Wamalug: History
1999
2000
- January 8, 2000: First charter
- February 12-13, 2000: First display at a train show
- April 15, 2000: First BrickWars (and Soccer) Day
- June 3, 2000: First display at the festival in Manassas, Virginia.
- June 16, 2000: Dan Boger, Jennifer Boger, and Tom Cook create the train club WamaLTC and design the corresponding logo
- June 9-11, 2000: First convention called BrickFest
- August 19, 2000: Last meeting with Denise Jadud hosting
- August 31, 2000: Yahoo! Groups acquires eGroups
- October 22, 2000: First meeting at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia
- November 19, 2000: First meeting of WamaLTC
- December 9, 2000: Second charter establishes dues
- Christina Hitchcock accepts the role of webmaster
2001
- January 14, 2001: First Board of Directors elections
- February 3, 2001: First meeting at Granddad’s Hobby Shop
- April 1, 2001: Last meeting at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia
- July 7, 2001: First meeting at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia and Train Special Interest Group resolution, third charter, and rules adopted; Second Board of Directors elections
- July 13-15, 2001: Second BrickFest
- August 27, 2001: Christina Hitchcock gives the website a new look
- September 16, 2001: First post-9/11 meeting
2002
2003
- April 23, 2003: Constantine Hannaher accepts the role of webmaster
- November 2003: The website overhaul is completed
- November 12, 2003: Aaron M. Sneary chosen as one of three local finalists for the position of LEGOLAND Master Model Builder ; Aaron’s LUGNET post shares his excitement and gives his thanks
2004
2005
- January 4, 2005: Chairman Jim Foulds steps down
- January 15, 2005: WAMALUG abandons its charter, bylaws, rules, and collection of dues
- A new direction for WAMALUG revolves around monthly dinners
- February 5, 2005: editing of the web site resumes with Todd Thuma as webmaster
- April 16, 2005: first display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
- May 11, 2005: Christina Hitchcock writes the last meeting announcement made for LUGNet
- August 2, 2005: Constantine Hannaher reports in the 11452d message that
Fake WAMALUG logo used on ILTCO T-shirts
(the font is wrong)
- Fall 2005: WAMALUG replaces WamaLTC as the 28th club in the listing at the International LEGO® Train Club Oragnization (ILTCO)
- December 2005: Todd Thuma moves away leaving the website as it was in August
2006
- March 2006: WAMALUG starts displaying in the Community Window at the Tysons Store
- May 12, 2006: Christina Hitchcock calls for a new webmaster in the 12350th message
- June 2006: discussion of what it means to be a member of WAMALUG rises again, Ken Rice creates the first list in a while in the 12475th message
- July 8, 2006: Todd Webb is the new guy with the
funky trike
- July 2006: The website remains stuck looking the way it did the previous August
- August 1, 2006: Ed Kohl reports in the 12638th message that the website is off-line
- August 15, 2006: Todd Webb takes the role of webmaster and gives the site a new look
- November 2006: The wamalug.org domain is up for renewal
- November 25, 2006: The wamalug.org domain expires for nonpayment
- November 26, 2006:
Age 35, and Something Went Snap
in The Washington Post (via)
- December 21, 2006: The wamalug.org domain is lost to SnapNames
2007
- January 12, 2007: A new domain wamalug.com is purchased and the website is restored
- Winter 2007: Fradel Gonzales moves away
- Summer 2007: no BrickFest on the East coast
- October 13, 2007: Todd Webb announces BrickFair 2008 in the 13747th message
- November 10, 2007: last meeting at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia as the school plans to demolish the building
- December 9, 2007: first meeting at a public library attracts people from far away
2008
- February 2, 2008: The LEGO® store in the Potomac Mills Mall moved from the location it had had since its opening in November of 1999 to another location in the mall
- August 29, 2008: first BrickFair
- 2008?: WAMALUG begins displays in the cabinet in front of the Pick-a-Brick Wall in the Potomac Mills store
2009
- March 2009: growing meeting attendance leads to much talk about expanding WAMALUG or creating new groups in the area
- May 9, 2009: Daniel G. Rubin creates a group on Flickr for WAMALUG
- June 2009: LEGO opens a store in the Westfield Annapolis Mall in Annapolis, Maryland
- November 2009: LEGO opens a store at Arundel Mills in Anne Arundel County in Maryland
2010
- January 2010: the LUGBULK Program becomes available also in the USA
- February 2010: LEGO Brand Retail removes Window on the Community from stores
- April 2010: activity on wamalug.org has been nearly daily for 4 weeks, Sedo is handling the sale of the domain
- July 2010: Greg Fetzer starts BaltoLUG
- August 2010: International LEGO® Train Club Organization (ILTCO) shuts down
- Fall 2010: wamalug.org is displaying placeholder content in Japanese
- October 2010: LEGO revives AFOL displays in stores with the LUG Showcase Program
- October 2010: the increasing presence of KFOLs and TFOLs at WAMALUG meetings leads to much talk about what to do
- October 28, 2010:
Geeks rule the world, one brick at a time
by Jessica Haines in Gettysburgtimes.com
- November 2010:
It’s a LEGO World
by Gwendolyn Purdom in Washingtonian interviews Rich and Linda Schamus, Todd Webb, Magnus Lauglo, and Dan Rubin
- December 11, 2010: A new banner to attract passers-by at the meeting debuts
2011
- January 22, 2011: first meeting set up as for adults only
- June 11, 2011: people discover (or re-discover) that a perk of club “membership” is gone
- August 2011: much, much more talk about the presence of KFOLs and TFOLs in what used to be an AFOL-only club
- August 23, 2011:
D.C. earthquake causes Lego collapse at National Building Museum
- August 29, 2011: a forum for WAMALUG is created, interest lasts only 3 weeks
- Summer 2011: With the disappearance of the perk, Ken Rice continues to take attendance but no longer publicizes the list
- December 21, 2011: How to spell the name of the club continues to be a subject of discussion, WAMALUG is traditional, but Constantine Hannaher switches to Wamalug
2012
- May 5, 2012: first show at the Smithsonian Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia
- August 7, 2012: Instructions by Stephen Pakbaz to build the Mars Rover become internet-famous
- November 13, 2012: Jaron Janson in the 20967th message links to the
DC transit in Lego
post at the GreaterGreaterWashington blog
- November 27, 2012: Ken Rice in the 21024th message (as corrected by Nicholas Soune in the next message) links to the IMDB entry for Lego: The Piece of Resistance
2013
- February 26, 2013: a suggestion to establish a presence on Facebook leads to some talk, much of it negative, and no resolution
- March 8, 2013: Charm City LUGS joins Facebook
- July 2013: the announcement of Philly Brick Fest leads to much talk about whether participants in big displays should be comped
2014
2015
- April 30, 2015: The trailer for A LEGO Brickumentary is released and the faces of Stephen Pakbaz and Doug Foreman therein is noted
2016
- May 30, 2016: Constantine Hannaher establishes the @WamalugHistory Twitter account
- September 2016: LEGO opens a store in The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall in Arlington, Virginia
2017
2018
- May 12, 2018: a replacement banner debuted
- June 5, 2018: the first teaser trailer for The LEGO Movie 2 The Second Part was released
- By summer’s end, it was apparent that the wamalug.com domain had stopped responding
- September 9, 2018: Joshua J. Hamilton establishes a Facebook Page in the name of the club
- September 11, 2018: Matthew Bowman creates a Facebook Group in the name of both Wamalug and WamaLTC and a blog with a regional scope
- The still-anonymous @wamalug Twitter account switches to a LUGgage fan persona
- September 30, 2018: Anthony Radzimoski offered lugcalendar.com while the dot-com site remained unavailable
2019
- January 11, 2019: After the domain’s registration was renewed just days before it would lapse, the dot-com was responding again
- January 26, 2019: early screenings of The LEGO Movie 2 The Second Part are held
- May 2019: with Matthew Bowman’s move out of the area, Magnus Lauglo, Galen Fairbanks, and Jason Wolfson are added as administrators of the closed Facebook Group
- October 16, 2019: Yahoo announces a plan to remove web-based interaction with Groups
- October 18, 2019: Anthony Radzimoski creates a list at Groups.io for evaluation as a replacement for the list at Yahoo! Groups
2020
- February 5, 2020: Five participants (and local train builder Monty Smith) appear on local television station WTTG to promote the local fandom in advance of the premiere of the LEGO Masters series
- February 5, 2020: Ten participants appear on local television station WTTG to promote the local fandom after the premiere of the LEGO Masters series
- February 6, 2020: a new LEGO® Brand Retail store was planned to open in the Westfield Montgomery later in the year
- March 11, 2020: the World Health Organization announced that the COVID-19 viral disease was a pandemic
- March 16, 2020: Fairfax County Public Libraries announce a 2-week closure and cancel all room reservations through April 12th, which cancels the meeting scheduled for that month
- March 17, 2020: The LEGO® Group temporarily closes the approximately 150 LEGO® Brand Retail stores they own and operate until at least March 27 in all countries except China, including five in the D.C. region
- March 23, 2020: Fairfax County Public Libraries cancel all room reservations through May
- March 30, 2020: Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issues a Stay at Home order effective through June 10, 2020, with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser issuing similar orders
- April 11, 2020: after a successful trial the previous Saturday, Anthony Radzimoski hosts the first video conference for Wamalug
- April 15, 2020: Constantine Hannaher changes the web hosting and The History of Wamalug at Its Original URL is now available over
https:
- May 20, 2020: Amber Niblock starts a weekly video conference, each time with a different competitive building goal chosen by the participants
- June 12, 2020: as some local LEGO® stores reopen, BrickFair announces that its convention in Chantilly, Virginia (normally held the first week of August) is canceled
- October 2020: LEGO opens the store announced earlier in the year at Westfield Montgomery in Bethesda, Maryland
- October 12, 2020: Verizon announces “Yahoo Groups to shut down on December 15, 2020”
- December 14, 2020: Charlie Stephens establishes a Discord server in the name of Wamalug
2021
- April 11, 2021: first hybrid meeting with a video conference and an in-person gathering at the Brickmania Capital store in Chantilly, Virginia
- June 12, 2021: first meeting to be primarily in-person as the Fairfax County Public Library had lifted all restrictions the previous week
2022
- January 20, 2022: Amber Niblock is among a small number of Afols who received a LEGO Ideas 21332 The Globe set early (her post on Instagram) and were asked to offer suggestions as to “How to personalize your LEGO® Ideas The Globe set”
- Adam Brice Quest of Jackson Township, New Jersey, passed away on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, at the age of 39. Adam attended his first meeting in 2012, was first recognized as a member at a meeting in 2019, and his last meeting was in November.
- June 15, 2022: “The LEGO Group to build US$1 billion, carbon-neutral run factory in Virginia, USA” a little north of Petersburg
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