TexLUG-SA

January 24, 2004

Attendees

• Lee
• Pat
• Joe (Pat’s roommate)
• Travis
• Mark
• Chris

Overview
The following was taken from an email to the TexLUG mailing list.

I decided to go ahead and sum up our meeting for Chris. The man did almost everything else! Except Lee did pick a great place to meet for this month (Fuddrucker’s, which I tend to pronounce differently); a grand idea, sir.

The weather here has been pretty grim; cold winds, gray overcast, and sporadic rains. But this did not prevent most of the San Antonio crew from attending the mini-meet.

Attending this meeting of Saturday, January 24, 2004, were Lee, Mark, Chris, my roommate Joe (unofficial capacity only), our newest member, Travis Scott, representing also his father, Troy Scott, and myself. The Scotts are heavily into Bionicle, incidentally.

The meeting got underway fairly smoothly despite both mine and Chris’ individual traffic hitches. Lee opened the proceedings with some complimentary chili-cheese fries (you villian ) and showing us a boat composed of Oriental Expedition elements. I should have paid more attention as I did not gather whether it was a set or a MOC. It had quite a number of elements I don’t have, however.

Chris, in the meantime, dropped all of our jaws with the MOC he plans to debut at the next big TexLUG meet in March. Yes, a MOC from Chris, he who only collects sets! I won’t spoil everything by offering further detail.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEM, as I see it, is where are we going to host the next big TexLUG meet. My efforts regarding this have been ongoing but unrewarding, since the lowest price tag wanted for the space we require (which isn’t all that much) is $300 per day (and I encountered much higher prices). Chris and I agreed that the maximum we could probably afford was $150 per day. I am going to try my local community center here in Windcrest and some lower priced hotels like Holiday Inn on IH-35 near Fort Sam Houston next. I am also going to use my membership in the UTSA Alumni Association to try to get us a space there for the March weekend. Chris is continuing the pressure on Northwest Vista University to host our event.

Incidentally, congratulations to Chris. He begins a new and more prosperous job on Monday, January 26th.

THE SECOND MOST IMPORTANT ITEM is the contests we are going to hold. Realizing of course that the majority of these contests really depend on the amount of public involvement that takes place, we came up with the following:

• Re-introduction of the LEGO Racers idea, where participants had a set time limit to build their entries and then race them to a finish line.
• A LEGO puzzle, where I build the pieces to a geometric puzzle which, when put together properly, forms a familiar-looking something. Whatever it is, I will provide a photo of what it should look like to each contestant to use as a guide. There will be a set time limit here, as well. The fastest time to put the entire puzzle together or, failing that, the most pieces put together in the correct way in the time allowed, wins the contest.
• The LEGO Creator contest, where each contestant has the same number and type of elements (although color may vary) and each has a certain time limit to build as many different MOCs as possible; they must actually represent something in the real world to be constituted a MOC, and will be subject to the opinion of a judge or judges. The most MOCs in the time allowed wins the contest.

THE FINAL ITEM is the layout for the main MOC display. Chris provided color sheets of the current layout, which also detailed where everyone who thus far had contacted Chris had staked their claims. These folks are, thus far: Lee, TJ, Mark, and myself, with Chris making a serious effort to cover with his sets the unclaimed areas at the time of display. Travis Scott’s MOC depends on my own, so I will try to bring it to the February TexLUG-SA meeting for that purpose.

Thus far, the following have more or less staked out their territory on the big layout:

• TJ Avery
• Mark Bagnall
• Lee Rahe
• Travis Scott
• Pat Hough

We would love to hear from Laura Hayden, Anthony Sava, Tim Rueger, and anyone else seriously contemplating showing up in San Antonio this March of 2004.

Photos
No photos taken at this event.

December 6, 2003

Attendees

• Chris
• Lee

Overview
Lee came over and we taked about layout ideas for about and hour or so.

Photos
No photos at this time.

November 15, 2003

Attendees

• Travis
• Troy
• Lee
• Mark
• Pat
• Chris

Overview
I arrived around 12:30 PM to find everyone there. Our two new members showed up with some great Bionicle creations. We instantly went straight to business to discuss the up coming meeting in March. We also took care of some other decisions related to the town layout in March. Lee came up with some dimensions for the layout. We watched some LEGO created movies. Travis and Troy talked about making a monster to terrorize the town layout using Bionicle. We enjoyed some really good peach cobbler. Thanks again Pat for hosting.

Photos
No photos at this time.

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!