I’ve received just one, and I got it before I came into the forum, so I hadn’t got a clue about what was that about. I noticed it some weeks ago, really, and I liked it then. That’s the reason why I suggest writting at least a sentence explaining it 
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I like receiving them, I like the idea of getting a postcard commemorating other postcrossers getting together to share their hobby. Sometimes I see names on them I recognize, which is fun.
I’ve been to a few meetups, and sent out some meetup cards during them. I try not to send them to people who say they don’t like them, or seem like they won’t like them. I’ve also sent out some meetup cards later - I often end up with a few extras and I’ll just send them along to people as normal cards and maybe tell them a bit about the meetup. Generally people have liked that as well.
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It is up to you, your choice. If the receiver likes the meetup card or not, it depends on the picture, stamp, wishes, etc. I personally like usually to receive PC-meetup cards but I have got some which I didn’t like. The most important thing in sending cards from the meetup: ID-number and the nickname of the sender (who is the sender of all those nicknames on the card).
(I don’t like tapes or stickers or any other decorations.)
An interesting array of responses. I have been to a few face-to-face meetup and hosted two. In my experience, much of the emphasis is on the signing of the cards, so that one has a souvenir to remember the meeting by. Usually everyone walks away with a few of these signed cards to be able to send to others. There is certainly a subset of the community who loves to collect these, as with many genres of card. I include myself in this group; I enjoy the idea that a gourd of people who share my hobby have gotten together and celebrated it. I also enjoy the creativity of the designs.
Among those who collect meetup cards, there is another subset: those who only want cards signed by all of the attendees. That in particular interests me, as there are a lot of posts in this thread that mention they specifically don’t care for that. I have been hosting virtual meetups since the pandemic began, and we feature a meetup card for each one of those, but they are always unsigned. Some folks do make an attempt to collect and print the signatures for such meetings on the cards when they are printed, but I don’t. So I always have a host of unsigned virtual meetup cards.
It is an interesting dichotomy. The focus of face-to-face meetups is often this frantic signing of the never-ending stack of card placed in front of you, but you get to meet local postcrossers. The focus of the virtual meetups is discussion and sharing of postcrossing knowledge, and the participants you get to meet are from all over the world, but there is no frantic card signing.
Like the cards themselves, each sort of meetup will appeal to some and not to others. In the end, my long winded answer to your questions is that there are many people who like meetup cards. But I suspect that there are just as many who don’t. In some cases it depends on the card; in others on the person.
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Well I seem to be in the minority in this thread, but I love meetup cards and I love seeing all the different rubber stamps! These cards seem to me like so much of condensed creativity. It’s great to recognize names, too.
I draw addresses and prepare cards before the meetups, but if they mention they don’t like them, of course I’ll send another card. So far, I only got very positive reactions. 
And I always include a bit of greetings with a very fine pen.
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If you - or any other reader of this thread - are open for meeting-cards, you could mention it in your profile. That way, attendees of meetings know, a win-win-situation for both 
If a profile states that meeting-cards are not welcome, of course I wouldn’t send one.
If there is nothing mentioned at all about meeting-cards (as in the majority of profiles, either because of indifference or they lack any wishlist or they don’t know that meetings exist at all), I let my gut decide, with a tendency towards the meetingcard.
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It has nothing to do with laziness. Stamps belong to meetup cards. That’s it.
Like (of course not a very good comparison) a Christmas tree belongs to Christmas etc.
And it’s simply faster to sign all the cards.
And then you’ve much more time to have a lot of fun with all those wonderful people you meet there. 
By the way I receive way more meetup cards WITH a personal greeting (not only by the sender but also by all participants) than WITHOUT. Sometimes also a long text; there are “normal” cards with less text.
I also only got positive reactions. I avoid send meet up cards if someone doesn’t like but if nothing is mentioned on the profile I send them. I had a lot of very positive reactions and I remember two or three people who sent me a message months later that they now attended their first meet up and it was fantastic
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I have gotten one meetup card before. I don’t dislike them so much I specifically mention them on my profile, but I do wish that people would write a little more on the back than just putting a bunch of signatures. I enjoy when people write messages on their cards, even if short.
That being said though, people can choose to write what they want. I’ve also gotten cards before with very short messages and that’s OK too!
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Its not laziness!!! When you go to a meet-up of 100 participants, you are very happy to have a stamp to sign all those hundreds/thousands of cards
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well yes, exactly. why do you need to ‘write’ hundreds of cards at one meeting? i thought meetings were for talking with each other and go shopping for new cards, but i get the impression people just sit down for hours and stamp away as quickly as possible. i don’t understand the fun in that.
but to each their own.
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If there’s 100 people at the meeting, of course there are hundreds of cards too. And of course people want as many names as possible on their cards. Usually those big meetings are international, sure there is a lot of discussion too, probably coffee and dinner too. I’ve participated many Åland Islands meetings too, they are 3-day events so there is a lot other activities besides card signing. But I have been to many meetups with only 2-5 people, there isn’t that much card signing… Every meeting is different depending on the place and participants, but still the main thing is ‘postcard’.
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I do that! I think it’s useful for people who are new or don’t seem too active, or they don’t seem to speak much English so they might not have found out about these things. I think it would be weird otherwise. That’s another reason why I value the space to write a little!
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As my personal opinion (in general siobhain, Kompis-Ninna and mchay already formulated perfectly, nothing to add)
I loved couple meeting cards:
- three friends each wrote 3-4 lines for me (it was for my barbarian profile), and it was a fierce kitten on it and a drawing of a barbarian
- other I liked are proper postcards fitting my likings but signed from meetings (not specially designed, each time I like the meeting card there are couple sentences from sender explaining the meeting, for example, first Austrian postcrossing stamp, or a resend card which also addressed ‘I hope you’ll hate this card’ challenge)
I don’t particularly enjoy any cards which are designed for meeting (except very specific wishlist related, like meeting on an icebreaker from St.Petersburg, which I’m dying to receive some day), something about them feels a bit off for me personally (I love many self prints etc, so it’s not that), like someone said before: a party I wasn’t invited, but forced to be enthusiastic about.
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I love them… I was so elated to receive this one from Finland
I’ve only been to one meet up (darn that covid!) but it was a fun experience and I want to go to more! I signed a bunch of cards there for other people, but I only kept one that was signed for myself as my souvenir. I purchased a stack of the unsigned cards and have sent them to people who request meet up cards in their profile. I always add a bit of information about the meet up, because that’s what I would want to receive. I’m one if the people who enjoy receiving the meet up postcards when I get one, but I really don’t need to see a bunch of names listed on the back. I received one of those when I first started Postcrossing and I couldn’t figure out what it meant, all those names!
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Well, the best way to understand how it (normally) works is to attend a meet up.
But I try nevertheless: you meet at a certain time and place. Then you go for sightseeing (sometimes also a guided tour), postcard shopping and so on. After about two hours (more or less) you go to the restaurant. Then you start to sign the cards (some also prepare their last cards) or you wait until lunch (or dinner) is over before signing.
While signing everyone is chatting, laughing, having fun. In almost 8 years and after attending about 20 meet-ups (little ones and bigger ones) I’ve never attended a meet-up where everyone was sitting in silence, without talking or laughing, in front of their cards.
Some of my best friends these days I met…through a meet-up.
Don’t get me wrong: If you say you cannot imagine that would be a thing for you - that’s of course totally okay (e. g. I don’t like very big meet-ups with more than 40-50 persons and try to avoid them because it confuses me). But I think you cannot judge if a meet-up is fun or not without having attended at least one
Also you don’t have to sign all of the cards if you think it’s enough at a certain point.
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This is some helpful discussion. I am in the process of planning my first hosted meet-up and designing the card for it. Based on what folks are saying, I am going to put a space on the back for people to have for their own message when they send the cards.
I don’t mind getting them because I see all the different user names, and then I look them up and see what the different folks are like - I find that interesting,
I, too, have a hard time understanding the card signing, or at least how much it seems to have “taken over” a lot of meetings. I’m told it’s traditional, so I have some time allotted for it in my planned meeting, but I made the choice to plan a limit of only 100 cards - and no one is forced to participate. Maybe someone who has been to more than me can add some insight; as I said, this is my first time hosting - and I want to keep it more casual and less “work like”, if that makes sense.
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I’m not a big fan of meetup cards because there is no real message on the back of most of them, instead a collection of signatures and stamps.
I’ve been to a few meetings and the signing of the cards always felt like a chore. So whenever I receive a card like this, it reminds me of the least fun part of my past PC meetings. Those meetup cards don’t awaken positive but negative feelings in me.
However, I have also received meetup cards with a personal message, from close friends, sometimes beautifully designed, that I loved and am going to keep forever.
So… it depends.
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about me, yes i do… i like meet up cards so much
it’s so interesting to collect cities cards from meetups
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