Our April meeting was held on Saturday the 20th at the Champlain Heights branch of the Vancouver Public Library from 1:00pm to 3:30pm. Twenty-five VPC members showed up to chat about all things pen-related, and among them were six members who'd never attended a meeting before--Angela, Colin, David J., Dominique, Keith, and Nance.
I snapped a few photos during the meeting, as did Marzieh and Sherman, so without further ado, here they are...
(please click on images to enlarge ~ photos by Maja, except where noted)
That's me (in the middle) with Marzieh (who used to work at Perks in North Van) and Bill Kempton, one of our club's co-founders. I last saw Bill at our November 2023 meeting, but I hadn't seen Marzieh since the end of 2020. In the background, you can see our youngest member (Emilio) next to his father Chris (photo courtesy of Bill ~ photo taken by Phil)
Bill brought along a few notebooks from his school days in England; the one above was his first, started when he was eight years old.
The two notebooks above are a bit newer; by then, Bill had become a big fan of comedy legend Spike Mulligan.
Above: Sherman's selfie with fellow VPCer Steve, who very generously gave out mystery door prizes (ie. pens, in the envelopes above) to everyone who came to the meeting. Everyone who attended was also given a complimentary bottle of Steve's patented fountain pen flush (which Sherman is holding up) --INKOUT.
INKOUT fountain pen flush is a liquid concentrate --for manual cleaning of fountain pens, mix 3 parts water with 1 part pen flush; for cleaning pens in an ultrasonic cleaner, use 2 parts water to 1 part pen flush (photo courtesy of Sherman).
...And this is what Sherman won---a lime-green Hero '616 Plus' fountain pen! Many thanks to Steve for all the free stuff he gave out! 😃 (photo courtesy of Sherman)
As you can see, the meeting was a hub-bub of activity, with members circulating freely around the room. Several members brought inks to trade, but we didn't have a formal "show & tell", so it was a very low-key get-together. That's new member Colin (seated) chatting with Steve, while Chris (blue t-shirt) tries out the clear demonstrator piston-filler he got in Steve's door prize giveaway.
Seated in the far background of the same photo are (L-R): new member Keith, Melanie (who attended her first meeting in Oct 2023) and newcomer David J . Standing next to them are Collin and myself. At the table in the near background are (L to R): Paul (standing), Bill, Phil, Amy and brand-new member Nance (both standing), and Marzieh.
Jessica (standing closest to Sherman) brought along an assortment of wonderful fountain pens to sell... and she also gave out free pens! Thank you, Jessica, for your generosity, and the gorgeous Penlux 'Grande Masterpiece' "Blue Swirl" fountain pen I bought from you :) In the same photo's foreground are brand-new member Angela (blue-striped sweater), Asifa (pink-striped top, talking to Jerred), David C. (black leather jacket) and Rene (wearing a bright blue Pokemon t-shirt :)
(left to right) Amy talking to David C, Steve and I conversing, and Trevor chatting with Angela (photo courtesy of Marzieh).
Bill (inspecting a pen), with Jerred and Sherman (photo courtesy of Marzieh)
Above: Sherman snapped a photo of the pens he brought to the meeting-- (left to right): Stipula 'Passaporto', three clear demonstrator Kaweco 'Sport' pens, a Kaweco 'Student' in "60's Swing" colour, a purple Retro 51 'Tornado' fountain pen, three Kaweco 'Lilliput' pens and an orange Campo Marzio fountain pen (on the far right is Sherman's "prize pen", the Hero '616 Plus')
We also saw several vintage writing instruments during the meeting, like this handsome Wahl-Eversharp 'Skyline' fountain pen and mechanical pencil set belonging to Phil.
I brought along a few new acquisitions, in a pen roll made by my talented mother-in-law :)
My pens (Left to right): Two Pelikans (M200 "Orange Delight" & M200 "Copper Rose Gold"), two Lamys ('Safari' "Violet Blackberry" & AL-star "Fiery"), a Magna Carta 'Sapphire Grand "Brown Demonstrator" (bought with Christmas money from my in-laws), Majohn 'P138' (a Montblanc lookalike), Eureka 'Symmetry' PEEK fountain pen, Visconti 'Breeze'"Lemon", a handmade pen by Ontario-based Tangent Pens, and my Pelikan 'Ineo' "Fiery Red".
It's fitting that I end this blog post with a book about handwriting! It was borrowed by Paul (from the VPL) on the recommendation of our club's other co-founder, Tim. The book in question is "Marcel's Letters' by Carolyn Porter, an award-winning account of her real-life search for information about the fate of the author of a bundle of WWII-era letters that she found. The letters were written (in French) in a beautiful cursive script that eventually became the P22 "Marcel" font. Paul was raving about the book, so if it sounds interesting, look for it at your local library (or bookstore).
Many thanks to everyone who came to our April meeting (whether you stayed to the end or not -- we're very casual :), to Marzieh & Sherman for sharing their photos, and to the Vancouver Public Library for hosting our very first weekend (and first daytime) meeting. Our May meeting won't be held on a weekend, but rather our usual third Thursday evening of the month. Details (including meeting location) about our May meeting will be announced sometime next week, after our venue booking is confirmed.
(~Blog post by Maja~)