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 Mall 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 Mall 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
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