WAMALUG
Washington Metropolitan Area Lego Users Group
Who We Are
A long time ago in a... whatever...
In July 1999 Stephen F. Roberts posted a message on rec.toys.lego seeking interest in a Train Club. Christopher Tracey replied on LUGNET.
Stephen started a mailing list and Chris created a web page. Jeffrey Stembel joined the list, suggested a meeting place, and made the announcement to LUGNET. The message identified this as "the first meeting of NOVALTC
."
Stephen, Chris, and Jeff met at Union Station on August 15th 1999. By October, Denise M. Jadud tracked them down. All future meetings moved to the community room in Denise's Arlington condominium -- until she moved a few months later.
Meetings were then held at Granddad's Hobby Shop in Virginia. Eventually the group moved to GMU's Arlington campus.
By November 1999, the name of the club was the subject of some discussion since not everyone was from Northern Virginia, and not everyone liked Trains. In the 302nd post to the mailing list Jeff suggested the name WAMALUG. The name was made official in Chris's subsequent post.
Kevin M. Loch, among others, met the fledgling group at the LEGO Potomac Mills grand opening on November 19th 1999. The meetings grew in size and by February 2000 the group began participating in train shows.
Thus WAMALUG began incurring expenses. Soon, group funds were committed, sometimes arbitrarily, and dissention arose. So it was decided that rules were needed. The rules aimed to minimize confusion and to maximize enjoyment for everyone.
Over the years the rules have waned and the group has focused more on playing and having fun, and less on rules.The mailing list established by Stephen has morphed and moved and is currently on Yahoo. Many people have joined the mailing list just to see what we are up to. Typically, people join the mailing list and then show up at our meetings.
The club has always been about participation and in-person activities. The mailing list merely helps coordinate the in-person meetings. The number of people on the WAMALUG mailing list does not reflect actual membership.
Today WAMALUG thrives with minimal rules and a simple "show up and play
" attitude. We're a small group who play together, encourage and inspire each other, talk about everything LEGO, and keep each other alerted to LEGO sales in the area.
Meeting
Once you know the date and place of our next meeting, simply show up!
Due to new location restrictions, the meeting time and location change each month. Consult the calendar for details. We no longer have full-day meetings from 10-5pm like we once did.
Show up any time during our meeting. Leave any time you like. Simple, eh?