Monday, January 25, 2010

Record-breaking attendance at the January 2010 meeting!


From L-R: Loan, Bruce, Tim (holding up his beloved Pelikan "Pelikano" :), Ralph, Bill K, Maja, Chris L, Mike, Aftaab, Julienne, Brian, Charles, Barry, Gordon, Graham and Glenn (photo by Derek L--not pictured). Also not pictured : Bill S and our meeting host - Richard. (click on photo to enlarge)

A total of 19 Vancouver Pen Club members showed up at the January 21st meeting---a new VPC record! Mike gave an excellent talk on industrial designers and writing instruments (many thanks, Mike!) and we had excellent participation with regard to our meeting theme -"First Pens". From the trusty Parker 45 to the ubiquitous Sheaffer Cartridge Pen, from the under-rated Sheaffer NoNonsense to the lovely Parker 75 and English school pens by Osmiroid & Platignum (and many more pen brands), we heard about and/or saw them all! Many thanks to all who showed up for this meeting; it was a great start to the VPC 2010 pen club season.Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday February 18th, 2010. Theme: to be announced....

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Happy New Year!! (January 2010 meeting details)

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a relaxing holiday season and are ready to start the new year with a new round of pen club meetings! Our meetings will continue to be held at Perks pen store on Cambie and 42nd St in Vancouver, on the third Thursday of each month, from September to May (inclusive) but with no meeting in December. We might amend this to include a summer meetup; if so, you will hear about it on our blog. In the meantime, here are the details regarding our next meeting........

Date: Thursday January 21, 2010.
Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm (time to get food and "meet & greet"); 6:30pm-8:30pm meeting.
Location: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street (@ 42nd Ave.) in Vancouver, BC (one block from Skytrain stop "Oakridge-41st Ave" on the Canada Line)


The theme for this meeting will be "FIRST PENS"---the first fountain pen you ever bought (or were given) and/or the first vintage fountain pen you ever acquired...or even the first fountain pen you bought online, etc..... or any combination of the above! This theme was used as the first meeting theme of 2010 by the London (Ontario) Pen Club and the Calgary Pen Club, so we thought we'd share the theme with our fellow Canuck pen club members. I think it's a great idea :)

Our secondary theme is always "NEWEST ACQUISITIONS", so if you have any new writing-instrument-related acquisitions such as pens, paper, ink, etc. please bring them along.


We are pleased that Mike A. has kindly volunteered to do an update on his excellent presentation entitled "Designer Writing Instruments of the 20th Century" at the January 21st meeting. These are fountain pens and other writing instruments that were designed by famous industrial designers (see a partial list of examples in our VPC blog entry here: http://www.vancouverpenclub.com/2009_01_01_archive.html).

Thanks in advance to Mike, and to Richard Clarke of Perks, who has been our pen club meeting host since November 2007!