In the interest of becoming more active in the Lego community, I attended my first Lego Users Group meeting this month. I'd met a few of the members at the grand opening of the nearby Bricks and Minifigs store (as described in this post), and was encouraged to come to the monthly meeting and see for myself.
It was held in the community room of a local library, and took about an hour. There were more than twenty in attendance, ranging in age from under ten to over seventy. What impressed me right off the bat was the organization and preparation: each seat at the tables had a printout of the meeting agenda, and a digital projector was playing a slideshow of photos from previous events on one wall.
Following a cordial welcome (including calling out new attendees like myself), the leader went straight to business. First on the docket was the previous month's build challenge. Each meeting two words are voted on (last month's were "video games" and "space", this month's are "cave/underground" and "Crocker") to be used as inspiration. Any members who build something based on one—or both—words are invited to present their creation to the group, explaining their thought process and calling out any special pieces or techniques. Then all the participating members are entered into a drawing to win a new Lego set!
After this, the LUG's president and treasurer give their reports on the business sides of the group, which was also impressively handled.
Upcoming events were next to be discussed. Options for the quarterly member social were weighed, and the Bricks and Minifigs grand opening was recapped. There were several local happenings where SacBB was going to have an official presence, including: Colfax Railroad Days, CrockerCon (held at the Crocker Art Museum, hence this month's build challenge word), MOSAC Mixer, and the International Railfair at Cal Expo. I had no idea there were so many things going on that were relevant to Lego, but then I shouldn't be surprised; Legos can be anything!
There was an open discussion period where various members could discuss their current projects, as well as sets they were excited for (such as the various Monkie Kid sets I'm looking forward to building).
Once the next month's creative challenge words were voted on, the meeting was officially adjourned, and boxes were brought out and sets arranged: apparently this meeting was the group's quarterly Lego sell-and-swap, and it was cool to see new and vintage sets made available. One member even had several old extra-large baseplates (maybe 100x100, I didn't think to count them) left over from when she built the train display that used to be in the Sacramento Railroad Museum!
I have a feeling there's a lot more history to this group and its members, and I'm excited to be a part of it. I've signed up and have already got an idea for the upcoming build challenge. Thanks for being so welcoming, SacBB!
More information can be found at their website: https://sacbb.org/
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