SPC 2024 Survey - Responses to Common Queries & Themes

by Alicia, webmaster

Lamy Azurite ink and a Pelikan Blue Planet pen with a BB Italic stub nib. Photo by Roshan

What is this information/document?

In the summer and fall of 2024, the Seattle Pen Club (SPC) conducted its first ever survey of members, mostly around what members wanted from the SPC’s online presence. This document addresses some common queries, requests, and themes that popped up in the survey. A call for volunteers is also included at the end. (More is being done with survey data and results. This document is just one offering.)

Is the twice yearly meet-up with the Vancouver, BC, Pen Club still happening (or ever going to happen again)?

These meetings have been on hold for years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a club member has recently volunteered to help get these going again in 2025! [December 2025 update: Time got away from us and we didn't make it happen in 2025. Hopefully 2026 is our year!]

I’d love a list of upcoming pen shows to be on the website.

The Well-Appointed Desk curates a comprehensive list of annual pen shows. They do a great job with it! 

Can we have a fancier online calendar of club events that I can integrate into my online calendar of choice?

Upcoming club meetings are listed on the website and announced in our monthly newsletter.

Unfortunately, I’m using the free version of Wix for the website (currently, no budget for more), which means some things are pretty bare bones, including the calendar. I can only have 10 events up at a time on the website. This means going in and deleting past events from time to time so I can add new ones. If you want to see more than the four upcoming events that display by default, there are arrows in the header that take you forward and back. 

Where should we ask questions or get help with pen issues?

We have a very active Facebook group.

Members at meetings are usually very happy to help or can offer suggestions of who else to ask.

There are some resources listed on our website.

The Reddit FountainPens forum is also a good place to post questions.

We are hoping to expand our online community to a Discord server, where members can reach out as well. If you’d like to volunteer to moderate, please reach out to me (Alicia) at a meeting or send a query through the website’s Contact Us form. [Update March 2025: We now have a Discord server where you can also post questions! If you'd like to join, you can request the link via the Contact Us form. The link is also posted in the FB group's About Us section and available at in-person meetings.]

Why wasn’t information about the 2024 Pelikan Hub on the website?

Pelikan Hubs are sponsored by Pelikan—the pen and stationery company—and are organized by independent volunteers. The Hubs are NOT Seattle Pen Club events. Members of SPC are usually heavily involved in organizing the hubs and many SPC members enthusiastically attend, but they are not Club-sponsored or -branded activities or meetings. Our little website simply can’t contain the whole pen world.

I want a list of local pen and stationery sellers on the website.

Here you go! Scroll to “Local/Regional Shops.” 

If you’d like to add any person or business to any of the categories listed on the Resources page, send it my way. Either tell me at a meeting or submit it through the Contact Us form. 

Please note, because Vancouver has so much to offer and they have their own club website, I have limited the definition of “local/regional” to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

Lake Forest Park and Redmond/Kirkland aren’t convenient for me for in-person meetings. 

We hear you! It's very difficult to find reliably available, super cheap/free, spacious, and ADA-accessible space in Seattle/King County. We meet in the Stadler Room at Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park because it meets those criteria (and only became crowded very recently). If the location of our current in-person meetings is keeping you away, you are more than welcome to invite pen friends for smaller casual hangouts in your neighborhood!

We're very active online too! You may join us on in our Facebook group or Discord server. The link for the Discord server can be requested via the Contact Us form or found in the Facebook group's About Us information. 

Having said that, we are looking for new venues for both the West Side (Lake Forest Park) and the East Side (Redmond/Kirkland) meetings. Can you help?

Our challenge is finding venues that meet ALL of the following criteria:

a) are consistently available for ~2 hours midday one consistent Saturday or Sunday per month

b) can comfortably accommodate 30+ people

c) can be reserved for 12 meetings per year for no more than $300 for the entire year (i.e., $25/meeting or less)

d) are conveniently located for a large number of club members with free parking and near a bus line

e) are ADA accessible (i.e., easily accessible for people who use mobility aids) 

Can you recommend a venue?

The West Side meeting will continue to take place in the Stadler Room in the Town Center at Lake Forest Park for 2025, but we’re open to a new place for 2026. 

In the meantime, we’d love a more consistent meeting place for our East Side meetings. We are in fierce competition with other groups for the meeting rooms at public libraries, which is why the location of the East Side meetings occasionally changes. Additionally, the libraries frown at our members selling anything during meetings. Churches and fraternal organizations (like Elk Lodges) are not good candidates because their spaces are not consistently available on weekends, and they charge much more than we are currently paying for the Stadler Room. 

If you know of a space, please either submit it through the website’s Contact Us form or ask Club Coordinator Marilyn at an in-person meeting.

I want a newsletter!

or

I signed up for the newsletter, but I haven’t received anything.

We have a monthly newsletter! If you’d like to be added to the list, send a request to Club Coordinator Susan via the Contact Us form.

If you have previously requested to be added to the email list but more than a month has passed and you haven’t received an email, send another request via the Contact Us form. The listserv can be a little buggy. Try again! We want to include you!

And if you ever want to include something in the newsletter, feel free to submit it via (you guessed it) the Contact Us form. 

How can I get more involved?

We are currently recruiting volunteers for the tasks or positions below. 

Artists: We want to create Seattle Pen Club vinyl stickers! Please send us your original designs. We'd like designs to include the words "Seattle Pen Club" and include the club's web address (SeattlePenClub.com). We'd love to feature the designs on the website too.

Club member Casey is coordinating this ongoing project. Please send your own original work and/or any questions to CaseyPens [@] gmail [.] com. We hope to produce several designs in the coming months/years, so there is currently no deadline.

Discord Moderator: Several people have requested an SPC Discord server as a place for club members to socialize online outside of meetings. If you are interested in setting this up and responsibly moderating it, please reach out to me (Alicia) at a meeting or send a query through the website’s Contact Us form. [Update March 2025. We have launched our Discord!]

Have an idea for an event, activity, or something else? Float it to Susan or Marilyn, our terrific club coordinators via the Contact Us form or at a meeting! Susan is also the primary admin of our Facebook group (username Art Pen).