REFORM MEMBERS STAND BY PARTY : LAMM UNCERTAIN HE'LL BACK PEROT AFTER NOMINATION PROCESS.

Byline: Ernest Tollerson The New York Times

Max Shaffer, an Illinois construction worker and part-time impersonator of Uncle Sam, loved every minute of the Reform Party National Convention in Valley Forge, although his cheering on behalf of Ross Perot will cost him a day's pay, or about $150 after taxes.

``It will take all day Monday to get back,'' said the patriotically dressed Shaffer, 52, counting on a trip of at least 14 hours to drive home to Madison County, Ill. ``I'll miss a day's work. But I felt it was an opportunity of a lifetime.''

For Perot supporters like Shaffer, Sunday's closing session of the Reform Party National Convention had the look and feel of a high school reunion, class of 1960-something. Unlike the legions of young people who turn out for the Democratic and Republican Party conventions, the proceedings here were dominated mostly by the over-50 set; younger delegates in their 20s or 30s were most visible at the ``Next Generation'' seminar Sunday morning.

Young adults were not the only people in short supply at the Valley Forge Convention Center. So were supporters of former Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, the longtime Democrat who lost the party's nomination to Perot.

While Lamm showed up to give a brief speech about his belief in third-party politics, he said he has not decided whether to back Perot. Most of his supporters stayed away from the convention, other than to hear his speech.

In the results of balloting announced Saturday, Perot received 32,145 votes - about 65.2 percent of the ballots cast - while Lamm got 17,121, or 34.8 percent. Delegates cast their ballots over the past week on the Internet, through the mail and on special toll-free telephone lines.

But Lamm supporters say they want to know more about the voting, which accounted for only about 4 percent of the ballots distributed, and whether a series of what they describe as glitches could have affected the outcome.

One of those questioning the process was Burnham J. Philbrook, a former Minnesota legislator and a Lamm supporter. He said he will probably vote for Perot this fall, as long as he can satisfy himself that the process that cost Lamm the nomination was fair and square.

Besides, he says, if Perot does well at the polls on Election Day, the Reform Party will be eligible for millions of federal campaign dollars in the year 2000. And that means, he said, there will be federal money available if Lamm or another candidate, like Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, who is retiring this year, decide to run.

While Lamm lost to Perot, Philbrook said the process this summer has ``rejuvenated'' his faith in politics, and even led him to consider running as a Reform Party candidate back home in Minnesota. ``Lamm, to a large extent, just who he is, has renewed my faith in elected officials,'' he said.

``I might decide to run,'' said Philbrook, a lawyer who served one term as a state legislator.

While rank-and-file Perot supporters spent their day chatting and exchanging memories of supporting Perot in 1992, a lot of Lamm backers attended a meeting Sunday morning to explore the future of the national Reform Party.

Inside the convention hall Sunday night, there were plenty of loyal Perot supporters like Beverly Kidder, who voted for Perot in the '92 presidential race and backed him again this month for the Reform Party nomination.

``I guess you can say that I am a refugee from the Republican Party,'' said Kidder, a Princeton, N.J., resident who, with her husband, owns a used furniture and antiques shop in Blawenburg, N.J. ``I'm fiscally conservative and socially moderate. So I was totally politically homeless, and along came the Perot movement.''

While she voted for Perot, she said she would have supported Lamm had he won the party's presidential nomination.

Kidder said she didn't like what she called Lamm's support of free trade. And she said she sees Lamm as a newcomer to third-party politics. ``I think he sounded too much like a Democrat to me. He reminded me of Pat Schroeder,'' Kidder said, referring to the Colorado Democrat who is retiring from the House. ``He did a little too much whining'' about the balloting process, she said.