NALUG Meeting Minutes
Date: Sunday evening, 6 April, 2014
Location: Chez Magnan
Attendees:
Michel Magnan (host)Al Pankratz / Albert Lee
Andrew Forbes / Andrew Hibbert
Blaine Manyluk / Chris McGrath
Chris Perron / Cory Pederson
Colin Lang / Don Parnell
Drew Kirkpatrick / Fred Wiedemeyer
Jason Derudder / Jason Krish
John Koob / Jon Warrington
Kolin Hibbert / Kristopher Manabo
Laszlo Szojka / Michael Grover
Nadine Leenders / Nolan Ewoniak
Richard Froehler / Rob ???? (EEK! organizer)
Ron Ewoniak / Scott Semple
Tim Schwalfenberg / Travis Plett
Executive Summary
6:30 pm, Sunday April 6th saw the cream of Edmonton Lego society meet at Chez Magnan (10405 80th St) for an evening of fine food and decision making. After hearty burgers with rice noodle salad, veggies, chips and fizzy pop, the members of NALUG met to debate whether to formalize the club. One person, with the initials Kris Manabo, put the remainder of the members to shame by showing up in a suit and tie. The meeting ran from 7 pm until roughly 9:30. It started with a presentation and a Q&A by Rob, the promoter of the EEK! Comic and Pop Culture Fest. After about 45 minutes, Michel Magnan led the group through a significant amount of club business via a thoroughly researched PowerPoint presentation. A number of important decisions were made which laid out the future direction of the club.
Discussions and decisions
· EEK! Rob ???? described the EEK! expo. It will take place Saturday May 31st (11 AM – 7 PM) and Sunday, June 1st (11 AM – 5 PM) at Servus Place in St. Albert. This is the first edition of what Rob hopes will be many more such fests. He wants to beat the Calgary equivalent. The show will feature exhibits and activities designed to appeal to fans of comics, pop culture, cosplay, ANIME, music and of course, Lego. Artists, writers and publishers will be present. NALUG has been assigned a 40’ x 80’ space at one end of a hockey rink (minus the ice) for pretty much anything we want.
o Rob was keen for us to make use of the event experts, who can provide sculpted Styrofoam, nice graphics, labels for our displays, etc. In connection with this, Rob mentioned that he wanted to get away from the flea market, item-on-table look.
o There are no limits on themes – everyone can display whatever they want, so feel free to dream big.
o Rob was asked about security. Apparently there is security during the show, and after the show till 10 pm, after which the facilities are locked (not sure if there are people around after that).
o Formal setup time is Friday, May 30th, from 2-7 pm.
o There is a loading dock close to our display with one bay to unload, but there are normal side entrances that can be used.
o There are no barriers of any kind available, so NALUG will need to supply its own. There was some group discussion about wrangling together more Lego buckets to make weighted poles for this purpose.
o Rob was asked about whether we could hang some models from the ceiling. Given that the ceilings are 60-80’ high, this was not deemed to be realistic.
o Rob brought up the possibility of holding an IronBrick competition for show attendees, where people are given a limited number of kits and 15 minutes and told to come up with something amazing. There would be judging and prizes. No firm commitment was made by the group regarding this.
o There was a show of hands as to who wanted to take part in the show. A majority of the club put up their hands.
Action Items:
v Get Rob ???? a floor plan, together with the number of tables required, by mid-April
v We need a list of names of group members who will take part in the EEK! show
v Make barriers
Questions
v Who are the NALUG show coordinators for EEK!?
v Is our interactive play area/brick needed for this show?
· NALUG meetings. The group discussed meeting more regularly than once per year. Don Parnell outlined the procedures for meeting that the Vancouver Lego club follows, Michel showed a slide indicating how often other Canadian Lego clubs meet. In the end it was decided that the default was to meet every two months on a Sunday evening, although exceptions could be made as circumstances demanded. As far as meeting locations went; restaurants, the Edmonton Public Library, Edmonton Youth Hostel, community league halls and Fort Mall were all mentioned as possible locations for meetings. It was decided to hold the next gathering at a restaurant that had a meeting room.
· Website. According to Michel’s research, NALUG is the only LUG in Canada that does not have a web forum. Chris Gray indicated through an intermediary that he was still willing to run the NALUG website from his house, but that he wanted nothing to do with running a website or forum hosted elsewhere. It was decided that NALUG would move to a two-site model initially (the current website as well as a web forum hosted somewhere other than on Chris’s computer) with a move to a single site likely at some time in the future.
· Domain name. Senior members indicated that the club owned the nalug.org domain because it had been paid for with club funds. After some discussion it was decided to reserve the nalug.ca and nalug.com domains as well.
· Executive. There was considerable discussion about the structure of the club and how formal to be. Andrew, Michel, Don and Laz briefed the group on how the Edmonton Model Railroaders and other LUGs structure themselves. Some members were concerned about the possibility of being sued by people who are dissatisfied with things (e.g. expulsion, as happened in someone’s club), and stressed the need for written rules. In general it was decided to stop short of incorporating the club as a formal society, but rather to put in place bylaws and an executive in a manner that would allow a quick transition to an incorporated society in the future if that was the way the club decided to go. Laz and John are currently updating the club ledger. The following positions were proposed as a starting point and accepted. People to fill them were voted on, and the results were as follows:
NALUG ExecutivePresident / Michel Magnan
Vice President / Laszlo Szojka
Treasurer / John Koob*
Secretary / Al Pankratz
Lego Ambassador / Chris Gray (Corrected June 19, 2014)
Web Admin / To be determined (see web working group)
Volunteer Coordinator / Cory Pedersen (Corrected June 19, 2014)
Marketer/Public Relations / Richard Froehler
Show Coordinators / To be determined
* John Koob was voted in as treasurer for now as he and Chris Gray are the two people who have signing authority at the bank. An additional person (Fred Wiedemeyer, who is an accountant) will be given that same signing authority and can then run for treasurer at a subsequent meeting.
· Working groups. It was decided that working groups would be put together in advance of certain executive positions being filled and in advance of club bylaws being set. These groups are as follows:
o Web team: Albert Lee, Mike Grover, Colin Lang, John Warrington, John Koob
o Bylaws team: Michel Magnan, Kolin Hibbert, Chris McGrath, Andrew Forbes, Cory Pedersen, Don Juan Parnell, Laszlo Szojka
· Miscellaneous decisions.
o After some debate, it was decided to have members pay club dues of $10/year to the treasurer. The treasurer will need to issue receipts.
o Having a transportation coordinator who looks after transportation needs for all the show coordinators was proposed. It was decided that show coordinators should look after their own transportation arrangements.
o Free Lego from The Lego Company (TLC) via the Lego Ambassador should be limited to those in the club who have put in the required club work hours. On the other hand, Lugbulk should be open to all who wish to pay, regardless of work put in.
o The person who runs the Fort Mall display should be considered a Show Coordinator, and would therefore be part of the Executive.
o The executive needs to make an inventory of club-owned property.
o The web team should base some of their decisions regarding who to pick for webmaster based on a demonstration of actual skill.
o Andrew Forbes proposed that the club decide on a mission/mandate/vision statement.
o It was decided that the club needed to replace the Lego NALUG sign, and to glue it so it didn’t come apart all the time. The club would supply the Lego and the glue.
o After some debate regarding what was allowed in models, it was decided that models should not contain any clone bricks (e.g. Megablocks). Also no glue is allowed except for the NALUG sign. No decision was made re parts made from 3-D printers, although opinions were expressed. Internal metal reinforcement for large/rickety models was deemed to be acceptable.
o Andrew Forbes mentioned some criteria for allowing people under the age of 18 into the club, and received some suggestions. It was decided that the bylaws working group would draft relevant criteria for under-18s.
o It was suggested that NALUG have a Flickr presence for photos. The web working group was given the job of making a proposal regarding this and bringing it forward to the club.
· Miscellaneous comments and suggestions.
o NALUG has done too many shows for free in the past and got hosed by Telus World of Science. NALUG can still do a few free displays from time to time – we just need to be more thoughtful about it.
o Richard Froehler urged the group to advertise NALUG by placing models in downtown buildings (with the permission of the building owners, of course).
o Nadine’s bike club has simple bylaws accompanied by a guideline for operations.
o We want to move more of the models people have in their basements out into displays for the public to see.
o We are fortunate in the past to have an RBC bank account that lets one person act as NALUG for the purposes of the account. This would never be allowed to happen today.
o A not-for-profit society is allowed to carry money across fiscal years (as the Edmonton chapter of the MMRF does). A non-profit society cannot.
o The executive needs to be able to make quick decisions on some issues and not always wait until general votes can be held.
o One of the Calgary LUGs gets corporate sponsorships.
· Miscellaneous undecided questions.
o Should the volunteer coordinator also be a points tracker (someone who keeps track of member contributions in the form of time and Lego models)?
Appreciation
· The group gave a round of applause and thank yous to Michel and Pat Magnan for a wonderful supper and great hospitality.