Building a brighter tomorrow with LEGO® bricks
LEGO Events
I’d better hurry or I’ll miss out on the special Pick-A-Brick they’re doing at the convention right now! Jim Olson just called me to tell me to get over there.. so without further ado here’s my pics from yesterday. View the Flickr photoset or slideshow.
I’m heading up to Portland today for BrickFest. Hope to see you there. My BrickLink store will be closed until I get back on Tuesday, March 31.
This past weekend (March 21-22), the Bay Area LEGO Train Club did a show as a part of the Nor-Cal Division of Train Collectors Association Cal-Stewart Meet. We set it up Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, and then the show was open to TCA members all weekend, but only open to the public on Sunday March 22.
View the photoset or slideshow on Flickr.
This was probably the largest layout we’d ever done – we’d used all 28 tables in our club inventory before, but when we did it was to make the depth larger. This time we kept the depth at a maximum of 5 feet and went with a larger footprint.
Friday night we got a little desperate for track and baseplates, but we got enough reserves Saturday morning. With a great last-minute idea by Loren to add a lake next to the campground, and Bruce’s construction zone, we were able to cover the bare wood before the show opened. In the end, it turned out pretty good.
One nice thing about the trackplan for this show was the use of a “wye” on the outer loop and track leads in both directions on the inner loop, enabling trains to be switched in and out of the yard on both loops in both directions without “hand of god” operations (except for those locomotives that can’t go backwards…). It was also visually interesting to have one of the main lines run behind the downtown instead of having both loops run side by side all around.
Well, checks that is. Two of them. One to the IRS and one to the California Franchise Tax Board (which oversees California income taxes).
And no, I am not talking about my 2008 income taxes. I am talking about my applications for 501(c)(3) tax exempt, non profit status for a new corporation that I’m forming along with Bruce and Loren from BayLUG/BayLTC: Bricks by the Bay, Inc. The three of us met on Tuesday evening to sign the bylaws and review the paperwork before I sent it in. We’re using the Nolo Press book “How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation in California” to set it up.
Why are we forming a nonprofit? Well, we’re putting on a show! We haven’t made any official announcements yet – we’re waiting for the tax exempt status before the deal can be finalized – but the plan is to have a LEGO conference in the San Francisco bay area in April of 2010. We’re forming a nonprofit to run the conference as well as other local LEGO-related events, including BayLUG/BayLTC exhibits.
We need volunteers! You don’t have to be local, or even come to the show, to help! If you’re interested in helping out in any capacity, please let me know. We have a mailing list and a wiki to help with planning.
For official announcements, visit the Bricks by the Bay Web site. I’ll be blogging here periodically as we continue through the planning process, too.
Each year for the past several years, Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group has been invited to hold a meeting at the home of one of our members, Dave Porter, at his house in Woodside, CA. He has a huge LEGO display in his house every year, and we get to see it in person before he takes it down each February.
At the meeting we had a lot of people bring their latest models for display, bulk LEGO shopping in Dave’s home office, and of course viewing of Dave’s home layout (pictured above). We also held a business meeting to plan for the Bricks by the Bay LEGO convention which we are organizing for April 2010.
We took down the BayLUG exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, CA, on Sunday, January 11. I finally got around to dumping the camera today and uploaded the pictures to Flickr. Sorry about the delay.
During the teardown phase of any of our train shows, after the crowds are gone, we take down the “sneeze guards” (Plexiglas barriers to keep little hands – and sneezes – off of the LEGO models) and spend about fifteen minutes doing a photo shoot. These pictures are the results of that. I’ve been sick off and on all month so far, and wasn’t feeling too well on that day, so I didn’t get really ambitious with the photography, but hopefully I covered everything.
You can also browse all the pictures from the show or view them as a slideshow.
Our next public event is a meeting at MoAH on Saturday, February 21. Hope to see you there!
We had some great publicity for the exhibit by the Bay Area LEGO Users Group at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, CA for the last few weekends. 
There were television coverage by two different local stations, articles in the newspaper, and lots and lots of word-of-mouth advertising. We got several new members in the club and lots of people signing up for our club mailing lists or taking business cards home.
I was sick for most of the last two weekends, but did go on Sunday (the last day) and shot some video footage. However, a couple of other club members took photos of the crowds and sent them to me with permission to post online, so I have done so in a Flickr photoset. Please check that out by clicking the photo above, or view it as a slideshow. You can also view all my photos from this exhibit (or as a slideshow).
Next year, we’re not sure if we’ll be able to have the exhibit at the museum! The room is just not big enough to accommodate that kind of crowd. However we’ve already started talking about alternatives that would scale better, so don’t worry… we’ll still have an exhibit. We’re also talking to another museum about having an exhibit this summer but haven’t announced any details yet.
The next public event by BayLUG is our meeting at MoAH on Saturday, February 21 (note: originally scheduled for Sunday the 22nd, but the date has been changed due to a schedule conflict). Hope to see you there!
Yesterday, a crew from KTVU channel 2 television came to see the Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group exhibit. Watch this Video on KTVU.com about our exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto. Russell (the club president) and I weren’t there, but Loren did a great job explaining the exhibit for the camera. I’m sure that must have been nerve-wracking but I think he’s got a great voice for that kind of thing so I’m glad he was willing and available to do it.
I heard that it was going to be on the TV today, but I haven’t heard any details about exactly when. Probably on the news or something. But the way that video clip was put together doesn’t really feel like a news segment to me, so maybe not.
I’m not there right now because I’m home sick with a cold, but hopefully I can be there next weekend – which is our final weekend, by the way! So come on out and see it while there’s still time!
I spent today at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto helping staff the exhibit there by my local LEGO club, the Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group. I took a few pictures of things that had been added since my last update.
This is the fifth annual LEGO show that we’ve done at the museum. We have a train layout in the center of their “Frank Livermore Learning Center” building, plus various non-train-related displays on the tables around the perimeter. We also have some members (mainly Bruce) selling parts and sets at the show.
The show is open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, now through January 11, 2009. Hours are 11am-4pm. There’s no charge but a donation to the museum is suggested. If you want to come by and say hi, send me an email first to see what days/times I’ll be there.
I’ve taken photos on a few days during the exhibit. I created a photoset for each day’s photos, plus one that contains all of them:
This past weekend, I joined with other members of Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group to set up a train layout and other exhibits at the Museum of American Heritage, which will be on display through January 11, 2009.
The opening day of the exhibit, December 6, was also the day of the museum’s annual holiday party for VIP donors. We were invited to stay that evening to show the exhibit to the party attendees and enjoy the refreshments.
Every year BayLUG puts on a “Living LEGO-cy†exhibit at the museum during the Holidays. We put it up in early December and take it down in early January.
If you’re in the area please come by and see our exhibit. It will be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday now through January 11 from 11am to 4pm. I will be there some Saturdays and Sundays, so if you want to say hi to me please send me email or something and let me know when you’ll be there.
