Our January 2025 meeting (held at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library on Jan. 16th) set a new record for meeting attendance---at least 36 people were in attendance, including brand-new members Adam, Audrey, and Tony! 😮 (our previous record was 32, set in December 2024)
The meeting was actually an informal get-together (such as those we also have at pen stores once in a while) and not a regular meeting (which is a sit-down "show & tell" with a meeting theme/topic), so if you're wondering what goes on at these casual gatherings, read on!
(photos by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge)
You also might see some vintage fountain pens that our members recently acquired, such as this nice Parker '51' fountain pen belonging to Andrew that he purchased from Christopher (another pen restorer in our club) earlier that day...

... or this Parker '25' fountain pen that he bought from fellow member Grant during the meeting...
You're guaranteed to see newly-acquired modern fountain pens that our members brought to show others, such as Peter H's new Waterman 'Hemisphere' (far right, above) ... or old favourites and/or daily users, such as his Waterman 'Laureat' (far left) and Platinum #3776 Century fountain pens...
You might even see a member's entire fountain pen collection, such as Alex's Lamy '2000', TWSBI Mini, TWSBI 'Precision' (left side of pen case in the above photo) and "Vivid Pink" Pilot 'Prera' (photo below) fountain pens.
Although we're primarily a fountain pen club, we occasionally see other writing instruments, such as mechanical pencils. Alex brought some of those to show-- his Pilot 'S30' and the two black Rotrings (an '800' and a '600') seen above....
....as well as his Pentel 'Kerry' pencil (above, far left) and collection of Pentel 'Graphgear 1000' pencils that take different lead widths. Sometimes we even see rollerball pens---the black Pilot 'G2' and a bright green no-name (seen above) are what Alex calls his "loaner pens" 😄.
Our club welcomes collectors/users of all types of fountain pens -- from economical pens to their luxurious counterparts (like David J's Pilot 'Custom Urushi' fountain pen above)...and it doesn’t matter if you own one fountain pen or a thousand --- everyone is welcome!
In addition to pens made by big pen companies, we also see fountain pens handmade by small pen makers, such as the beautiful fountain pens fellow VPC member Anson of Springfield Pens makes and sells (above)...
At our casual gatherings, some of our ink aficionados use the opportunity to trade ink samples and swatch them (that's Michelle's ink swatch book in the photo above)...
In any case, there will always be lots of interesting pens to see, and friendly, helpful pen-loving folks that you can chat with, in a relaxed atmosphere....
...so please come to a meeting and see for yourself! 😁 As as our club's President, I try to attend every meeting, so when you come to your first meeting, please find me (that's me--Maja--- on the far left) and say "hi"! If you need a nib tuned or repaired, you can talk to our fellow pen club member Jerred (standing next to me)... and if you're looking for a beautiful handcrafted fountain pen to buy, look for pen maker Anson (far right of photo)!
Many thanks to everyone who came to our January meeting! Information about our February meeting (which will be a regular--ie. themed--- meeting) will be posted by the end of this month.
(~blog post by Maja~)
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