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The Fremont Library continued to be a fine place for a public meeting.
This time, we found the room set up with only two tables, and lots of
chairs facing the windows, so we learned two things;
- where the tables are kept, if we need more ;-)
- that we don't need to be so particular about returning the
tables and chairs to the same positions that we found them.
Highlights:
Mike Poindexter's train display was large, brightly colored, and
was *moving*. Placed on tables near the windows, this was the biggest
attraction to the visitors, and drew in many folks on their way into
and out of the library.
(Fred Yokel also made some more color signs, which were the second
biggest draw for the crowds...and none were taken by visitors this time.)
We had may good looking space craft on display. Roger (a BA-list
lurker) brought in many ships that were extensions to old themes,
or were take-offs from old models, but in different colors.
We missed Tom McDonald's creations at this meeting. :-(
Janet Graff also brought in a large collection of her town theme
models, including a larger-than-minifig-scale 1-story Victorian-style
house, with details reminiscent of Mini-land at LEGOLAND.
Michael Hopkins also brought his LARGE Ninja training grounds model.
You can see pictures of it on the Ninja pages (http://baylug.org/ninja)
Paul Sinasohn also brought a LEGO CyberMaster kit, and opened it
for the first time at this meeting. (We got the grand opening on video.)
Some mild trading was also done, and Tom Stangl arrived later in the
day with a 5571 Model Team truck kit ready to sell and trade parts.
(Tom also had the "Jambalaya" mini-fig collection with him. If you
don't know about this, check http://www.lugnet.com/market/jambalaya.)
Meeting Critique:
We decided that the half of the room closest to the windows would
be the "OK to touch" area, with the "hands-off" models being in the
back of the room. We also forgot to bring any "Please Do Not Touch"
signs for tables, so we simply wrote it on the white boards along
one wall, in the hands-off area. This seemed to work very well,
as I heard many parents advising their kids to not touch models.
All in all, I think the kids were better behaved, and the adults
did keep a better eye on their kids that day. :-)
The train model and the VCR seemed to hold crowds the longest.
The static models held some interest, and a few visitors even
bought some of the older models from sellers, but the displays
that moved, or were "active" seemed more interesting.
While we probably had more visitors at the first meeting, the
second meeting didn't seem as crowded, and I think that was because
visitors didn't stay as long this time.
Something else that might have retained the visitors longer may
have been an area for kids to play with LEGOs. Joe Greene's parts
trading at the first meeting was really engaging for about 10 kids.
We didn't have anything to pick up and play with at the second
meeting, and I think we should try to have something more 'hands-on'
for the November meeting. (Of course, I'll be playing with the
train display, so I can't help much, unless we have shifts between
watching displays and the kids area. :-)
We didn't have much of a formal meeting this time. Even though I
had some club-type stuff that I wanted to discuss, we all came in
and started setting of the room, setting up displays, and trading.
After a couple hours of that, a bunch of folks left for a quickie
lunch break before we opening the doors to the public.
So, since I didn't get a chance to propose the agenda at the meeting,
I'll pose a couple questions here (Maybe this should be a different
message thread, but here goes):
1) How formal do we want the meetings to be? Should we have an
aganda portion of the meetings? (Maybe we do this when we first
get to the room, and set up displays after the meeting?) Does
anyone feel really strongly whether we should, or shouldn't
have a 'formal' meeting part at each get-together?
2) Do we want to carry on the agenda in email, either in the BA-LEGO
mail list (so we have an archive in the LUGNET SF newsgroup)?
Or would we rather have a seperate list for club things? Is
anyone strongly for or against having the dicussions in email,
instead of waiting for the get-togethers?
(I'll wait to pose other questions until we sea the replies to these.)
NEXT MEETING:
We've discussed having the next meeting in November, with a Train theme.
We may have a good chance at getting the room in Fremont if we reserve
it soon (because the holidays are coming) but which weekend is best?
Is Saturday the best day? Does anyone else want to look for a room
in their city, and host a meeting? :-)
I don't think we've discussed much about meetings in 2000. But, now
that it looks like there is enough interest to continue with quarterly
meetings, maybe we should propose a few dates and themes? I'll toss
out February sometime, and try for a Mindstorms/Technic day. Who has
any other proposals?
-Z- http://baylug.org
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