Dear All,

Last Saturday marked our first ITSC call. It was a truly international meeting, with 13 members dialling in from the UK, Canada, USA and Andorra! It was great to meet as fellow addicts of the toy soldier/wargame/model soldier/military fraternity.

The call was filled with lively discussions about figures and collecting, punctuated with good-natured banter. We were treated to glimpses of impressive collections: From Simon’s wonderfully detailed scratch-built gun boats, and Eric's marvellous plastics, to name a few! Dave F now forever known as GiBlue, told us the tale behind his now famous display phone box, all making for a truly memorable first meeting.

It was only right that we set the stage for how we wanted the club and future meetings to look. We collectively agreed that the ITSC should serve as a fresh and open alternative to established societies, fostering an active community and encouraging broader participation in our shared hobby. There will be no club president, no masonic looking badges of office and no committee!  The Club is free, supported online by Replica Metal Soldiers and Models and I’m very happy to facilitate the monthly call. It is the  Members club. We will need to share activities to make the club a success. All I ask in return for your membership is that you support and contribute as much as you can. If there is something you would like to do  just shout.

This can be an amazing  opportunity for collectively, with the club potentially offering a good and wholesome alternative with a fresh and open ethos, to the existing and long-established societies. All agreed that the club will genuinely provide a real connection bringing us together in a fun and interactive way,  and where possible, support and encourage others to join our hobby. The more we share chats, pictures, and resources, the richer and more rewarding our club experience will be.

We took the opportunity to get some feedback on how the website worked and any development we would like to see. Consensus was the website was working well. Thank you Erin for your work on this. Erin joined the call as our webmaster and will be taking away some ideas to work on for us.

·        Firstly; making the shared resource area easier for members to upload onto.

·        Erin will also be looking at giving the club a social media presence on Instagram as this would perhaps take the hobby to a wider  audience. The club site as a resource gives us a great platform potentially hosting all we need, and one that can be really focussed on our shared interests relating to our hobby. Facebook was not preferred as a platform as it was spoilt by fake news, adverts, and dodgy sellers of buttons and badges. Not to mention scantily clad ladies making friend requests etc!!

We looked at the format of the call. It was agreed that the call should be monthly, and we would try the first few on a Saturday, at 16:00 GMT. We would review this and make any changes as needed to ensure it was accessible for all members.

For content the calls will not be tied to a specific theme. But we will have a bit of a format just to get things going.

(Lose) Format of standing items suggested:

1.        Brief welcome, and any news.

2.        On parade! (or show your thing!!) Be it something new, something you are working on, something you want to show off! Associated military interests ae definitely encouraged, all adding flavour and colour to our interests. To support this, we will be putting in a folder for members to drop pictures to share at the meeting, and these are also then available of members to look at as resource if they can’t make the meeting.

3.     Questions Tips and Hints. A chance to tap into the collective knowledge of our members.

We also brainstormed additional ideas to explore over the coming  months, including:

·        Discussing forum topics in more detail during calls.

·        Recording meetings for those unable to attend.

·        Creating an online journal of highlights.

·        Organising in-person meet-ups at shows like Chicago and London.

·        Running ITSC displays and competitions at shows.

·        Funding club publicity materials.

·        Developing club merchandise.

Our next call is scheduled for March 22nd. In the meantime, keep posting, sharing pictures, and engaging in discussions. Ian is also launching an inciteful series, "What's Packed in the Box Under the Bed?" to get us all sharing those hidden treasures. (Now who’s not got a box or three stashed away?)

I hope as many of us as possible can get together for the next call.

I’m really looking forward to it. I hope you are too.

Kind regards

Andrew