TexLUG-SA

HBCE - Set-Up on Friday March 2!

Only 12 Days Left Until HBCE! Official Set-Up is on Friday, March 2, 2007 from 1PM to 9PM!

We will be setting up our display for the Healthy Baby and Child Expo at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio on Friday, March 2, 2007. The HBCE Staff allows setup between the hours of 1PM and 9PM. However, to my knowledge you can still bring stuff in on Saturday as a lot of vendors did this last year. Chris M, please issue any corrections on this that you know of. (Chris: Yes but you must be setup before the event opens.)

Location of Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center: 200 East Market Street, San Antonio, Texas 78205 (210) 224-9600

We will be “offloading” our stuff on the South Alamo Street side (west side) of the convention center. South Alamo Street is 2-way and is perpendicular to East Market Street, which is one-way heading east. So what you want to do is exit Commerce Street from IH-37 South and take Commerce (one-way) west and then turn left on South Alamo Street. You’ll cross over East Market Street in the process. Once you pass the loading area on your left, you’ll need to do a U-turn to head back north so you can turn in to the loading area.

(The above unloading information is incorrect! See above post dated February 21, 2007.)

There is a nice parking garage on South Bowie Street and situated between East Commerce and East Market. If you get lost, remember that the Tower of the Americas (tallest thing in San Antonio) is across from the southeast corner of the convention center, so drive towards that!

For good recon photos, use Google Maps, paste the convention center address into the search box, hit <Enter>, and then click the Hybrid icon. Zoom in a bit and you can definitely see the convention center and
the offloading area to the left.

For the record, I (Pat) plan to be at the Convention Center on Friday at 1PM or shortly thereafter.

Hotel Information
Nearest Hotels/Motels are:

Red Roof Inn (0.3 miles north or 4 blocks away) - $69.00 and up per night
1011 East Houston Street
SA, TX 78205
(800) 444-6835

Travelodge (0.5 miles north) - $58.00 and up per night
405 Broadway
SA, TX 78205
(210) 222-1000

La Quinta Inn & Suites (0.6 miles west) - $85.00 and up per night
100 West Durango Blvd
SA, TX 78204
(210) 212-5400

Super 8 (1.1 miles north) - $49.00 and up per night
1614 North Saint Mary’s Street
SA, TX 78215
(210) 222-8833

Microtel Inn & Suites (1.2 miles west) - $38.00 and up per night
1025 South Frio Street
SA, TX 78207
(888) 771-7171

TexLUG Fall Meeting - Public Event

So the statewide group is meeting October 7-8th, 2006.

Public times are 10-5 and 1-5 respectively.

Clear Lake City-County Freeman Branch
16616 Diana Lane
Houston, TX 77062
http://www.hcpl.lib.tx.us/branchinfo/fm/fminfo.htm
Come on down and check it out.

AFOLs We’ll be using the CCC/Marketplace and Moonbase standards for this build. Please try to bring at least one of each type. Also, please try and bring a CCC (straight preferred) wall section with a castle theme on one side and space on the other. Please see the links under building standards for details.

There will be space for other mocs but if you have something big please let me know by next week September 13.

September 16, 2006 - Changed to Event…

When: Saturday September 16, 2006 12:30 PM - Till whenever.

Where: Goerke’s Country Tavern

The coordinator for the San Antonio Women Expo called and asked us to do an event. So this weekend we will be doing an event.

The press release is as follows:

“CELEBRATE YOU at the MOMtrepreneurs Women’s Business, Lifestyle, Home and Health Expo, sponsored by Time Warner at The Alzafar Shrine on Sabturday, Sept 16th from 10am-5pm; Kid‚Äôs time from 3pm-5pm. Visit the expo web site to download your FREE entry Coupon www.SAWomensExpo.com

Location: The Alzafar Shrine off the 1604 access road between Stone Oak and Blanco Rd at 901 North Loop 1604 West. San Antonio, Texas, 78232.

FREE parking; FREE admission with a coupon and food, toy, pet supply item donation or pay $5. Coupons are printed in the Family Lifestyle Magazine, SA Fit Magazine, SA Kid’s Directory, AMUZE Magazine and Much a Do Newspaper.”

Healthy Baby and Child Expo.

Next weekend we’ll be that the Healthy Baby and Child Expo. Be sure to stop by the booth.

For more information check out the news posting.

March 3, 2006

The Health Baby and Child Expo

Exhibitor Information

Display Information

October 8-9, 2005

It is time for the Statewide TexLUG meeting. As usual it will be held in Austin. Thanks Laura for hosting once again. TJ was kind enough to put the details online.

Fall 2005 Meeting Details

See you all there…

September 17, 2005

All in all the event went really well photos and summary will follow soon…

On Saturday, September 17, 2005, TexLUG-SA was invited to present a LEGO Town display at the San Antonio WAHM Expo, which took place at the Alzafar Shrine Center near Blanco Rd and Loop 1604. Most folks participating in the convention had to pay for their booths, but TexLUG was honored with a free booth (actually two) with the understanding that we would put on a decent display and provide an area for the kids (and some adults) to build their own creations.

I arrived precisely at 10:05 AM and discovered that Chris Macdougald had already arrived some minutes earlier with wife Connie. I was able to locate Chris and Connie through use of my cell phone and Chris met me up front to unload my small contribution to the display (a harbor scene on 8 32×32 baseplates) plus some accessory material. Once Chris and I had completed the unloading of vehicles, the building began in earnest. Ideally, we wanted to be setup by 11:00 AM when visitors to the convention were to be allowed through the doors. I have to say, however, that despite the fact that we did not complete the basic display until around 11:15 AM, we managed to accomplish in 55 minutes what would have taken six of us to complete in double the time a few years back.

The results were, with all humility, outstanding considering the small assemblage we had and the enormity of detail that went into the display. In just under one hour, Chris, Connie, and I had managed to:

• Unload both vehicles
• Get the 3 large foldout utility tables in the formation that we wanted them
• Spread out the play area and the LEGO that went with it.
• Set up the rope barrier around the display (including getting the PVC into the buckets and threading the rope)
• Set up a fourth table with all the literature available to the public which Chris and Connie had brought along in neatly organized fashion
• Completely assembled the entire display which measured a square area roughly eight feet per side.

Chris brought along the majority of his collection which, even incomplete, still lacked the space to put even half of it on the table. My own harbor area occupied the rightmost forward corner (facing the aisle away from the booth), and Chris joined up with my blue baseplates to complete the harbor area. Connie was a HUGE help and without protest accepted the various assignments that wives of collectors like Chris inevitably find themselves performing. It was Connie who helped Chris with unloading all the storage bins containing his many assembled sets, it was Connie who, at my beg for help, placed all 42 little tires (stripped from as many wheels) around the docks in my harbor so that they would take on that harbor look. It was also Connie that saved us by being the food gopher that day.

Chris is becoming more adventurous in the creation of MOCs with each event, and Saturday was no exception. Chris really outdid himself this time with a miniature golf course, a full zoo complete with aquarium which featured a well-known professional basketball player (who shall remain nameless in this recollection) getting eaten by a shark (a “sha’k attack” get it?), and a house that was carefully designed to blend in well with the commerical house sets from LEGO which Chris put all around. Especially cool was the fact that he had brought along two miniature tubs, one filled with vehicles of all sorts which acted as filler on the roadplates, and the “tree-tub” which I promptly emptied as I dispersed them all around the display in what I thought were appropriate areas. I
only brought five trees of my own.

Anyway, the amount of success that a display reaps (or doesn’t) is measurable solely by the reactions of those members of the public who happened by our booths. In this, I can safely state that TexLUG-SA helped the organization as a whole to earn yet another A in Enthusiasm.

There were all manner of young children present of all ages, with some being participants in the convention and some being visitors. Initially we Chris, Connie, and I were a little apprehensive as the 30+ members of a aerobics/dance/cheerleading team ranging from ages 4 to 16 used the aisleway in front of our display to perform some minor calesthenics. We also performed the familiar battle of the barrier as we struggled throughout the day to keep various children in unguarded moments as they “made the run” in their eagerness to touch various elements of the display. But all in all, it was good fun.

I almost forget to mention that Chris managed to mount a wireless CCTV transmitter inside the engine of the train he set up, so that the view from inside the engine could be seen on a nearby TV he and Connie had brought along (with everything else). After one minor mishap in which the train derailed after “running over” a minifig, Chris graciously stuck a Jar-Jar Binks minifig next to the track in such a way that it appeared to be run down on TV everytime the train made a pass. Ah, my favorite scene in the whole show.

The kids were ESTATIC about the building area, and of course several kids wanted us to keep their MOCs intact (at least for the duration that the kids were present), so half of the literature table became devoted to displaying the kids’ MOCs.

But most stunning of all was the level of praise and curiosity levelled on TexLUG as a whole by the large numbers of adults that wandered by, with or without kids in their entourage. Concerned parents asked a number of intelligent questions, with the most prominent being “What does TexLUG do?” We tried to answer that with a combination of literature, descriptions of past meetings, and our own enthusiasm.

One of the folks who came to visit us was a woman who owns the Blue Cactus Cafe along with other members of her family. She herself had three boys along who were active participants in the LEGO building, and she invited TexLUG-SA to meet at the Blue Cactus Cafe in future meetings. She gave each of us a 8.5 x 11 blue handout with a small calendar detailing events that will take place at the cafe in September, as well as featuring a full menu on the back. Chris and I are thinking about meeting there one of these months. Primarily, their offerings are in the BBQ-potato salad-beans-coleslaw range, although I am somewhat eager to try out their “BBQ Nachos” followed by a plate of meatloaf and two sides. They are located in an state-recognized historical building (former Wetmore General Store and Post Office) at 13525 Wetmore Road, one block north of Thousand Oaks. They have live entertainment and other events throughout each month. Their phone numbers are (210) 490-7330 for general info and (210) 355-0587 for reservations. Website is www.thebluecactuscafe.com/

Another solid event, even with just the three of us, and Chris and I truly feel that we made further progress in educating the public about who TexLUG is and what we do. I leave Chris and Connie to add their own observations and anything I left out.

- Pat Hough

Update Photos
Brickshelf - Chris & Connie’s Photos

San Antonio WAHM Expo

What:
San Antonio WAHM Expo
http://www.sawahmexpo.com/
When:
September 17, 2005
11 AM - 5 PM
Where:
Alzafar Shrine Center
901 North Loop 1604 West, San Antonio, Texas 78232
http://www.alzafar.org/

Details for the group…
There are some vendor policies we have to follow here are the ones that apply to us.

• All tables must be completely setup and ready for business at 11 AM.
• All participants must stay completely set up at their table until 5:00PM. This means all display items, literature, business cards… etc.
• … to be completed …

More details to come…

March 27-28, 2004

Meeting Information
See below for post meeting information.

Update - 02/13/2004 - Northwest Vista College has agreed to lend us the Banquet Room in the College Commons building. Time has been discussed below. This is located about 5 minutes from my house, so room for you out-of-towners is available on a first come first serve basis.

• Main Campus Location
• Campus Map - College Commons
• Flyer (DOC) TODO: Fix Link
• Flyer (PDF) TODO: Fix Link

Pre Meeting Information
I have come up with a preliminary draft of the layout for this meeting. Please take a look at the PNG image. Please let me know what space you would like or what changes you would like made. When refering to the diagram I would like to use letters for the columns and numbers for the rows. For example, the upper left corner section of track is A1-B2.
Please tell me which road plates you will be using and where so I can put them in.

I was thinking that the blue plate table could be put on wheels so we could roll the sea in and out to get around the layout. Also, we could run a track to go over an inside section for the bridge builders out there. I thought it would be a good idea to have the bridges on the inside so no one messes with them. Just in case they fall, we don’t have to look everywhere for pieces.

Layout Image (GIF) TODO: Fix Link Updated 02/24/2004!
Layout Image (PNG) TODO: Fix Link Updated 02/24/2004!
Track Designer Layout File TODO: Fix Link

Location is still being worked out. Time is from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday and 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Sunday. I was planning on having the public access from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Saturday and from Noon - 2:00 PM on Sunday. Input is more than welcome. Also, we are going to attempt to inform the media.

We should be hearing from San Antonio Express-News soon. Also, there might be some TV crews there. Be sure to wear your t-shirts.

Monorail is allowed and encouraged in the layout with the following height requirements. 15 bricks in height in all locations except when coming in and out of a station then it can go to 5. Please let me know where you would like your track to be and I’ll figure out where it goes on the layout map.

Please check back here as any changes will be posted here.

Please read - TexLUG-SA January 24, 2004 meeting notes about this event.

Attendees

• Future TexLUG Members
• TJ
• Tanya
• Laura
• Anthony
• Christina
• Travis
• Ed
• Tim
• Lee
• Mark
• Pat
• Chris
• General Public

Overview
I haven’t really had time to update the site. Or add my own opinions/thoughts of the event. It was much better than expected. Note to self add more ASAP!

However, that doesn’t mean that other don’t have something to say. Here is what other members had to say about the event.

• Anthony
• TJ

Photos

• Anthony
• TJ
• Ed

October 11-12, 2003

Attendees

• TJ
• Laura
• Anthony
• Christina
• Sam
• Ed
• Tim
• Lee
• Mark
• Pat
• Chris

Overview
Note: This was copied from a posting made to the TexLUG mailing list.
Dear Fellow TexLUG members,

After an absolutely wonderful meeting I am once again recharged about
building however, I am starting to suffer from post LUG gathering
withdrawal syndrome (PLGWS, after all we could always do with another
acronym in the AFOL and LUG community).

Since I can’t seems to sleep. Let me do a meeting recap.

Saturday, I arrived around 10ish and found the usual early birds there.
Setting up in the wonderful place that Laura was able to provide for us
was a breeze due to the abundance of tables (Thanks, again). The
castles, pirates (all be it small), and trebuchets were all very
impressive. As usual TJ brought his most recent Technic marvel… the
crane. Which interestingly enough, on my way home, I saw a company
transporting pieces of the same structure on I-35. It was an impressive
10 miles worth of equipment. Of course at 90+ MPH anything that doesn’t
look like a blur of a car is impressive.

The castle modules were very interesting. It was a great standard and I
look forward to seeing more uses of it in other LUGs. It works
flawlessly with sets 6040, 6041, 6073, 6074, & 6080. I did some
maneuvering and decided I was going to attack the castle modules so we
had Pat, Laura, and “Tony” vs little innocent me. Thankfully Ed, Yeti, Trolls, and a Siberian Tiger came
to my aid on Sunday; successfully at least in my opinion putting a stop
to “Tony’s” orcs.

Mark and I had a small table of Pirates going.

The newest member of TexLUG-SA, Lee, from New Braunfels showed up. He
was of course like a die hard TexLUG-SA member sporting the newly
designed TexLUG-SA t-shirts. He came with a very impressive collection
of Harry Potter mocs. Hopefully Lee will bring them in future meetings
for all to see or someone has a pic they would like to share.

Ed brought a very impressive Sand Crawler and a very unique collection
of minifig mods. You have to see the genie!

Anthony brought the latest moc, along with his usually assortment of
dragons. Sorry, I don’t write more here put pictures speak a 1000 words
and hopefully someone will post some more pics of this very impressive
castle moc so one can do it proper justice.

Laura brought her windmill. I’m still found details I didn’t notice
last time I got to see it. Again, pictures are needed to do it justice.

Tim, brought an incredible trebuchet. I would have never guest it could
be that accurate or powerful.

We had a great time watching bricks (coasters/limes) fly thru the air
the entire gathering. The rules worked pretty well IMO. Maybe a little
more clarity is needed. As well as some alternatives for a ‘x-small’
throwing capability class. But, I still think they went really well. It
was impressive to watch the misfires, successes, bouncing bricks,
falling targets, running, and screaming for dear life… (J/K but, only
about the screaming).

We gathered for a discussion afterwords and so now an actual point to
my message…

Yeah! I’m going to be the host for the next meeting in San Antonio
sometime in March. Therefore, I need information.

What weekend in March would like to meet? The sooner I know the better.
The weekend with the highest vote wins. I will post the results via
TexLUG-SA website. Tentative cutoff date for votes November 15, 2003.

As I mentioned during the meeting as of right now there is a double
bed, a bunk bed, a queen size foldout couch, a queen size (usually my
bed which I am willing to give up if we have a huge demand), and always
floor space for sleeping bags.

Space for room (board to be decided) is available free of charge on a
first claim, first serve basis. I almost forgot, for you adventurous
types I do have a fenced backyard. So, camping outside with a tent is
permitted. Please speak now or in the near future if you want a
room/space. If a picture is required before accommodations are decided
upon, that can be arranged. I know some people are picky about where
they stay.

Ideas for a contest are now being accepted. I really like Laura’s boat
idea. I also have an idea for a sky racer type thing (a variation of
CO² cars). I will post the ideas of the various contests and I will
pick one… (unless someone objects to my picking one). If you have
rules in mind please include those in your entree. Tentative cutoff
date for ideas December 15, 2003. This is so we have plenty of time to
build.

The theme is Town. Of course all other themes will be acceptable. We
are going to attempt to accomplish two things (from what I gathered) by
having this meeting. One, have display tables of our own. Two, build a
train display worthy of a huge public display.
Therefore, could I please have the following information?

1. Your track counts so we can come up with a decent layout.
2. How much space you want to really build? Please try to keep it in multiples of 32 studs x 32 studs.

In return I promise to make a display layout so you know where your
going to be. I would like to have general figures by the middle of
November so I can come up with a draft that everyone can criticize and
we can iron out in December.

I am thinking about advertising starting February in the San Antonio
Express News as well as calling the TV media to at least let them know
about it? What is your take on this?

Also, I made the first of many t-shirt designs for TexLUG-SA. If your
local chapter would like similar t-shirts you can order with your city
please let me know. I will be getting with Anthony in the near future
about an official TexLUG t-shirt.

We also discussed a Constitution for the club and some other display
related issues.

Then, we broke for dinner at Trudy’s. I’m only glad I stopped and asked
for a table for us otherwise we would have been there all night… hey
wait we were (well almost). I had a great meal and the conversations as
usual were always very enlightening (”Studs on top for…”) As well as
a reported flying lime and coaster.

At this point I went and hung out with one of my college friends. While
the rest of the group went to TJ’s sisters place.

Sunday, was very nice as I arrived to the pitter patter of childrens
feet. IMO it was a very decent sized steady crowd of children and
parents. The media kit did wonders of keep the crowds steady over the
course of the public display. We only had one train wreak which is
really good considering the amount of track switching that was going on
at high speeds. Sam did an excellent job of managing and supervising
the free build area as well as monitoring the trains. There was an
awful lot of paper and bricks flying from the trebuchets. Mark you have
my sympathies as it seemed you were the target of choice. Next time
might I advise that no one sit near the castles when you have people
who want to lay siege to it from the other side of the room.

We started packing up around 1:30. And Allen(?) showed up to sell us
some sets at a decent price.

All in all a great meeting.

Photos
Anthony’s Photos
Ed’s Photos
TJ’s Photos and meeting wrap-up.
Chris’s Photos taken w/ a pen camera!