It’s been a little over two years since I volunteered to lead our community group, LUGVegas, also known as the LEGO Users Group of Southern Nevada. The LUG was founded in 2013, and I first joined in early 2017. We are a small group in the area that is known the world over as Sin City; Las Vegas, Nevada.

Our main goal as a group is to provide opportunities at local events to show people what is possible to create with LEGO bricks in the form of member displays and play-brick opportunities for the community. LUGVegas started small, and as is typical over time, members come and go. But we have a dedicated core group that continues to pursue the mission of the LUG.

This article is meant to give a basic overview of what a LUG is and how they can operate. Hopefully using my own LUGVegas as an example will make it a bit more fun!

LUG Organization

As the main coordinator of LUGVegas, my main responsibilities are to communicate with the LEGO Ambassador Network, or LAN, to provide updates about our activities and discuss any opportunities for improvement in what we can do for our community. Being the LAN Ambassador, according to the other LUGs I’ve communicated with, usually is the “default leader” of the LUG.

But not necessarily. While all LUGs that are recognized by LEGO have a LAN Ambassador, not all are structured the way ours is. Some LUGs have a board of directors. Some have a steering committee. Some have a founders committee. Some have official non-profit status and run their groups accordingly. Some simply have a Chairman of the Board.

All of these groups, including ours, should have a Code of Conduct we follow along with certain guidelines that help us be a Recognized LEGO User Group. Often, these guidelines can evolve into specific bylaws, rules, and other regulations that govern the group. These include membership requirements to maintain active status in the group, elections for LAN Ambassador, and elections for the board of directors or steering committee. Beyond that, there are a multitude of other regulations that would take too long to describe in this article, as every LUG is similar but unique.

LUG meetings usually entail social time to chat, maybe an activity, game or presentation, discussing any LUG business or upcoming display opportunities, some time for a show and tell of recent builds, and general about the LEGO news of the month. Sometimes the meetings happen at people’s homes, a local used LEGO store, a library or other event center. Sometimes they can even be held during a barbecue or other fun event like a LUG swapmeet or trading time.

Friends of Ours

We have almost 100 members in our LUG that have signed up over the years, and about 1/3 of those are classified as active members. Active membership for LUGVegas is defined as having actively supported the LUG through a minimum of one LUG meeting a year and one event a year. This is about a 4 to 6-hour time commitment a year at a minimum to maintain the member’s active status. The other 2/3 of the group are inactive members who receive our emails but do not attend our community events.

Some LUGs charge a fee for membership to maintain their yearly budget for website upkeep and other expenses. LUGVegas does not have a membership fee, but we do have members who donate sets or even a themed quilt for raffles. Then people have a chance to win these items at a LUG-sponsored event to raise money for the minimal expenses we have. Some groups even have dedicated clubhouses or warehouses that they use for their meetings and as a workspace that the fees or raffle earnings can cover. But now that I think about it, maybe we should have a Casino Night? I digress…

Setup for Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con 2022 with a Chance to Win a Custom Brick Quilt.

Some LUGs have specialty groups within the greater LUG where builders who have similar interests tend to congregate. Some examples are the Set Builders, Collectors, Great Ball Contraptions (GBC) group, LEGO Train group, Classic Group, MOC Builders, Microscale, and Event Group (Convention organizing group). Coordinating these specialty groups within your LUG can be challenging. As LUGVegas, we are not large enough to have these sub-groups yet, so the groups has been able to grow a bit more organically.

LUGs and Conventions

Many of you have been to conventions and brick events. LUGs and their member AFOLs are a critical part of running and coordinating these events. For example, BrickCon, BrickCascades, and BrickCan are all put together by people who are members of their respective Pacific Northwest LUGs. BrickSlopes in Utah is coordinated by members of ULUG and NUT-LUG (if I missed your LUG, I apologize).

While the organizations putting on the events are separate from LUGs, many of the people working on them belong to LUGs. And many AFOLs from other LUGs join these conventions as individuals or groups representing their own LUG and sometimes even build or display their creations together as a collab. For example, LUGVegas has ten AFOLs going to BrickSlopes 2023 in Sandy this year! Yes, we’re leaving Las Vegas…

Sign by Founding Members Timothy Nolan and Mark B.

While LUGVegas doesn’t have a stand-alone event or convention in Las Vegas, we are working toward that goal. Who wouldn’t want to come to Vegas for a LEGO show!? What’s Built in Vegas, Stays in Vegas, right?

Most people only see the Strip when they come to Las Vegas, but there’s a lot more to the area than the casino lights and drive-through wedding chapels. There are all sorts of interesting places outside the Strip and many local AFOLs are finding LUGVegas to celebrate their passion for the bricks.

So I hope that by using LUGVegas as an example you can see the basics of how a LUG operates. Thank you, thank you very much!

Would you go to a LEGO convention in Las Vegas? What if there were a slot machine that paid our LEGO bricks instead of cash? Let us know in the comments below.

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