I'm Eric aka Raist, and I am running for president in the upcoming elections. Most people probably know me from either playing me or from my two other roles as Minister of Stats and Logs and Mentorship Coordinator. I'd like to take the time right now to shed a little light on my background at IAAPA as well as a little background on myself.

     I currently live in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada (borders Edmonton to the NW) and I am a little over a year away from completing my BSC in Mechanical Engineering. I have always had a love for strategy games. This love inevitably lead me to find Axis & Allies. While I enjoyed playing the game at first, the pool of players that I had to play was not very large and not very skilled.

     In July of 1998 I heard about IAAPA from a friend, and joined up. However, due to GM's continuously dropping out of the first two games I tried playing, I got discouraged. It wasn't for another year and a half later that I played another game. Since then however, I became an active player. I have played over 60 games, with another 10 in progress.

     Soon after I started playing frequently, I approached Michael (micwil) to see if there was any way in which I could help out the club. Michael directed me to Ian (Polaris) who at the time was the Minister of Logs. So in the fall of 1999 I became the Chancellor of Logs, assisting Ian in his work. However, mid way through 2000, due to several issues, Ian quit the club, and I assumed full duties as the Minister of Logs.

     In August of 2000, after discussion with some other members and remembering the problems I had when I joined the club, I restarted the Mentorship Program. I feel that this is the best thing that I have done for the club so far. I feel it is very important that new members have proper guidance when they join the club.

     In the summer of 2001 I became Chancellor of Stats, later merging it with logs to become the Minister of Stats and Logs. This was mostly because by doing the logs, I needed to change stats fairly often, so it just seemed logical.

     So when I heard that Rick was stepping down, I figured that I would try to step in and help the club further. In the next issue of the Havoc, I will further outline my plans for the future of the club.

Thank you for your time.

Eric aka Raist