CLUG 2024 President's Report
Authors: Jake Radloff· Updated: 29 Jul 2026
It has once again been my privilege to serve as your President during 2023-2024. We saw an even greater number of members - an all time high for CLUG and sustained high engagement across a wide range of activities. Our club has a unique value proposition in that it provides an opportunity for anyone in the community to be involved and share their passion for LEGO, and building awesome creations - with low barriers to entry (such as cost).
The two goals of CLUG are to promote and support the LEGO fan community in the ACT and surrounds, and contribute to fundraising for children’s charities. The last year has enabled our club to be successful in these two areas even more so than the previous year. We have been able to promote and progress those goals amongst our membership and the Canberra community.
I would like to personally thank the 2024 Committee, who have once again worked tirelessly to prepare, conduct and improve on our activities. Without this team of committed individuals CLUG activities would not be possible.
CLUG Activities
Since the last AGM (6 August 2023), CLUG once again had a small niche display at the very popular Gamma Expo featuring pop-culture and sci-fi builds.
CLUG ran a very successful Canberra Brick Show in October for the second year. With over 5700 guests, 130 exhibitors and 12 vendors the show raised significant funding for the communities we support including Roundabout Canberra, Marymead Autism Centre, Malkara School, The Woden School, Black Mountain School and Cranleigh School. The 2023 show was able to include a good balance of CLUG builders and others from around Australia and New Zealand with a highlight being once again the CLUG Juniors section that allowed our members as young as 3 and 4 to get involved. I am very proud of the achievements of the club, supported by our friends from local and interstate in making the 2023 show a highlight for many people. We look forward to presenting the show again in October 2024 with some lessons learnt and lots of new builds to display.
We also held our annual CLUG Christmas Party where everyone went home with LEGO after enjoying a delicious BBQ cooked by the Wells Station Scout Group. The “Dirty Brickster” game again proved to be source of entertainment and competition as our adults and juniors took turns in vying for some prized LEGO sets.
Throughout the last 12 months, our regular meetings at the Hellenic Club have been well attended - often with 100 or more attendees displaying their builds and sharing insights into larger displays being planned for shows. Our junior members in particular have developed and are building great things and also confidence in public speaking. Members have enjoyed our raffles. We also featured a number of presentations at the meetings on build techniques, digital building and recent shows attended.
Additionally, we completed LUGbulk 2024 even earlier this year - with bricks being in over 50 builders brick-pits by mid June.
Other 2023 to date event highlights include:
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Kaleen Train Show 2024 – a huge train layout was voted the crowd favourite at the annual show for the 2nd year in a row. The wide radius track allowed for some high speed action and many different custom trains on display.
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Bricks @ Woden School 2024 – we returned to the The Woden School in May with another huge show. Over $20,000 was raised altogether for the school to put towards valuable projects for their students.
CLUG involvement around Australia
In addition to our own activities, our members have participated in LEGO fan events across Eastern Australia hosted by other LUGs. Some of these were:
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Brickvention January 2024 – Melbourne VIC
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BendigoBricks April 2024 – Bendigo VIC
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BrickBuilt Sydney May 2024 - NSW
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Newcastle Brickfest July 2024 – Newcastle NSW
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Several other regional shows across NSW and VIC.
Membership and Finances
Our club membership peaked at over 230 in the last year. This was again due to a wider variety of activities and promotion amongst the community at events. The CLUG financial position remains healthy which provides a solid base to support activities in the year ahead.
The Year Ahead
2024-2025 promises to be an even bigger year, with a full agenda of activities in the works. I look forward to again leading the committee, our membership continuing the journey of exploring the world of LEGO and supporting local children’s charities in an inclusive, family-friendly environment.
Play Well,
Jake
Jake Radloff
CLUG President
4 Aug 2024