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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Jona Jeffords wrote:
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We are actually LEGO Robotics centric, not LEGO in general.
It is odd we haven’t met, although I would have to say that this is due to
many factors. Not the least of which would be very busy and conflicting
schedules.
I have to say, this isn’t the first time a MichLugger has uttered their
surprise to find out that there are 2 LEGO groups in Michigan and they
haven’t done anything together. I remember over a year ago on our forum one
of the MichLug members made contact and quickly became quite. I got the
feeling that MichLug didn’t really like the fact that we existed. However I
have to say that we are strictly focused on LEGO robotics and from what I
have seen and heard about MichLug you are focused on LEGO trains.
Also, it seems that MichLug tends to do “shows” with their train layouts and
such and my guess is that your meetings support the upcoming show. We are the
same, except we are doing competitions or challenges with meeting supporting
the upcoming event.
I’ve personally never really had the interest level to carve out the time to
attend one of the MichLug meetings, and I assume this is the case for the
MichLug people (this is most likely the reason the 2 groups haven’t gotten
together), but that isn’t to say I am opposed to a combined meeting taking
place.
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MichLUG has members interested in almost every theme LEGO has ever released. We
have a diverse group of people, all of whom bring something different to the
club. Steve Ringe has some done super neat things with Mindstorms in the past
(ex: controlling a trolley car for one layout’s main drag, remote control of a
turntable for his raised train yard), Lester Witter has some Mindstorms stuff,
although I don’t remember him bringing anything to a meeting. I personally have
been involved, two years running, in a local Engineering Explorers group with
their robotics sessions, which have used LEGO Mindstorms kits to teach the high
school students about robotics. (Actually MichLUG has
instructions for the
second year’s robot on our website.) We have train-heads, space-heads (.space!),
and castle-heads.
Yes, both groups have busy schedules, although summer is a somewhat slower time
for MichLUG, which is why I am trying to get MichLUG to reach out more during
this lull. While I was trying to connect with LRGOAA first, I was hoping to
eventually organize joint get-togethers with COLTC, NILTC, ChicagoLUG, and
perhaps BLOC too. I haven’t started working on plans for those other groups
quite yet. I have only mentioned it MichLUG’s internal list. (Although, we have
made some contact with those other groups, as we have done one show with COLTC,
another with NILTC and I attended the first ChicagoLUG meeting a couple weeks
ago.)
I wouldn’t say I was suprised to find out about LGROAA, it’s not like I
discovered you guys last week and then posted the orginal message. MichLUG has
been aware of LRGOAA for some time. Rather, I noticed that MichLUG’s schedule
was light and thought that it could be fun to hang out with another club for an
afternoon. At this time there isn’t a Midwest LEGO con (1), but that just means
that we Midwest clubs have to put a little more effort in, to find ways to meet
other fans of Lego. Steve Hassenplug is pretty much a robotics only kind of guy
(at least that’s my impression) and I had some interesting conversations with
him at the ChicagoLUG meeting. LEGO is LEGO and whatever a person’s particular
area of interest, there are things to talk about and learn from. (My technic
skills are weak, so I am positive I could learn some things from the LRGOAA
robot competitions.)
As for MichLUG not liking that LRGOAA was out there, I can say I have never
heard anyone say anything even remotely like that. Personally, I think it’s
great! The more LEGO clubs the better. If anything we ever did gave LRGOAA the
impression that MichLUG resented their formation, I would like to apologize.
Focus is a funny thing. MichLUG has done a LOT of train shows, and we call
ourselves MichLTC, when we do them. As it happens there are a lot of
opportunities to do train shows. The model railroading hobby is well established
and this provided an easy way when we first started MicHLUG to get out there and
show people what was possible with LEGO. That said, many of our members were
still very interested in space and castle. So, we began to look for more
opportunities to display the other themes. We found Comic Cons, Science Fiction
cons, which have provided such a venue. Also, some members have recently taken
to mixing Castle into Train/Town display, such as the display we did at the 2003
Festival of Trees.
Meetings typically last about 5 hours, about 1 of which is spent talking about
club business, which can include topics such as “do we need more club tables?”,
“would club skirting be a good idea?”, “do we want MichLUG shirts?”, “what shows
do we have coming up?”, “who’s interested in participating in which shows?”,
“any new members?”, “recap of the shows we did since the last meeting”, etc. The
rest of the time is spent talking with other members about general LEGO stuff,
color change, build techniques, new sets coming out, Hey look at my new model,
etc. The majority of planning for shows happens on our internal email list. I
have no doubt that if someone brought a robot to one of our meetings that it
would be the topic of much conversation and lots of ooos and ahhs. And it would
probably inspire some members to build a robot of their own. It’s happened with
other creations, moonbase modules and row houses to name a few. We also do
drafts very frequently at meetings, which doesn’t appeal to everyone, but for
those who do join in, it can be a lot of fun.
As for attending another club’s meetings, I understand. Actually I have been
meaning to attend a NILTC meeting for quite some time, but still haven’t found a
good weekend. I only managed the ChicagoLUG meeting because it was at Woodfield
mall and my wife was able to go shopping with her mother, while I talked about
LEGO for a couple hours. (That and packed some cups at the pick-a-brick wall.)
As I mentioned to Steve in a previous post, I plan to keep an eye on 24tooth.com
and if a weekend comes up that looks good, I may just pop in on a meeting.
However if we could arrange a meeting with multiple members from both groups
that would be even better.
Jason Spears | BrickCentral | MichLUG
(1) Although, the Midwest LEGO Train Show (MWLTS) was host this past year to 3
clubs’ displays. So it was like a minifest. I suspect that, OnDrew Hartigan
(he’s the lead planner for MWLTS) would be delighted to have a robotics presence
at this year’s show (December time frame). I displayed Castle/Pirates last year
and they were very well recieved, so it’s not really just a Train event.
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