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The following questions have been posed to the ILTCO at one time or another.
Since these questions are of general interest, the questions and their
answers are published here so the information can be shared with the
general public.
If you don't see the answer to the question you are looking for, feel free
to send your question to
faq@iltco.org.
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Q:
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What does ILTCO stand for?
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A:
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ILTCO is an acronym; it stands for International LEGO Train Club Organization.
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Where can I find the initial ILTCO Briefing that was presented at BricksWest 2003?
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You can find a web version of presentation at <a href="http://www.iltco.org/info">www.iltco.org/info</a>.
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Who is eligible to join the ILTCO?
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Everyone who is a LEGO Train enthusiast is invited to join the ILTCO. We encourage you to completely read the ILTCO bylaws before joining to get a solid understanding of what ILTCO stands for and how we are organized.
We also accept Organizational Memberships, however if you are a member of an Organizational Member you are NOT automatically an Individual ILTCO member, we encourage you to apply separately.
We chose this separation of Individual Members and Organizational Members because we didnt want to assume that if an Organization joins all of their members would want to join.
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Are there any age restrictions to being a member of the ILTCO?
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You must be of the age of majority in your country (18 in the US) to be a member of ILTCO, regardless of whether your own club (if any) allows minors as members or not.
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Does my club name have to include "LTC" ?
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No not at all. Our goal is to not infringe on club decisions in any way. With that said, ILTCO is specifically for individual train enthusiasts and train clubs. If there is a train faction or SIG (Special Interest Group) within a "LUG" that meets the minimum ILTCO guidelines then that faction may apply for membership using the "LUG" name.
This however does not mean that all the LUG members are eligible for ILTCO benefits, as they are intended to foster train related activity. ILTCO is not in the business of monitoring club internals and assumes that self-monitoring will be employed.
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What is the difference between affiliate and active clubs?
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It was necessary to differ Affiliate "starter" clubs from Active "established" clubs in order to best serve both. We quickly realized that not recognizing Affiliate clubs was counter to the ILTCO charter, in that we want to promote the formation of new clubs. At the same time we also wanted to guarantee a certain level of professionalism that comes in recognizing an Active club.
In the future ILTCO may establish relationships such that this distinction enables benefits for both levels.
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What's the rationale behind *requiring* a "registered and meaningful domain name" for active organizations?
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The spirit of this requirement was to help determine the level of commitment by the club to the hobby, and to create a delineation between Active and Affiliate designations. It is not intended to be a statement of judgment against an otherwise established club.
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If an LTC is a sub-group or SIG of a LUG does the LUG domain suffice for the "Active" club memebership domain requirement?
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Yes.
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Q:
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What is the role of the club representatives?
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The original ILTCO mailinig list is made up of club representatives, that should be reporting down to their respective club lists about what is being discussed and posting back up any collective club concerns.
It is important to note that traffic on the ILTCO list tends to be relatively low volume.
Moving forward with formalizing ILTCO, the representatives will continue in much the same capacity, however the mail list will be open to read by all individual members. In order to efficiently conduct business only the representatives will be able to post. This creates a more open forum by broadening communication and also creates a level of accountability for the representatives to their respective clubs.
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Q:
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While filling out the individual membership application I noticed that my club is not listed.
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That club list is not an exhaustive list due to a bit of a chicken and egg problem, such that we won't know all the clubs and their membership status until we know their rosters etc. Since we are only enrolling individual members at this point your club affiliation is somewhat moot. Also note that when a club becomes officially recognized by the ILTCO membership committee the individual members can then update their profiles.
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How does a qualified LTC choose its ILTCO representatives?
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Any way it sees fit. The ILTCO does not intend to regulate any business of LTCs in any manner. What is required of the representatives is that they actively participate in the discussions and voting of the organization as described in the ILTCO Bylaws.
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Q:
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Who is the Organizing Committee and why do they get to organize the new ILTCO?
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Well, we're really no one special, just some old timers trying to further organize the train clubs and individual enthusiasts. Basically our goals are to create community, a place to share resources, and have an externally recognized single voice; somewhat like the NMRA.
The organizing committee came together because Steve and Mike (the originators of the list) thought that ILTCO could provide more to the LEGO train comunity and indivdual enthusiasts then just a loosly managed mail list.
There were several posts on the original ILTCO mail list that called for this movement that fell on deaf ears. All the recent formal organizing has been done completely off line, not on the current ILTCO mail list. Trying to formally organize with a ~40 person committee would have guaranteed failure.
<a href="http://www.iltco.org/info/">Click here for more info</a>
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Q:
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What does the LEGO Company think about the ILTCO?
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The ILTCO has the full and enthusiastic support of The LEGO Company. We look forward to working very closely with The LEGO Company to help further the goals and mission of the ILTCO.
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Q:
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Are the resources LEGO makes available to train clubs available to clubs world wide or only to North America?
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The ILTCO Executive Committee has been working with LEGO with respect to the resources they can/will provide to train clubs. LEGO has been doing this on an ad-hoc basis in North America for several years. LEGO has been working with the ILTCO to formalize the process and has asked that we focus on stream lining North American requests before moving to a global implementation.
At this point we do not have a time frame for moving to a global implementation.
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Q:
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Why do the Terms of Service (ToS) focus so much on legality?
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The legal language in the ToS is needed in order to properly protect ILTCO. We modeled it after the LUGNET ToS with the permission of LUGNET's proprietors.
In particular, about the trademark, under the legal definition of trademark in the US, we must first claim it as ours and use it properly in order to protect it, whether or not we eventually register it or not.
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Q:
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Can I get some more details on Dues?
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Currently there are no dues. Article 5 allows for dues to be levied by the assembly if needed. We didn't want to simply ignore this topic. Our thoughts on this is that in the future, the assembly may access dues to cover costs; web site registration etc... The organizing committee has paid for all the upfront costs with no assumption that it will be recouped.
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Suggest a FAQ for the ILTCO FAQ page.
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