Returning to Estes Park, Rails in the Rockies for the second year, about thirteen active CoWLUG members pulled together an impressive town & train display featuring Mime Town – a concept build discussed at last year’s show. Along with the multiple new trains hitting the tracks, there was a lively, morphing harbor scene, a motion packed amusement park, a dinosaur and alien rampaged rural landscape and a mined mountain scene giving way to rural walking houses with pig passengers. Needless to say, all members and visitors in attendance had a spectacular time.

Mark & Duane

Lester, Mime Town Overlord Extraordinaire

Both Samantha & Joel created some clever LEGO graffiti for the town.

Thanks to everyone who participated for all the dedicated work. Thank you to all our visitors & fans – you are what makes the show complete.

Kristen Monroe, Senior Librarian  at the Denver Public Library’s Smiley Branch forwarded on this link to the DPL’s blog feature covering the LEGO contest they held this January 2012. Imagine Rigney, Matthew Ramsey & John Gondol were judges for the contest. She was kind to mention them in the feature and include some photos! Check it out: http://denverlibrary.org/blog/winter-lego-contest

CoWLUG Meeting Notes 1-9-2012

Show Schedule for 2012
February  18 – 19  Estes Park Rails on the Rockies – Town/Train Show
Organizer: Lester
March  3 – 4  Rocky Mountain Toy & Train Show at Denver Merchandise Mart – Town/Train Show
Organizer: Meghan
March 18  Loveland Rialto Star Wars – MOC-based Show
Organizer: Reed
April 22  Proposed Colorado Mills Mall LEGO Store Re-Grand Opening – MOC-based Show
Organizer: John
April 27, 28, 29 LEGO KIDSFEST at Colorado Convention Center, Denver (Show style TBA)
Organizer: Stuart
May 25 – August 5 (Install Begins May 1)  Colorado History Museum Show, Denver – Town/Train Show
Organizer: Art
November (Date TBA)  Laramie Train Depot Show, Wyoming – Town/Train Show
Organizer: Stuart

How do shows happen?
All CoWLUG shows are organized out of our love for building with LEGO. Essentially, there has to be at least one member willing to dedicate quite a bit of time to organize a show. Organizations often approach members of the group at other shows to ask about scheduling one. The contacted member brings the request to the group and at the next meeting or via email, a decision is made based on several criteria:

- Where will the show take place? Is the venue large enough? Is is geographically close to enough active members.. etc..
- How much time is there to have builds completed and installed?
- Is there a member available to organize the show?
- Is the request for a town/train show or a MOC-based show?

Once these questions are answered then it is really a matter of whether or not there are enough members available to build for the show. Many times we have to decline simply because we all have lives and families and work schedules that interfere with our love of LEGO.  This year is no exception. We have agreed to display a number of times throughout the year, but that doesn’t mean we won’t consider other shows. There are over 100 registered members on the CoWLUG YahooGroups email list. At any time, members can agree to organize a show, maybe as simple as a few tables of MOCs at their local library. If you’ve always wanted to organize a show, but don’t know where to start, please feel free to ask. I would be happy to give you guidance in organizing a show that would showcase your MOCs and CoWLUG in the best possible way.

 Colorado HIstory Museum Show
- Install finish date moved to Thurs. May 24th – all present approved.
- Museum hours: M-F 10-5pm, Saturdays 10-5, Sundays 12-5
- CoWLUG members will be used to train museum volunteers.
Trainees: Matthew Ramsey, Mark, Lester, Reed, Duane, Meghan, Art
- Art will send out list to group for rules to be used for training volunteers (not CoWLUG members) for duration of exhibit. CoWLUG members will also be needed to flesh out shifts on weekends. A group email will circulate and be finalized by mid-April to provide museum staff with our member volunteer schedule.
- Exhibit divided into four primary areas. Art will be finalizing the layout. Section organizers are as follows.
1.Geological Section Organizer: Meghan
2. Colorado Old Town Organizer: Reed
3. Contemporary/Cityscape Organizer: Lester
4. Futuristic Colorado Team: Mark, Ryan, Imagine & Jessica
Train Team: Mark, Art, Matthew Harrington (Coming up with maintenance schedule)

If you are interested in participating in any of the exhibit sections, please watch for organizing emails to the YahooGroups for how to proceed. Organizers for each section may or may not decide to hold separate planning meetings. Please commit to build only if you can make your contribution available for the FULL duration of 2 MONTHS for this show.

- Teaser Case Build: Denver Capitol Building Microscale, Builder: Duane, Installation Date: Week of April 15th
- CoWLUG Logo – 3D Build or Mosaic on Easel, Builder: Duane
- Workshops during the event (4 workshops) 2 parent/child team workshops (age 5-10) and 2 Kids workshops (age 10+) Volunteers are needed to help organize bricks/sets for the workshops and to work at the museum during each. Reed will inquire about obtaining bricks/sets for workshops. A consensus is needed for the sets and/or bricks wanted for the workshops before LEGO can advise on what can be made available for punchase.

Estes Park Show Update – Lester
- Feb. 17, 18, 19 – Setup Friday afternoon (Exact time for setup TBA)
- Highlights include Mime Town & Amusement Park
- Cargo Area being added with spur train line with loader and different boats.
- John is adding a mountain near bridge with waterfall
Hotel Location &  Rate Information:
Rocky Mountain Park Inn
101 S. St. Vrain
Estes Park, CO   80517
970-586-2332    1-800-803-7837
Please mention you are booking for the Rails in the Rockies Model Railroad Show to receive the $82.00 per night rate. 150 rooms have been blocked for the show. This rate is guaranteed through January 20, 2012.

Greeley Show Request
Jessica will get more information, find out indoor or outdoor, train or MOC and get back to group. We may need to decline if group members deem our schedule to be sufficiently full for the year.

CoWLUG Website Revamp
- Joel spent some time reworking the CoWLUG website. It is now live with the latest information. Check it out here: www.cowlug.net
- Thanks Joel for all the time spent on the site and getting it running!
- Members be forewarned that the new website has an RSS feed of the YahooGroups messages running on it. Though only members of the YahooGroups email list can access the full message in the feed, you may want to be careful to only add phone numbers or addresses to the END of your YahooGroups messages if necessary in order to avoid having them stream on the website. When in doubt, send a direct email with relevant personal information to the member you are sharing with.

ReBrick
- LEGO has a new website which recently went live. A few CoWLUG members have been part of the volunteer beta team before it went live. It is essentially a hub site for LEGO related content for adults. You can see it for yourself and start using it at www.rebrick.lego.com
- LEGO welcomes all feedback to continue to improve the site and make it useful for AFOLs. Click the Feedback button on the right side of the screen to send them your thoughts.

LUGBULK
CoWLUG managed to put together its first LUGBULK order this year. Participating members please check your email for a direct message on the update. For those who didn’t participate this year, rest assured there will be another chance next year! Hold on to your lists.     Cheers!  Jessica

This site is still very much under construction.  Once it gets to a point that we’re happy with it, I’ll change the DNS records, and, point the actual domain name here.