F.A.Q.

What does Welly-moot do?
Essentially, we get together with the intention of discussing all things Tolkien, although occasionally this descends into a discussion of everything BUT Tolkien. No matter - the real reason to get together is to meet kindred spirits, and to enjoy an afternoon together, with coffee and cake. Or without.

Highlights over the years were meeting up with other Tolkien fans from around the world. For instance, we had a visit from Peter Kenny from the Brisbane Tolkien Appreciation Society, who read from his Middle-earth poetry. We've had a Weta artists along, it turns out they're big LOTR fans as well (who knew!). We've played host to members of other Tolkien groups - from the UK, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Australia, USA, Argentine, Japan, to name a few.

I can't guarantee we'll have special guests everytime, but I can guarantee special afternoons every time.

If you want to even out the odds - why not bring along your favourite LOTR collectible, and show it off to the group? If nothing else, it'll stimulate discussions!

Eventually, we hope to offer our members special deals I can muster from around the world, and I find the occasional freebies as well.


How often does the Welly-moot take place?
What seems to work is one meeting every two months, approximately the last Sunday of every odd-numbered month. Generally, the meetings start at 2:00pm, and are located in the upstairs cafe at the Embassy Cinema.

That means, for 2016, the meetings will be held at the end of January, March, May, July, September, and November. Full details can be found on out Calendar page.


Who is running the Welly-moot?
My name is Jack Machiela, I started the Welly-moot ball rolling when I set up a few coffee meetings on my other blog with other Hobbit fans during 2011. During one of the meetings I had the pleasure of meeting fellow Tolkien Society member Kris, and together we will be running this Smial. We're not sure quite who will do what but at this stage I'll be looking after the website, and all the other digital jiggery-pokery.

My wife Alex is always keen to lend a hand, especially with the administration side of things. Kris is another huge Tolkien fan, and keeps us all on the straight-and-narrow, and recently the committee has been joined by Cinnamon, who can organise things better than most - she's a cat-herder, aka kindergarten teacher.


Finally, my cat Wayne has also offered to help, but he really just ends up sitting on my keyboard and that doeskj W# ertt ebte vstetrv ggggggggggggg eally help at all. Thanks for the effort though, Wayne.


Wayne, missing a deadline. Whoosh! There it went!

How long has Welly-moot been around?
We had seven unofficial meetings during 2011 and early 2012, but at stage we weren't a part of the Tolkien Society yet. Those meetings were set up through my NZ Noldor blog, where you'll still find the meeting "minutes" as well, for most of the moots of 2011. The fifth Moot ended up being a meeting between just Kris and myself, where we decided to go "official".

Tehanu from TheOneRing.net was present at moot #0.6, and she announced our intentions on January the 3rd, 2012 on TORn, the big LOTR fansite. We'll use that date as day 1!

So, officially, we've been around from January the 3rd 2012, which also happened to be Tolkien's 120'th birthday.


How do I become a member, and how much does it cost?
You show up to a meeting, and bam! It's done! The cost at this stage is restricted to how much coffee you drink, and how many cakes you eat on the day. Our meetings so far have been in friendly cafes and cinemas - that may change in the future but it's proven quite succesful so far.

We wanted to keep things simple - there's almost no cost for us yet so we're not charging for anything at this stage. We understand that a lot of LOTR fans visit Wellington (hey, I'm a LOTR tourguide, after all!), and may want to show up for a single meeting. Other people may want to join us every time. Both are equally welcome - so just come when you can, and enjoy the atmostphere.


I have another question not listed here.
That's easy - ask me via email! I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner.