Today was a good day! A really good day!

It was an amazing and humbling privilege to announce at our LUG meeting that zaLUG has received an RLUG status from The LEGO Group! To see people sit upright in their seats and the change in their faces was something quite special. It was obvious that it meant a lot to everyone and the excitement was absolutely great. Everyone was especially excited when the champagne came out and the celebrations started in all earnest.

Obviously something like this doesn’t just fall out of the sky. I would like to thank Iain and Clark for their hard work. You guys have been great and we will do even greater things going forward. The very first person that got officially involved even before our founding meeting was Luke Comins who designed our logo and have since done a LOT of artwork for us. During our founding meeting and our subsequent Bylaws meeting, Tony Graham was very involved and we received a lot of valuable assistance from Tony in the formation months. Thank you very much Tony. Our first website was designed by Riekus Niemand and we thank you as well Riekus, we will never forget. Paul Doran did a lot of work photographing LEGO® builds for our website and we appreciate your work Paul. Thank you Paul. Our website was then redesigned and is hosted by Willi Badenhorst on Kangaroo Digital‘s server so that the LUG doesn’t have to pay for hosting fees. Thank you so much for everything you have done Willi. Linda Lier  have done fantastic work getting feedback from members and wrote a fantastic report that helped us to iron out problems that we didn’t even know about. Thank you so so much Linda. Pedro Casais sponsored his company vehicle during the Benoni filed cleaning day and I’m sure everyone can attest to what a great help that was. Obrigado Pedro. Most recently Elmarie Gresse contacted us and will run zaLUG Juniors going forward. You know how passionate I am about this section of the LUG and I’m very excited to see the great things that will come from the junior group. Thank you Elmarie. Also a big thanks to Paul, Tony and Dax McKinnon who have been our educational speakers to date. Thanks guys, you’ve been amazing!

To each and every member, in Gauteng or at the Coast, thank you, thank you thank you. You guys have been fantastic and we as a AFOL family is going to do great things. Looking forwards to chatting with each and everyone of you at Brickfair.

Also, a very big thank you to Mr. Conrad Cleary, Principal of St. Catherine’s Convent who have made the school available to the LUG for meetings. Someone told me today “It feels like this school have become our home” and what a great home that is. Thank you Mr. Cleary.

Lastly, I would like to thank Mr. Jan Beyer from The LEGO Group for all his patience, guidance, advice and faith he has shown towards our LUG. Mange Tak Jan. I cannot wait for the day our LUG can have a beer with you in Johannesburg.

Words won’t do today’s occasion justice but I think pictures might do better. Please see the pictures below as they are a good reflection of the mood on the day!