SF Pen Posse: Take a Break Edition

November 20, 2022

Peter's Cafe
10 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030
Sunday - November 27 at 1:00pm

Take a break from shopping, food coma, or family - and hang out with pen peeps!

Plus, someone’s back in town coming from two European pen shows. Curious to hear stories!

November 23, 2022

I live in SF but I don't know anything about the SF Pen posse. Could you tell me about it? How many people come?

November 23, 2022

1 hour ago, mouse2cat said:

I live in SF but I don't know anything about the SF Pen posse. Could you tell me about it? How many people come?

Hi! The SF Pen Posse is just a group of pen people from the SF Bay Area who meet up regularly-ish. It's not a pen club per se as there are no fees to join in, and we don't really have a list of members.

The Posse is comprised of various levels of experience in the pen/stationery world from recent newbies to veteran collectors. Vintage or modern pens, it doesn't matter as long as you're a PENthusiast! 🙂 Pre-pandemic times, the meetups could have more than 40 people that attend - especially after the San Francisco or Los Angeles pen shows However nowadays, I'd say an average of 15-20 people show up.

Posse meetups are very informal as we just hang out and talk pens, etc. Feels good to have someone to talk to about our hobby rather than staring at a screen. It's also a nice opportunity to try out pens you are planning to buy but just wondering how it would feel in the hand. Or maybe it's an opportunity to see a pen you never knew you wanted. 🙂

More often than not, people also put items out for sale. Most people sell the items that they don't love/use anymore, or they have extras of something (bottle of ink, paper,etc.) Sometimes, there are a couple people who does pen repairs and either they'll charge you a fee or just buy their meal.

In the online world, the main area to get to know people and be notified of meetups are in the Facebook group - "San Francisco Bay Area Pen Posse". If you're on FB, you should definitely join the group! There isn't any schedule for meetups, and we just announce it when someone wants to have one. We create the event on Facebook, and we (mainly me) also place meetup announcements here on FPN and on FPGeeks.

We usually meet up at Peter's Cafe in Millbrae mainly because it is kind of in the center for the SF Bay Area (relative to where you're coming from of course), and is accessible via public transportation as restaurant is right by the BART and Caltrain stops. Also, the people at Peter's Cafe know us and gives us an area in the back to hang out in (even after closing time) - good food as well.

Anyone can call for a Pen Posse meetup anywhere anytime as long as that person can reserve a space for the group. Recently, we also held meetups at the San Francisco Center for the Book, the food court in Hillsdale Mall, and Tastea in Sunnyvale.

Phew... I think I covered most of it. Any other questions, just ask!