The Story of SortLUG: Friends Don’t Let Friends Sort Alone
Today’s guest article comes from Canadian AFOL Justin Speers who has previously shared his experience on BrickNerd about building modular buildings. Today he shares about a special anniversary for SortLUG.
A good portion of BrickNerd’s readers have probably heard of SortLUG, maybe through mentions in various articles or experiencing it themselves. Well, it has now been three years since SortLUG’s formation! Happy Anniversary!
The ‘standard’ SORTLug logo.
But how did SortLUG begin and how has it lasted so long in a post-pandemic world? Do we really just sort LEGO all the time?
Born After BrickCon
Organized by Jenn Cavin (aka The Brick Chick), it is generally agreed that SortLUG started their first weekly Zoom meeting on the second Friday/Saturday of October—and we have met every Friday since then. Back in October of 2020, the world was very much in the thick of “the Pandemic” (cue ominous music). By then, many people and organizations had started and largely adapted to doing socially distant activities over video calls.
BrickCon 2020, the premier West Coast LEGO event of the year in the US, had decided to join the fray, hosting an entire weekend of only online content. It was remarkable with seminars, presentations, showcases, workshops, games, and discussion groups, all entirely held online through Zoom and other platforms. Amazingly, it recreated the LEGO convention feel online. Being from Southern Ontario, Canada, with limited mobility at the time, I had accepted I would probably never make it to this well-known event in person. But this was my opportunity to participate!
One particular workshop, hosted and presented by Tom Alphin (aka Brick Architect) regarding sorting LEGO, labeling, categorizing, and storage options was a very well-received and well-attended meeting. My collection is relatively small compared to many others in the LEGO community, so I was not at all sure what I could contribute to the discussion or if it would translate to my smaller setup, but I am forever grateful I signed up for that workshop. A breakout room, or perhaps more accurately an “after-hours” impromptu discussion from that meeting, evolved into SORTLug a week after BrickCon Online 2020 to carry on the conversation.
A popular t-shirt design in the group from Will Heron.
It was recently discussed that I may in fact be the only one who has never missed one of these Friday meetings. Don’t ask me for proof of this, I don’t have it, but I can honestly not think of one time I may have missed it. Even while recently doing my first ever exhibition at a LEGO convention and getting home very late on Friday night, needing to go to bed quickly, I slipped on to the call for an hour to ‘check in’.
To Sort or Not To Sort
What is a SortLUG call like? Well, it lasts at least 12 hours, though sometimes more to allow everyone around the world a chance to join in the fun. Yes we chat and sort… a lot. But we almost always stray from talking about sorting to whatever topic is on hand, mostly about LEGO but about life too.
Although on paper the group is there as an information source for those wanting to sort and organize their LEGO collection, the group is so much more than that. Whenever a new person joins us on the call, there is the obligatory “show us your space” tour. There will be the periodic kitty or puppy sightings, along with tiny humans peeking in to see what their adults are up to (though the group is quick to point out this is an adult group, so language may be colorful occasionally).
Because the group is international, we get to see live tours of almost every LEGO convention on the planet. We talk about the latest LEGO news, nerd out about topics like injection point quality, chrome bricks, new LEGO colors, or even what podcasts we listen to as we sort. Some people don’t even sort on the call—instead, they build! We will and want to give feedback on people’s MOCs or just see what sets people re building.
Members have joined us while on bike rides through the city or countryside—even clandestine walking tours of cities in Norway and across the States. Or maybe walking along with one person from their house to another member’s house, as they live so close to one another, while both are on the call!
But heads up, it is a general rule you should not leave your chair on the call or your picture will be taken and used as a Zoom background so we can all be in the same room together! We have frequently expressed our jealousy of others’ cavernous basements or choices in storage solutions. But most of all, we have fun—even if that means we all pretend to sit in the same puffy purple chair.
Yes, there are more somber or grounded times when we talk about news in our area or the occasional foray into politics, though we try not to dwell on that for too long. If someone has had something important happen to them, we are there to listen and offer our support as best we can. But we are all there to celebrate our love of LEGO and the community.
To LUG or Not To LUG
To me, SortLUG is “My LUG.” For reference, a LEGO User Group (or LUG for short) is a community of LEGO fans typically in the same region who meet regularly. If they meet certain criteria, like regular public displays, they can apply to be ‘recognized’ by the LEGO company itself.
Original group T-shirt design by Eric Wilkinson.
SortLUG isn’t an official LUG or online community according to the LEGO Ambassador Network, but it is a deeply valuable and personal LUG to everyone who is part of it. SortLUG is unique to my knowledge as it is organized online, and general meetings are online every week. This, in turn, allows the membership to be worldwide, not just a regionally close group. For whatever reason, this clicked for me. I have been able to meet all sorts of new people online— and I was accepted for who I am, no questions asked.
I have met with one local LUG in my area before, WHaCKOLuG. At the time, I believe I was too new to it all, and diving in on my own without knowing anyone in the group or in the local LEGO community was a chore. I didn’t really feel it at that one meeting. I have since met several people who were at that meeting and are now in SortlUG, and now I happily count them as friends.
One more thing, I personally have been encouraged to participate more in the LEGO community by SortLUG. I wholeheartedly believe this group has helped me to build more, to interact, and to put my work out there for enjoyment and scrutiny. The friends I’ve met there are most certainly the reason that I took the plunge and signed up to be an exhibitor at Toronto’s Bricks In The Six convention a few months ago.
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I got to meet four of my fellow SortLUG'ers at Bricks in the Six 2023.
Thoughts on SortLUG
I was curious if I was unique in my feelings and attachment to SortLUG so I asked some of my fellow SortLUG’ers for their opinions on what the group means to them. Their answers were very insightful:
“SortLUG is an accepting group of like-minded individuals to keep me company in the solitary endeavour of sorting my LEGO.” - Caitlin
“I joined SortLUG soon after it started in 2020 as a way to socialize (sortilize) with other builders since the world was in lockdown. I joined for camaraderie but found so much more than that. I have friends all over the world to chat with (on or off call), to meet up with IRL, and we actually learn things during the zoom call.” - Dawn
SortLUG meetup at Skaerbaek Fan Weekend 2023.
“It literally rescued me from the depths of the pandemic, allowing a semblance of social ties during our darkest days. It has meant new friendships and friends; new inspirations and new amazements. And a whole bunch of pun-filled laughs.” - Sid
“It gives me a place to be myself.” - Robbie
“SortLUG is such a good social event! Nothing we do can allow us to visit with AFOLs around the globe. I think that’s why it never ended after the pandemic. Weekly global chats can’t be done in person! Also, I really like that we all are surrounded by our collections. It’s interesting to see how everyone sorts it.” - Elly
“We often joke that the weekly SortLUG call consists of enablers leading us into a trap to buy more of what LEGO has to offer. While there’s probably some truth to this, I find that this amazing group of AFOLs has enabled me to further my passion with great knowledge, insight and constructive feedback in addition to simply being a great bunch of people to hang around with and develop great friendships!” - Bruno
“As SortLUG grew out of my talk on LEGO storage at BrickCon 2020, it has become my most valuable sounding board to discuss new LEGO parts, storage solutions, and building techniques. But most of all, it taught me that you can form close friendships with people from all over the world.” Tom
A SortLUG Celebration
In 2022, when BrickCon in Seattle returned to an in-person in full (not counting the greatly restricted event that was held in 2021), there was the largest-ever in-person meeting of SortLUG members. Through the years, we have had several members give us live tours of events big and small during our Friday night Zoom meetings, but having so many people together from around the world back where it all began was so special.
BrickCon 2022 group photo, when a lot of us were all in person.
And the gathering wasn’t just in-person but online too with everyone who couldn’t travel. But that didn’t matter because there was a celebration of even more people online—a 24-hour marathon call to mark the occasion. One tradition in the group has been to take an “end of the call” group photo, so naturally we had to combine the two, resulting in perhaps the most SortLUG’ers in a single photo from multiple continents all at the same time.
End of the call photo after our 24 hour anniversary meeting.
Happy Anniversary, SortLUG! Thank you so much for everything that has come from this group and all the things that will come in the future. And if you want to join the fun, check out our SortLUG Facebook group. You know we’ll always be online if it is a Friday night or Saturday morning!
Do you have any SortLUG memories? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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