The Midwest Gaming Classic has been over for just a little over two and a half months, and the time to start planning for the next Midwest Gaming Classic is now… only this year has to be very different.

To make a long story short, if the Midwest Gaming Classic will happen again in the future, we need your commitment to help us out now. Gary and I have had some great help over the past few years with Marty Goldberg and Tom Lucht, but unfortunately there is still too much work for just four people to do. We need to get help with everything from getting people to help sponsor the event to helping to create and distribute flyers.

The Midwest Gaming Classic has been a labor of love for Gary and I over the past three years. We have spent a lot of money creating a show that we really felt proud of, and we have no regrets. On the other hand, we have spent countless hours putting the show together and to date have lost a significant amount of money for doing it. We did not create the show to make money from it ­ we created the Midwest Gaming Classic as a way to bring electronic gamers of all types together to celebrate in the diversity that has occurred in electronic gaming over the past 100 years. We feel strongly that this year’s show totally accomplished that goal, and we are extremely proud of that fact. Unfortunately, our pride does not overshadow the fact that the Midwest Gaming Classic has lost well over $4000.00 in the three years of operation, and the show cannot continue in the future without a lot of help from the community.

This is where you come in ­ if you would like to help the Midwest Gaming Classic continue into the future, we need you to contact us in some way and offer your help. No matter what your skills are or where you live, if you can offer them you will help bring the Midwest Gaming Classic back to Milwaukee in 2005. We could use people for any or all of the following jobs and more:

- Graphic design for flyers
- Graphic design for the Web site
- People to distribute flyers throughout town
- Volunteers at the show to help man the entrances and exits and sell tickets
- People to write articles
- People to help contact prospective sponsors, vendors and exhibitors
- People with PHP skills to help update the Web site on a timely basis
- People in the Milwaukee area to provide more “things to do” pictures
- People willing to sell tickets to the event
- People to provide materials to help the event (paper, signage, tape, etc.)
- And just about anything else that you can think of to help!

The truth is that we are going to need a lot of help from people if there will be a Midwest Gaming Classic for next year. If we do not receive a strong response within approximately one month, we will either cancel the event for the foreseeable future or completely change the scope of it. I hope that everyone can understand our position on this matter.

If you are interested in helping the show, please email me at loosen@goatstore.com and tell me what you would be willing and able to do. Please also note what work, if any you have done in the past for any other projects. You do not need to live in Wisconsin or even be planning on attending the event if you want to help.

Thanks in advance!