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I received the following in a PennLUG meeting announcement:
“September 3rd will be the final zoom meeting for PennLUG as the Zoom will be expiring and we will not be renewing due to low turnout at meetings and many members moving on.
We do have some upcoming events and things to try and discuss as this maybe the final meeting for PennLUG to accomplish this.
The PennLUG domain will remain active, as will the forums, etc until our hosting is due to expire in 2024. PennLUG is not mine alone to determine the direction but speaking to Members at the last SnailLUG meeting the feeling was they were much happier in SnailLUG then PennLUG. Speaking to the former Executive Committee members as well they seemed to agree. So I’m planning on winding down PennLUG unless others want to step up/take over.
I personally just wanted to help and not run the organization as I have neither the time or drive to do so.”
I’ve head some varying stories from Pennlug over the past few years. covid and a few other things really tossed them back and forth a bit. I’m tempted to join to see what’s up…
I assumed when I saw the formation of SnailLUG that this would eventually happen. I wonder if we will see any other PennLUG members coming over to join us.
I’m sad to hear this. I’m with @willmcdine – let people know we’d love to have them. Sounds like there’s another LUG in the area for those interested, but there are members in the center of the state who may find Pittsburgh more accessible.
<< I assumed when I saw the formation of SnailLUG that this would eventually happen.
Yeah, we had no idea, I thought it was just a fun side project for KC. Rachel signed both of us up, presumably on the basis that we’re friends with her. In fact, I think KC must’ve invited us, because I don’t know how Rachel would have known about it otherwise, she doesn’t follow stuff like that online. So I have an engraved SnailLUG brick and SnailLUG torso. Mostly I wanted the torso because it’s another unique shirt for my town/train display, and it’s a custom torso that isn’t white. I seem to recall that there was a small fee to sign up and Rachel paid it, because I said “I don’t pay to be in Steel City LUG, so I’m certainly not going to pay to be in any other (aka lesser) LUG.”
I don’t know who wrote the announcement that Greg posted. My best (and only) guess would be Cale. I’d gotten the sense for a while that he’s the driving force and the dominant builder behind all the large train displays that PennLUG puts on, which I’ve seen in person at the major conventions, and online at Flickr. I don’t know anything else about any behind-the-scenes difficulties.
For those following this and not the Brickfair thread, there is a “Pennsylvania LUGs Round Table” on the friday of BFPA. I would assume at this event we would get some other info as to what the end of PennLUG and rise of SnailLUG Looks like
>> anything noteworthy from this?
Me n Tim n Krista were there all or most of it. I can’t remember if Will made it for some of it. People asked about how other LUG’s do things, and I ended up spending significant time talking about how great Steel City LUG is.
There was some minor internal conflict in PennLUG. KC is very big on having SnailLUG be inclusive and drama-free. But a major conclusion we drew at the end is that some PennLUG members were getting burned out because the LUG covers such a large geographical area. PennLUG is kindof sortof based in Philly, but really covers all of southeast PA, including Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York. We specifically discussed Cale (who was not there), who I’d long seen as the moving force behind the giant train displays that PennLUG has done. Cale lives in York, which is more than 90 minutes away from downtown Philly. I’m not sure how SnailLUG plans to address this issue.
I was not able to make it to the AFOL round table like originally planned. They moved the time for a game that both Alexis and I were in and I did not want to jump in the middle. I did make one interesting observation about SnailLUG though. I brought it up to Krista while we were there. Before when you would see PennLUG at an event they would have 2 spaces. They had the train Layout, and then the “other” section behind the train layout. There was always certain people inside manning the train lay out, and always certain people in the “Other” section. With the Exception of Rob Bender, everyone in the SnailLUG display area appeared to be everyone that was typically seen in the “Other” Section. I could be wrong in that but it was just an interesting observation to me.
Will and Ben pretty much covered it.
It seems to me that there was some drama over how to include themes other than trains, and how that was handled that resulted in some hurt feelings. Those in SnailLUG seem pretty happy with the direction that’s moving in and are working towards recognition. With PennLUG there doesn’t seem to be anyone who wants to step up and the current leadership is burnt out.
It seems to me that there was some drama over how to include themes other than trains, and how that was handled that resulted in some hurt feelings.
That was my takeaway also. PennLUG arose and originally centered around the train displays, which were highly realistic and detailed. Others joined and wanted to branch out to other areas and apparently were met with resistance/hostility (“play well” was not observed). So those persons founded their own LUG.
From the outside, it seems a bit ridiculous but makes me so glad that we have “play well” and acceptance and inclusion of all facets of the hobby ingrained in our LUG’s ethos.
My old man brain has had trouble recalling everything, even though it was barely two months ago, but the other posts here are helping jog my memory.
>> and I ended up spending significant time talking about how great Steel City LUG is.
To clarify that, I went to the meeting thinking we might get some good advice/ideas on things we could be doing and/or avoiding, and I really didn’t come away with anything (which is fine). If anything, I got the impression that we are doing well, and so confirmation of that is arguably worth something, even though I really knew it. Instead of getting good advice, we were the ones giving it. One woman thanked me later for everything I had offered up, saying it would be helpful going forward. We weren’t the only non-PennLUG people there who were interested in seeing what was going on; I can’t remember what other LUGs were represented, but there were a bunch of informative conversations along the lines of ‘We do it this way, how do you do it?’
I can’t remember if I explained the cup redemption system, which to my knowledge, is specific to us. (I’m not sure if Josh came up with that himself, or he got the idea somewhere else.) What I do remember explaining is how decisions are made for money to be spent (executive decision for small purchases; five people in support for medium purchases; discussion, meeting, and vote for large purchases), since that apparently is a major point of contention for a lot of groups, and it sounds like in some of them, it’s basically a few or even just one person making all the decisions. I probably made a point that we don’t pay annual dues either, which I’d already been aware is quite common. My thinking has been that if we don’t have them and we’re doing well, that’s pretty compelling evidence that they’re not necessary. (Rachel did pay at the very beginning for her and I to be members of SnailLUG, although I think in this case it had more to do with her wanting to support KC, who we are friends with, rather than any expectation that we will be heavily involved in SnailLUG activities.)
>> That was my takeaway also. PennLUG arose and originally centered around the train displays, which were highly realistic and detailed. Others joined and wanted to branch out to other areas and apparently were met with resistance/hostility (“play well” was not observed). So those persons founded their own LUG.
At one point, if I’m remembering correctly, they were talking about the big collaborate town/train display, and some of them installed a monorail, which is not an unusual thing in a town/train display. But for whatever reason, and I can’t remember if they had an explanation for such an anti-monorail stance, but the head of the group told them “You will never put a monorail in a town/train display with this LUG ever again.” I really can’t remember any other details, but I do remember saying to the group “I can’t imagine anybody in my LUG ever saying something like that.”
For anybody who knows KC, the name SnailLUG is pretty self-explanatory, but if you go to the website, it turns out that SNAIL stands for Super Nice Awesome Inclusive Loquacious. I had been unaware of that before the meeting.
I do remember talking about the geographic challenges towards the end of the meeting. I specifically remember saying that I hadn’t really thought about it before, but that Pittsburgh (queue up the James Brown remix) arguably is ideally sized for this sort of thing: it’s big enough that there’s lots going on and lots of people who are going to be available for events and whatnot, but it’s small enough that we can get most places in the greater metropolitan area in a reasonable amount of time.
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