A BRIEF HISTORY OF FALL IN!
By Bob Giglio

FALL IN! was born in answer to the question, “Why isn’t there a HMGS convention in the fall?” After years of hearing this question, the Board of Directors conducted a survey of attendees at HISTORICON 1996, asking members for their input on a third convention. Of the 1,000 surveyed over 80% supported the idea. Thus in the fall of 1997 – FALL IN! was born.

The name of the convention came about since the convention was held in the fall, and it was also a play on words used to assemble soldiers. Little did I know at the time, but a third meaning was soon to rise, as in many ways FALL IN! was like a forced march in order to first get it off the ground. While many supported the idea of a third convention, there were others with some doubts about whether it could be done successfully. Even some among the original convention committee, which included my wife, Roni Giglio (Co-Director), Tim Mullen (Event Manager), Neil Brennan (Registration Manager), along with Jeff and Monica Hobbs (Vendor Managers), there was much debate; but we all knew we had a winner after our first trip to Gettysburg, as the historical presence of the place inspired us all.

The convention was always meant to be different than what attendees had come to expect, as we didn’t just want to have a mini-COLD WARS, or a pale imitation of its even larger companion HISTORICON. While we wanted to retain much of the traditional focus on the more popular aspects of vendors, games and flea markets, we also wanted to add a few other new and special activities. We attempted to create a “historians convention” with a true mix of family activities. Gettysburg offered both a change of venue from the other two conventions and a chance to try some new restaurants, shopping, etc.; but most importantly, for the first time in HMGS-East history, one of their conventions had a true historical military tie-in with the convention’s location. As it turned out, this location became a big attraction for some overseas hobbyists who save on travel costs due to the time of year (off-season), and allowed them to attend both a game wargame convention visit the historic military park and museums around the Gettysburg battlefield – truly a great weekend for military history!

The first five years of the convention featured a convention mascot, complete with Die Roll Off Competitions competing for thousands of dollars in hobby-related prizes, along with the start of Military Science Theatre 3000 (MST3000) program that showed some truly horrible military movies for gamers to openly critique. Another few firsts for FALL IN! included the use of color printing for the convention souvenir t-shirts and the addition of convention souvenir sweatshirts.

FALL IN! prospered in Gettysburg from 1997-2001, then moved to Lancaster in 2002, and on to Timonium in 2003. The convention eventually returned to Gettysburg in 2004, and has been there ever since.

The founder and first convention director of FALL IN! was Bob Giglio (1997 through 2001), followed by Fred Hubig (2002 and 2003), Mike Pierce (2004 through 2006), and Jim McWee (2007 and 2008). The 2009 convention director will be Andy Turlington.

Over 1,200 hobbyists attended the first FALL IN! in 1997, followed by 1,600 attendees in 2001, with an all time attendance, so far, of over 1,700 people in 2005 - this even with the move of the convention to three different locations in the span of four years. Some say that all roads lead to Gettysburg, and now that’s true, for historical miniature gamer who know where to find one of the best wargame conventions in the country – FALL IN!