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Hello all,
NELUG is planning to get together this coming Thursday May 5th.
We will meet at about 6:00 PM at the LEGO store in the Burlington Mall in
Burlington Massachusetts, and we will head out for dinner at the Macarroni Grill
at about 7:30 PM.
Come join us and bring your MOCs for all to see!
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This past weekend, the New England Lego User’s Group displayed a 10’x30’ train
display at the RI Cooks convention in Providence. We were also accompnaied by a
pair of RI First Lego League teams who are preparing for competition this coming
January.
We started setup on Friday morning, all set to make a square 20’x20’ layout.
Then we had to completely change on the fly, as we discovered the real
dimensions were 10’x30’+. Plenty of room for our MOCs, but we were challenged
to make the layout without Track Designer, just using our heads!
After solving that problem, we got down to enjoying the show. And the spirits!
This show was a bit different then our typical fare, with booths filled with
food and wine to taste. At the end of the weekend, we were all fairly used to
eating in small dixie cup sized portions!
Several of the members were excited to have a show in Southern New England,
finally. Jamie barely knew what to do with himself after his grueling 15 minute
ride. With this shorter drive to shows, I think the pressure is on Wayne to
actually build something for the next show down here! We also got to meet
Richard Legault, who has been lurking for some time, and just needed us to get
closer to Newport for him to come out.
Finally, we met some middle school students who were very excited to display
their latest robotic creations. Tom Kowalczyk and his crack team of FLL kids
were hard at work designing solutions to the last few challenges before thier
state competition on January 15th. Tom is looking for some good judges, if any
New Englanders are interested. (Seems like there should be a
lugnet.robotics.fll group, no? Maybe someday.)
Photographic highlights of the event:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=104900
Eric Kingsley brought his massive new tower/train station:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/alfredjr/NELUG/RI-Cooks04/02.jpg
Speed train:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/alfredjr/NELUG/RI-Cooks04/03.jpg
There was wine at this show:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/alfredjr/NELUG/RI-Cooks04/08.jpg
Liscence & Registration, Sir:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/alfredjr/NELUG/RI-Cooks04/07.jpg
Uhauls do break down:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/alfredjr/NELUG/RI-Cooks04/12.jpg
First Lego League kids show off:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/alfredjr/NELUG/RI-Cooks04/18fll.jpg
Thanks to everyone who came and helped out, even if it was just to clean
up, or bring a MOC! We had a lot of fun. Hopefully, we can do more shows
down here in SE New England.
-Alfred
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The New England Lego Users Group will be displaying at the
Rhode Island Cooks Convention at the Rhode
Island Convention Center in Providence, RI on November 19-21. The display will
include several creations from NELUG members, as well as two running train
loops. Also, a First Lego League competition group will be displaying thier
robotic creations on Friday and Saturday.
The convention is open to the public the following hours:
Friday, November 19th 5 pm – 9 pm
Saturday, November 20th 10 am – 6 pm
Sunday, November 21st 10 am – 5 pm
Admission at the door is
Adults: $12
Seniors: $6
Children 12 and under: $6
Children 6 and under: FREE
Discounted tickets can be purchased at Whole Foods locations or you can use this
web cupon.
Alfred Speredelozzi
NELUG
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Hey All!
I was just curious about how many Moonbase builders out there might be
relatively close to me. Are there other Moonbases in or nearby New England?
The reason I ask is that although I plan to join in any Moonbase display at
BrickFest, I would also like to know what the possibilities are of local
displays as well. Anyhoo, how about a psuedo-roll-call of New England area
Moonbase builders:
1. Hendo, Greenfield, MA; 1 Module, Plans for 2-4 more.
Any others?
FUT: .org.us.nelug, just to keep it tidy.
-H.
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"Chris Phillips" <drvegetable@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:HAM156.Jp0@lugnet.com...
> In lugnet.loc.us.ct, Mike Walsh writes:
[ ... snipped ... ]
>
> I am certain that there is critical mass out there "in the woods" to put • on
> a decent train show. It shouldn't require special incentives to draw • people
> out; running a successful show is its own reward.
>
> - Chris.
Chris' last statement is really important. If you need incentives to do a
show, you are missing the point. Simply doing a show or public exhibition
should rewarding in of itself. Personally there are two aspects of a show
that I really enjoy:
1) Seeing the whole layout come together. I'll never (at least not any
time soon) have enough room at home to leave a sizeable layout up for any
extended period. Seeing everything together all at one time is very
satisfying.
2) The interaction with the public. I know not everyone enjoys this aspect
of a show but I do. I like talking to people as they take it all in. I
like answering the questions. I view it as a chance to evangelize our hobby
and hopefully, recruit some new members. The best part is seeing the
expressions on the kids faces when they realize it is all LEGO.
If I didn't enjoy doing it I wouldn't put the time and effort into that I
do. Doing a show is a great experience. But you really need to do more
than one. You can get lots of advice from the people and clubs that have
been through the process but until you have done it once, you can't really
predict how it will go. After you have done one, you know a lot of things
you would do differently so the second and third are typically much easier.
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=mpw - CTB/Brick Depot
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In lugnet.loc.us.ct, Mike Walsh writes:
>
> Don Heyse wrote:
> > Yeah, a small train club out here does sound like a lot of fun, but
> > that critical mass problem is a tough one to get past, way out
> > here in the woods of Southern N.E. I suspect it would take some
> > sort of spectacular event to coax 10 potential members out of the
> > woodwork.
>
> You don't need 10 people to do a successful train show. It helps but it
> isn't absolutely necessary. We here in North Carolina (NCLTC) have done a
> most of our shows with 3-5 people contibuting to the layout. We have some
> additional help with set up and tear down but the core group of builders is
> actually pretty small.
>
> There is no rule that says you have to have a 20'x30' layout for it to be a
> success. Our next layout is scaling back a bit, it will be 8'x18' but it
> will have some new features that we are pretty excited about.
>
> Mike
Mike is absolutely correct. NELUG holds our train shows with the
participation of typically between 6 and 8 members when we do our "large"
10'x20' layout. Next month, we plan to do a smaller 7'x10' layout with the
participation of only four members, although we will probably try to borrow
a few key MOCs from non-attending members. (We will also be displaying our
full 10'x20' layout at a different show the following weekend.)
I once brought in my trains and a couple buildings to work and set up a
rudimentary pre-holiday train display by myself. Although my layout was
absolutely laughable when compared to any LTC layout I've ever seen, it was
a HUGE hit with everybody who saw it. It doesn't take a lot of people to
put together a crowd-pleasing LEGO train display, it just takes one person
with the initiative to say "let's do it."
I am certain that there is critical mass out there "in the woods" to put on
a decent train show. It shouldn't require special incentives to draw people
out; running a successful show is its own reward.
- Chris.
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"Don Heyse" <dheyse@hotmail.spam.go.away.com> wrote in message
news:HAL7yr.KHD@lugnet.com...
[ ... snipped ... ]
>
> Yeah, a small train club out here does sound like a lot of fun, but
> that critical mass problem is a tough one to get past, way out
> here in the woods of Southern N.E. I suspect it would take some
> sort of spectacular event to coax 10 potential members out of the
> woodwork. I envision something like a once in a lifetime chance to
> shop at the internal company discount store, followed by a trip to
> the trolley museum for building inspiration just might do it, but I
> don't think the trolley museum is even open until spring. Maybe you
> could check out one of the NELUG shows in the meantime to keep the
> inspiration going.
>
> Don
You don't need 10 people to do a successful train show. It helps but it
isn't absolutely necessary. We here in North Carolina (NCLTC) have done a
most of our shows with 3-5 people contibuting to the layout. We have some
additional help with set up and tear down but the core group of builders is
actually pretty small.
There is no rule that says you have to have a 20'x30' layout for it to be a
success. Our next layout is scaling back a bit, it will be 8'x18' but it
will have some new features that we are pretty excited about.
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=mpw - CTB/Brick Depot
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In lugnet.loc.us.ct, Chris Phillips writes:
> In lugnet.loc.us.ct, Jake McKee writes:
> > I have been inspired! Would anyone have any interest in forming a
> > Connecticut and/or southern Mass. LEGO Train Club?
>
> First, let me say that I am located in southeastern Massachusetts, and would
> certainly consider driving for a couple hours to participate in train shows
> with you.
>
> But your very question tips another issue that has long been festering in
> the back of my mind. Did NELUG cast too wide a net? When we started NELUG,
> we chose a "New England" designation because we were not certain that a
> smaller geographic focus would contain enough AFOLs to support a LUG. In
> reality, NELUG is dominated by activity in eastern Massachusetts, despite at
> least a few past efforts to include members from other areas. Our attempts
> to organize meetings in western MA or to do train shows in southern NE have
> collapsed for lack of critical mass.
Yeah, a small train club out here does sound like a lot of fun, but
that critical mass problem is a tough one to get past, way out
here in the woods of Southern N.E. I suspect it would take some
sort of spectacular event to coax 10 potential members out of the
woodwork. I envision something like a once in a lifetime chance to
shop at the internal company discount store, followed by a trip to
the trolley museum for building inspiration just might do it, but I
don't think the trolley museum is even open until spring. Maybe you
could check out one of the NELUG shows in the meantime to keep the
inspiration going.
Don
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The "casting of a large net" is a very interesting topic. In fact I think it
is one of the most over looked concepts in the formation of a new club. In
the early stages of forming a club the biggest hurdle is achieving critical
mass. So by covering a large geo this is more achievable. However as clubs
mature and grow, so does the number of members. In PNLTC's case we have
grown to the point where the Portland and Seattle members (3.5hr drive) do
separate shows with only a small amount of cross pollination. We have taken
to meet in a small town mid way to have PNLTC train-fests so that we can all
literally get to meet each other. We've had 4 "joint" face-to-face meetings
in the last 2 years.
I think that it is important to understand this process and embrace the fact
that large geo's serviced by a single club will inevitably divide into
smaller sustainable clubs. It seems like 10 members is a kind of magic
number, where there is a critical mass achieved yet the inter-communications
are easily maintained etc.
I hope to flush out these ramblings in an article for the ITLCO web site; an
article about forming a new train club.
<shamelessplug>
These kinds of key learning's should be captured and shared. The ILTCO is
planning on having a resource area on the ILTCO.org web page for "Best Know
Methods", articles, fest presentations etc. If you are interested please get
started writting and let us know.
</shamelessplug>
SteveB
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In lugnet.loc.us.ct, Jake McKee writes:
> I have been inspired! Would anyone have any interest in forming a
> Connecticut and/or southern Mass. LEGO Train Club?
Jake,
First, let me say that I am located in southeastern Massachusetts, and would
certainly consider driving for a couple hours to participate in train shows
with you.
But your very question tips another issue that has long been festering in
the back of my mind. Did NELUG cast too wide a net? When we started NELUG,
we chose a "New England" designation because we were not certain that a
smaller geographic focus would contain enough AFOLs to support a LUG. In
reality, NELUG is dominated by activity in eastern Massachusetts, despite at
least a few past efforts to include members from other areas. Our attempts
to organize meetings in western MA or to do train shows in southern NE have
collapsed for lack of critical mass.
NELUG has always had a stated goal of creating smaller sub-groups if such a
dynamic emerged. In fact, I would say that NELUG currently has three rough
sub-groups: (1) people who attend general meetings, (2) people who attend
train shows, and (3) people who play BrickWars.
So I guess what I am saying is that you should feel perfectly welcome to
join NELUG (if you haven't already) and take the initiative to organize club
activities in your area. You can call on all of our members to participate
in local meetings and/or train shows. All it takes to have a meeting is for
a NELUG member to call one. We do have members in your area who have
expressed interest in attending meetings and doing shows if only it wasn't a
three-hour drive.
Of course, if you would prefer to create a new group rather than trying to
piggyback your efforts off of NELUG, that is certainly an option as well. I
personally look forward to seeing more LUG/LTC activity across our entire
region. I think I can speak for NELUG when I say that you can count on our
full support and cooperation, however you should decide to proceed.
- Chris.
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