We are organizing the Netherlands Pen Club - - and its first in-person meetup!

[OldTravelingShoe]

Dear FPNers,

 

For a while, we have wanted to meet with fellow pen enthusiasts here, in the Netherlands. With lockdown restrictions now relaxed and with the summer opening up, it seems the right moment to get started. To this end, we are organizing the Netherlands Pen Club – and we invite you to join us!

 

We thought about this idea for a while, also trying to learn from valiant earlier efforts in this sense that we saw discussed on FPN, and envisioned a long-term pen club. We want to meet, discuss, and share ideas about fountain pens and share the fountain pens themselves, sometimes in real life and sometimes digitally. Later, we want to engage the entire ecosystem around fountain pens in the Netherlands, including sellers, tuners, artists, etc. We want to also make contact with other pen clubs and people abroad for cross-fertilization. We aim to make it easy to do all these things, but this being the beginning it would be great if you could also share your ideas about what the Netherlands Pen Club can do for you and with your help. 

 

Concretely, we have two activities to offer:

 

1/ We are organizing a first meeting in the real world, in Utrecht, on Monday, June 6, from 13:30-17:30. As an exciting first meetup, there will be at least 20 pens to try out and we invite everyone to share theirs. We have reserved time for conversation and community build-up. We have a format for all this, so it will be easy and not at all overwhelming. Everyone’s welcome!

 

Please let us know until Wednesday, May 25, if you will attend our first meetup – then, we can arrange a suitably sized place – and if you have any dietary restrictions – then, we can arrange snacks and beverages. Please also let us know if you need any other kind of assistance. (We will of course keep these details private.)

 

PM us or reply here and we will contact you immediately about details.

 

2/ We have organized an online presence, on Discord, which allows meeting each other live and also to organize live events with higher frequency but without traveling hassles – PM us to get an invitation and join this platform. 

 

 

TL;DR: Fellow pen enthusiasts in the Netherlands, we are looking forward to meeting with you! PM us to get in touch.

 

Signed,

@DvdRiet, @Nikolaos, and @OldTravelingShoe

 

[Nerdyhistorian]

Is it an idea to include Belgian members as well , in the future?

[OldTravelingShoe]

Hi, @Nerdyhistorian, sounds very applicable, thank you for the idea and for reaching out to us.

 

For online meetings, on Discord, we welcome also people in Belgium. BeNeLux, one of the co-organizers added. 

 

For meetings in the Netherlands, you are also most welcome to join. 

 

For meetings in real world in Belgium, of course, we would need someone familar with the places to help organize... Interested? Just started and already we're becoming multi-national 😉

[Linger]

Monday afternoon? Don't y’all have to work then? I know I do.

[OldTravelingShoe]

Hi, @Linger,

 

Thanks for expressing your interest. 

 

1/ Perhaps you can express an interest to join a second meeting, and suggest a date when you can and would join?

 

2/ Monday is the 2e Pinksterendag, when many have a free day.

 

Best regards. 

[Linger]

Oeps, forgot about Whit Monday….apologies…

[OldTravelingShoe]

@Linger, no worries and no harm done -- we want to see as many people interested in pens join the Netherlands Pen Club, and we are not that easy to offend (geen lange tenen, hoor).

 

So: you are more than welcome to join on June 6 and also at any later time. Bring over pens and good mood! 

[DvdRiet]

And if you @Linger (or anyone else) can't make it on 2e Pinksterdag but would still like to join the club, feel free to DM me for a link to the Discord server we have set up, where we also plan to hold online events in between the in-person meetups.

[MvE]

On 5/16/2022 at 9:03 AM, OldTravelingShoe said:

Dear FPNers,

 

For a while, we have wanted to meet with fellow pen enthusiasts here, in the Netherlands. With lockdown restrictions now relaxed and with the summer opening up, it seems the right moment to get started. To this end, we are organizing the Netherlands Pen Club – and we invite you to join us!

 

We thought about this idea for a while, also trying to learn from valiant earlier efforts in this sense that we saw discussed on FPN, and envisioned a long-term pen club. We want to meet, discuss, and share ideas about fountain pens and share the fountain pens themselves, sometimes in real life and sometimes digitally. Later, we want to engage the entire ecosystem around fountain pens in the Netherlands, including sellers, tuners, artists, etc. We want to also make contact with other pen clubs and people abroad for cross-fertilization. We aim to make it easy to do all these things, but this being the beginning it would be great if you could also share your ideas about what the Netherlands Pen Club can do for you and with your help. 

 

Concretely, we have two activities to offer:

 

1/ We are organizing a first meeting in the real world, in Utrecht, on Monday, June 6, from 13:30-17:30. As an exciting first meetup, there will be at least 20 pens to try out and we invite everyone to share theirs. We have reserved time for conversation and community build-up. We have a format for all this, so it will be easy and not at all overwhelming. Everyone’s welcome!

 

Please let us know until Wednesday, May 25, if you will attend our first meetup – then, we can arrange a suitably sized place – and if you have any dietary restrictions – then, we can arrange snacks and beverages. Please also let us know if you need any other kind of assistance. (We will of course keep these details private.)

 

PM us or reply here and we will contact you immediately about details.

 

2/ We have organized an online presence, on Discord, which allows meeting each other live and also to organize live events with higher frequency but without traveling hassles – PM us to get an invitation and join this platform. 

 

 

TL;DR: Fellow pen enthusiasts in the Netherlands, we are looking forward to meeting with you! PM us to get in touch.

 

Signed,

@DvdRiet, @Nikolaos, and @OldTravelingShoe

 

Count me in for June 6th. I just signed up for FPN and I'm still finding my way here, but gladly found my way to this topic and looking forward to a meet-up IRL.

[OldTravelingShoe]

1 minute ago, MvE said:

Count me in for June 6th. I just signed up for FPN and I'm still finding my way here, but gladly found my way to this topic and looking forward to a meet-up IRL.

Excellent, @MvE, and welcome to FPN and to the Netherlands Pen Club! 

 

To all: Just in case you are wondering, we want to know as early as possible how many people want to join, so we can reserve the room. We will probably consider threshold values: 8, 12, 20, 30, 50. (These seem to be typical thresholds for conference centers.) 

 

What about more than 50, you say? Let's get to that point first 😄

[Strangebird]

You can count me in too, I would gladly like to join the meeting in Utrecht.

[DvdRiet]

1 hour ago, Strangebird said:

You can count me in too, I would gladly like to join the meeting in Utrecht.

 

Perfect! The Netherlands Pen Club is off to a flying start!! (No pun intended, Strangebird  )

[OldTravelingShoe]

Simply wonderful! 

[DvdRiet]

We have a location for the pen club meetup: Camping Ganspoort in Utrecht (address is Helling 87)

 

There are still a few places available, so if anyone else would like to join the group for a Pen Proeverij (BYOP ) on Whit Monday (2e Pinksterdag) from 13:30 to 17:30, just let me or @OldTravelingShoe know as soon as possible.

 

And of course, if you want to join the club to chat, attend online meetups/events, and stay informed about future meetups, you're welcome to join us on the Discord server we have just set up. DM me if you would like an invite!

 

Looking forward to meeting everyone! 

[OldTravelingShoe]

Wonderful to see more people joining today. So, if you thought this kind of pen club would be nice,

1. See if you can make some time next Monday, June 6. There is still room for you, plus we want to have the luxury problem of having to arrange last-minute for something larger! 😄
2. Why not join the emerging live discussion online, via Discord? 
3. Propose a date and/or place for one of the next meetings in real world, so you know for sure that you can participate! 

[OldTravelingShoe]

TL;DR: Today, we are meeting for the first time as the Netherlands Pen Club. We started a couple of months back, and on May 16 we announced it on FPN. Many thanks to all who helped co-organize, starting with the amazing @DvdRiet!

 

The theme of this first event is "'t pen arrangement" ("The pen tasting"). For a sample:

 

 

Comments are most welcome. 

 

Join us on Discord and for the upcoming events!

[DvdRiet]

It was a fun and interesting meetup on Monday, with some amazing pens to try! And it was wonderful to be able to finally meet some other local fountain pen enthusiasts in real life rather than just on the interwebs.  

 

A small group of us got together in Utrecht for this first meetup. Our theme for the afternoon was a pen ‘tasting’ – like a wine tasting but different. You get the idea. Each of us brought along a selection of pens for everyone to try out. (It was also just in time to prepare our shopping lists for the Dutch Pen Show this Sunday, June 12^th, of course!)

 

Photo: The big table being set up for our pen 'tasting'

 

And boy, oh boy, were there some fantastic pens on the table! We had fun pocket pens by Platinum, Pilot, Sailor, and Schon DSGN to try. There were assorted models of the big brands, such as Pelikan, Montblanc, and Sailor, including a beautiful orange and black King of Pens. We also got to try out @OldTravelingShoe's Sailor 1911 fude, which I quite liked and even sort of figured out how to use. 😅 (It has gone on my wish list.) 

 

There were giant Rangas and lots of other fun, fancy, and even flexy pens to try, from Aurora to Esterbrook and from Franklin-Christoph to Marlen’s Aleph, plus a few vintage pens. There were (custom) pens from smaller pen makers, and even a couple of self-turned pens to try out. @MrRogueWolf of Giants' Pens also brought a big case full of wonderfully colorful pens turned from blanks by Brooks and others to show us. I brought along a 'history of Diplomats in 10 pens' (what else did you expect??) for everyone to try. There was even a Kakimori dip pen - really fun to experiment with!

 

Photo: an assortment of pens to 'taste'

 

The pen that was the biggest surprise for me personally was @Strangebird's Nakaya Long Cigar. I didn’t think I liked urushi until I got hold of this pen! It’s a long and elegant pen with equidistant cap and barrel. Strangebird says the choice for such a long pen was so that it still felt as long and balanced as if it were posted. The Toki-Tamenuri finish sparkled and glowed in the light, and the color variation at the section and end of the cap are subtle but striking. And, of course, it writes beautifully. (This one is also going on my overloaded wish list. 😊)

 

Photo: Nakaya Long Cigar in Toki-Tamenuri Urushi

 

All in all, some great pens to play with for an afternoon, while also getting to know other pen enthusiasts! I’d say it was an excellent first meet-up (quite literally for OldTravelingShoe and me).

 

I’m already excited for the next one!

 

(All photos by @OldTravelingShoe)

 

[Strangebird]

It was a pleasure being there; chatting, discussing and trying all these wonderful fountain pens. Many thanks again to OldTravelingShoe, DvdRiet and MvE for organising this meetup.

D., I'm glad you liked the Nakaya. 😀

[A Smug Dill]

Sounds like you all had an awesome time! I'm envious.

[DvdRiet]

5 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Sounds like you all had an awesome time! I'm envious.

 

You're welcome to join us next time! (only a short flight, isn't it?  )