Let’s meet and make friends!
Postcards are great… but ultimately it’s the people and connections created that make them special. So, it’s only natural that postcrossers enjoy getting together too for a meet&greet and to share their common interest in Postcrossing. We call these meetings “Postcrossing meetups”.
These meetups are informal get-togethers, organized by the members themselves — anyone can create or join one, and they can be a lot of fun. Every month there are meetups all around the world and some postcrossers even travel to other countries to participate in them!
Curious for learn more? Then,
-
check the Meetups Calendar if there’s one happening in your area or in a place you can travel to;
-
read the Meetup Guidelines to make sure everything goes smoothly;
-
check out the FAQ below or you can ask questions in General Meetup Discussions.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who organizes the meetups?
Anyone! Really, YOU can organize one yourself! Do you know other postcrossers in you area who may be interested in a get-together? Great, then read on.
2. How do I start a meetup?
Here are some useful tips to get you started:
-
Make sure there isn’t already a meetup being organized in your region. It’s easier to simply join an existing one than to start one from scratch. You can check the list of upcoming meetups here.
-
It’s a good idea to first check if there’s at least some people who would join. You might already know other local postcrossers, so ask them if they would like to meet over some postcards and coffee! If you don’t know anyone yet, then perhaps it’s a good idea to try to find some local postcrossers on the forum or, instead, try to join an existing meetup that you can travel to.
-
Have you found that there’s enough interest for a meetup in your area? Great! Then go ahead and announce it here in the forum. You’ll need to create a topic for your meetup at least 14 days ahead of it, so that other local postcrossers get the chance to know about it and decide to join. For ease of viewing by members, you can use the following template for the forum topic:
Subject: Country, City/Region, Date
CITY/REGION:
MEETUP PLACE:
DATE:
TIME:
MEETUP PLAN:
The first post announcing the meeting should be written in English, but the remaining discussion can be conducted in your own local language.
If some information is missing, a moderator will reach out to you and ask you to complete it. It’s also common practice to keep a list of the people who will be attending, which you can do on the topic itself.
Still unsure on how to go about it? Have a look on the Meetup Guidelines and check the #meetups category, to see how other meetups are being organized.
3. What do people do in meetups?
Write and send postcards, of course - no surprise there, is it? 
Postcard writing is probably the most common activity for a meetup, but that’s not a rule. Meetups can be as short as a couple of hours in a cafe, or be several days long and include activities like city tours and sightseeing. It really depends on the meetup, the place, the number of people joining, etc.
It’s common for meetups to include some postcard shopping stops… after all, postcrossers tend to know all the best places for that!
Another thing that seems to happen a lot at meetups is postcard signing. That’s when everyone signs all postcards sent from that meetup. Nobody is quite sure how it started, but it does seem to happen on most meetups… sort of a tradition!
For large meetups, there may be individual badges with the member’s name/username - that can be handy to help recognize familiar usernames.
4. What should I bring with me?
If you’d like to write some postcards, bring them with you along with a pen or two, and maybe some stamps if you want to post your cards. Some meetups include stops where you can take care of most of that (postcard shops, post office, etc), so you can plan in advance. Check the meetup forum topic regularly for more details on the plans. And don’t forget your address book if you use one!
5. How do I list my meetup?
Once you have created a forum topic for it with all the details (location, date, etc), a moderator will review it and add it to the Events calendar within a few days.
6. I’m planning to make some special postcards for this meeting… Can I use the Postcrossing logo on them?
Yes… if you follow the rules. Please check the Logo Guidelines page for all answers about using the logo in your Postcrossing activities. Note that postcards made for online meetings cannot use the Postcrossing logo.
7. I still have a question about meetups - where do I ask?
Just leave your question on the Discussion topic!