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Meeting - January 29, 2005

Galleries

Stefan Garcia

Report

By the time Victoria and Stefan arrived, most of the club members had already been at Scott's for a while. Chad was busy building the yellow Designer truck, Tony and Grace were sorting, and Scott was busy lording over his empire. Eventually, the business portion of the meeting was convened, everyone grabbed a seat and we spent some time talking about upcoming shows, and the development of the club.

Items:

• A new show on January 7th, 2006 put up by the Hudsonville River Bend Model Railroad Club. This seems a definite go, as we have a year prep time. Website is: www.rmrrc.org
• There may be another Muskegon Railroad Historical Society show in March, but that is awaiting confirmation.
• The biggest item is by far the National Model Railroad Association show in Cincinnati. The show date is believed to be June or July 11, though this is uncertain. We already have a floor space assigned and we are looking into a possible joint layout with MichLUG.
• This fall we will be going to Fort Wayne again for their Great American Train Show. Planning for this show likely won't be for some time yet.
• There were also three possible events considered. The Kalamazoo Model Railroad Historical Society holds an annual show in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Show dates would have to be confirmed before any further consideration is given. Also more tenous was the possibility of an event at the new Air Zoo in Kalamazoo. Again, this would require confirmed dates before further consideration. Also discussed was the idea of a show at the Oreck Temple in Michigan City, Indiana.
• Rising out of a problem with table alignment at last year's FW GATS, the idea of a 6x6 super-table was considered. The designer for the tables, Steve Ringe, considers the idea possible, and we are looking at what amount of interest there is for these. Regardless of whether those are built, another table-building party will likely be necessary before the next major show.
• A logo contest will be launched in the next few weeks. A $50 prize will likely be given to the winners. There will be two logos, one for the LUG, and another for the LTC.
• The idea of seasonal scenes was raised again. We want these in the layouts, though there are no definite plans yet.

The fun stuff:

• New for this meeting was a purposeful show and tell event, where members brought items of interest to share. Victoria brought her Hogwarts Castle set, Stefan showed off a prototype cargo ship, a singleship, and a new crossing signal design. David showed his redesigned El car. Chad had a very neat denim disc pouch...a Lego purse, as someone put it. Finally, Scott showed his redesigned Grand Trunk Western engines.
• The last event of the meeting was a building contest sponsored by Scott. Each of us was given a Speed Wings set, and we were to build something from it. Chad won with a very cool VTOL craft. David took second with a flying wing design, and Stefan snagged third with a small craft reminiscent of the Galaga fighter. The grand prize ended up being the new ROTS starfighter set. Second and third place were new City sets. It proved to be quite a fun event.
• Chad had to leave early, and Stefan stayed just long enough to grab food. The remaining club members stayed and watched Con Air while finishing off the pizza. After that, the meeting officially ended, and we sat down to chatter about brick, and watch the First Official Michiana-LUG movie - Tim Burton's rendition of Batman.