in the creation and continuation of the Interfaith Religious Services held every Sunday at the convention. His other hobby services include hosting the Midwest Victory in the Pacific Open and the continuation
of the AREA rating system originated by Avalon Hill.
Favorite Games: Victory in the Pacific, Blitzkrieg,
Richtoffen’s War
Issue: Continuation of the conference as a viable venue for wargamers to measure their skills against the best competition. |
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John
R. Pack, term ended in
2004
John is a database analyst/programmer from Sandy, UT, who can’t remember a time when the latest game wasn’t
his favorite addiction! His business, GameAholics (1993-98), helped him learn the inside of the game industry and his monthly game club, zeal for improvement of his WBC tournaments, and PBeM events keep him in the center of the action continuously!
Favorite Games: Victory in the Pacific, War at Sea,
Gangsters, Republic of Rome, Advanced Third Reich, Up Front, History of the World, Medici, Tikal, Galaxy, Slapshot, We the People, Diplomacy, Axis & Allies: Pacific
Issue: Revitalizing juniors events and securing tournament status equitably for all types of tournaments by empowering volunteer GMs. |
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Bruno Passacantando, term ended in 2010
Bruno is a CPA and owner of a CPA practice in Marlborough, CT. Prior to opening his practice, he had worked for
Ernst & Young, an international accounting firm, and had been Controller for two Connecticut corporations. Risk and Strat-O-Matic Baseball and Football were the first games played by Bruno in the late 60s and early 70s. In 1977, he purchased Gettysburg ’77 and SPI’s Cobra, which finally provided an outlet for his lifelong interest in the Civil War. More than 60% of his modest game collection are Civil War titles. In 1993, the GENERAL ran
an indepth recap of AvalonCon, and that article alone spurred Bruno to attend the following year and ever since. It still
amazes him that such close kinship has been created among gamers who meet only once per year.
Favorite Games: Great Campaigns of the American Civil War series, Axis & Allies, World at War, March Madness, A House Divided.
Issue: AvalonCon was successful because of its focus—to play specific games, not to sell games—keep the winning formula. Second, integrate wargaming into the teaching of history as a tool for learning as well as bringing newcomers to the hobby. |
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Bruce Reiff, term ended in
2019
Bruce is a surety bond underwriter from just outside Columbus, Ohio—home of The Ohio State University (from whence he graduated). He’s married to the lovely Rhonda and has two daughters, Nicole 9, and Victoria 5. Bruce’s first strategy game was Strat-O-Matic Baseball. His first wargame was France 1940 from the late Avalon Hill. Shortly thereafter he discovered Diplomacy and his life has gone downhill ever since. Bruce has been involved in GMing at Avaloncon/WBC since 1993 and has attended all of them while racking up more wood than the rest of the Board combined and leading to his election as the first occupant of the original AVALONCON Hall of Fame. His gaming prowess has taken on Urban Legend status—having claimed winner’s wood every year. A major domo with the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society, and if that isn’t enough, he is also our talented and entertaining head auctioneer.
Favorite Games: Diplomacy, Win, Place & Show, Football Strategy, War at Sea, Battle Cry, Battleline, and Formula Motor Racing (Nicole’s favorite) and Mamma Mia(Victoria’s favorite).
Issue: Maintain a convention which all groups/types of boardgamers can enjoy while keeping it on solid financial ground. |
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Bruno Sinigaglio, term ended in 2022
Bruno's first wargame was DDay in 1963. He is the Chief of Maintenance and Operations at Fort Wainwright, Alaska—700 facilities in an area the size of Connecticut. He can help with evaluations and discussions with facilities. He wants to ensure that gamers of ALL venues have a voice in the preservation of their favorites. There is a yearly struggle to retain games in every venue. He has participated in those struggles and would like to be a voice for anyone attempting to do likewise. He worked for Avalon Hill on select projects as designer, developer, and star center fielder. He has worked conventions in various capacities going back to Origins I, long before Bruce Reiff dreamed about winning plaques. He has GMed the following events at various “Doncons” since 1980: 776, AFK, ANZ, B17, BWD, B81, CMS, FSE, GBH, GBG, PGG, PZB, QGB, SAR, SQL, TRC, VIP, and WAS, as well as Juniors and the AH500.
Favorite
Games: Grognard games and many more.
Issue:
I want to ensure that gamers of ALL genres have a voice in the preservation of their favorites. |
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Kathy Stroh, term ended in 2004
Kathy is a database administrator from Bellefonte, PA who dates her gamer birth to 1986 when she discovered both she and her husband-to-be owned copies of the same game: Wizards Quest. Kathy made her mark at AVALONCON as a GM for children’s events—a role she has filled every year since 1992—in the process winning
election to the GM wing of the AVALONCON Hall of Fame. She served as Secretary for the Board until completing her term in 2004.
Favorite Games: History of the World, Merchant of
Venus, Settlers of Catan, Medici, Age of Renaissance, Union Pacific
Issue: Maintain vibrancy by introducing new games while maintaining the enthusiasm for the old standbys. |
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Heikki Thoen, term ended in 2000
Heikki is Vice President of Education at ICS Learning Systems in Montreal (a division of Harcourt Brace publishing) where he has worked for the past 28 years. He started gaming with Blitzkrieg in 1968. He has attended every Avaloncon and been the GM for Kingmaker for the past 8. His mastery of Rail Baron is evident, having won three times in a popular
event that attracts a large number of worthy competitors.
Favorite Games: Kingmaker, Rail Baron, ASL, Roborally,
Kremlin
Issue: To communicate to other GMs the significant benefits of the AREA rating system in the hope of encouraging more GMs to wholeheartedly support this worthwhile endeavor. |
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Stuart Tucker, term ended in 2023
Stuart returned to the board in 2014, after having served previously and retiring in 2004. He is a professional economist and editor at the World Bank, where I’ve been successful dealing with authoring clients and reading customers, while building and managing an open access knowledge site. My experience in game publishing and book publishing, and prior experience on the BoD, put me in a good position to serve once again. Through wise insight, good organizational sense, knowledge of the gaming community, and judicious action, I have a track record of helping create the BPA and weathering many challenges. I offer my time and support. Lend me your thoughts when you see me at next summer’s convention..
Favorite Games: Hannibal, Viceroys, Dune, Third Reich, Republic of Rome
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Ken Whitesell, term ended in 2018
Ken is a “Senior Applications Developer” for an engineering firm in Baltimore. Ken started gaming with RPGs in 1977, graduating to real games the following year by getting started with Squad Leader and Third Reich. He started GMing events at Origins '84, and has been helping out at various conventions ever since. Ken has attended every AvalonCon / WBC, and has GMed 12 different events. He has been married to Jeanne for 22 years, and has a son John (21) and a daughter Amy (20).
Favorite Games: Conflict of Heroes, Football Strategy, Up Front, Dominion, and the old Avalon Hill "Classics" (Afrika Korps, etc)
Issue: Maintain the focus and vision of the WBC—I want to avoid seeing it become another GenCon/Origins. |
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