Wamalug: History
1999
2000
-
January 8, 2000: First charter
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February 12-13, 2000: First
display at a train show
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April 15, 2000: First
BrickWars (and Soccer) Day
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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
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June 9-11, 2000: First
convention called BrickFest
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August 19, 2000: Last
meeting with Denise Jadud hosting
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August 31, 2000: Yahoo! Groups acquires eGroups
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October 22, 2000: First
meeting at George Mason University in Fairfax
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November 19, 2000: First meeting of WamaLTC
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December 9, 2000: Second charter establishes dues
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Christina Hitchcock accepts the role of webmaster
2001
2002
2003
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April 23, 2003: Constantine Hannaher accepts the role of webmaster
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November 2003: The website overhaul is completed
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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
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January 4, 2005: Chairman Jim Foulds steps down
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January 15, 2005: WAMALUG
abandons its charter, bylaws, rules, and collection of dues
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A new direction for WAMALUG revolves around monthly dinners
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February 5, 2005: editing of the web site resumes with Todd Thuma as webmaster
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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
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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)
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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
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May 12, 2006: Christina Hitchcock calls for a new webmaster in the 12350th message
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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
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July 8, 2006: Todd Webb is the new guy with the
funky trike
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July 2006: The website remains stuck looking the way it did the previous August
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August 1, 2006: Ed Kohl reports in the 12638th message that the website is off-line
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August 15, 2006: Todd Webb takes the role of webmaster and gives the site a new look
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November 2006: The wamalug.org domain is up for renewal
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November 25, 2006: The wamalug.org domain expires for nonpayment
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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
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January 12, 2007: A new domain wamalug.com is purchased and the website is restored
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Winter 2007: Fradel Gonzales moves away
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Summer 2007: no BrickFest on the East coast
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October 13, 2007: Todd Webb announces BrickFair 2008 in the 13747th message
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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
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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
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November 2009: LEGO opens a store at Arundel Mills
2010
-
January 2010: the LUGBULK Program becomes available also in the USA
-
February 2010: LEGO Brand Retail removes
Window on the Community
from stores
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April 2010: activity on wamalug.org has been nearly daily for 4 weeks, Sedo is handling the sale of the domain
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July 2010: Greg Fetzer starts BaltoLUG
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August 2010: International LEGO® Train Club Organization (ILTCO) shuts down
-
Fall 2010: wamalug.org is
displaying placeholder content in Japanese
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October 2010: LEGO revives AFOL displays in stores with the LUG Showcase Program
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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
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January 22, 2011: first
meeting set up as for adults only
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June 11, 2011: people discover (or re-discover) that a perk of club “ membership ” is gone
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August 2011: much, much more talk about the presence of KFOLs and TFOLs in what used to be an AFOL-only club
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August 23, 2011:
D.C. earthquake causes Lego collapse at National Building Museum
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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
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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
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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
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March 8, 2013: Charm City LUGS joins Facebook
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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
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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
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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
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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
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April 11, 2020: after a successful trial the previous Saturday, Anthony Radzimoski hosts the
first video conference
for Wamalug
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April 15, 2020: Constantine Hannaher changes the web hosting and The History of Wamalug at Its Original
URL
is now available over
https:
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May 20, 2020: Amber Niblock starts a
weekly video conference
, each time with a different competitive building goal chosen by the participants
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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
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