NewfoundLUG met on May 30, 2018 at Bricks & Minifigs, St. John’s.
Attendees
- · Paula Gillingham, Andrew House, Mike Matthews, Geoff Stevens, Steve Churchill, Patrick Barnes, Matt Zwicker, Andrew Wheeler, Jon Jones, Don Richard
Minutes
- By-laws:
- Draft by-laws for the LUG were posted to the Facebook group for consideration prior to the meeting and printed copies were available at the meeting.
- By-laws were approved by all present.
- Geek-Out at the Library
- About 250 attendees.
- Positive feedback from library staff about the Group and they indicated they would be happy to have the Group back in the future.
- Some observations:
- The area for building with LEGO was busy all day. This could be made larger. Noted that the LEGO was provided by the library.
- Group members all felt the event went very well.
- It was great to have lots of space.
- Ideas for future shows/events:
- Group members could do demonstration builds for kids, showing how a technique or portion of their MOC was built. Could be impromptu.
- Set up small example models; challenge kids to build them from a pool of bricks.
- Make-and-take type event, possibly in conjunction with the store.
- Building technique demonstration by LUG members.
- This could be included in meetings too.
- Website
- Domain name and 1-year hosting in place, thanks to Andrew House.
- Cost about $60 per year.
- Discussed email capabilities and decided to use Gmail due to additional cost of domain-based email.
- Funds will be raised to reimburse Andrew for the website cost. This may be a set draw in collaboration with Bricks & Minifigs. Steve to discuss further with John G.
- Upcoming Shows/Events
- Avalon Expo
- Event August 24-26 at the Remax Centre.
- Discussion on last year’s event, and changes made for this year’s event.
- Agreed for the LUG to attend Avalon Expo.
- Applications not yet open for community groups.
- Plastic Modeler’s group
- Event in October.
- Discussions are ongoing about the LUG joining the event.
- Kids event
- Discussion on the LUG hosting an event targeted more toward kids.
- Tentatively planning for this in August.
- Avalon Expo
- Inclusion of kids in the LUG
- Discussion on ideas for better including kids at the shows/events.
- Good chance for kids to see MOCs by group members, learn new ways to build, and get ideas for things to build that interest them.
- General consensus that kids are important to the LUG even though RLUG rules don’t count kids toward group membership.
- RLUG Status (Recognized LEGO User Group)
- Discussion on requirements.
- For the purposes of RLUG status, LEGO counts group members aged teen and over.
- Obtaining RLUG status is a goal but is secondary to building the LEGO community in NL.
- Benefits of status:
- LUG Bulk program. Designed for LUGs doing large layouts.
- Some LUG specific-sets.
- Group Ordering
- Some ideas discussed on group ordering among members, such as adding on to BrickLink orders, using Bricks and Pieces, and splitting a bulk order by part/colour.
- Scheduling Meetings
- Discussion on how to best schedule meetings and suitable frequency.
- Agreed to general meetings every 2 months, on alternating Tue/Wed.
- Show/event meetings as needed.
- Next general meeting: Aug 6 or 7.
- Executive to discuss further and propose schedule for further meetings.
- Set draft
- Andrew Wheeler explained how set drafting works and asked about interest.
- This could be part of a regular meeting or a more social event (Christmas?).
- Noted that drafts are optional and the executive will discuss the idea further.
- LEGO Conventions
- Andrew Wheeler noted there are many conventions all over the world.
- Anyone planning to attend one should let the group know. Other members may also attend.
- Upcoming: BrickFair Virgina Aug. 4-5 and BrickCon Seattle Oct 4-7.
- Logo for the LUG
- Andrew Wheeler presented a LUG logo for consideration.
- LEGO Mindstorms/programmable sets
- Don Richard and Andrew House noted that the Geo Centre and Engineering Faculty have several Mindstorms sets on hand.
- May be an opportunity for the LUG to do an event or build.