What I meant is that the Postcrossing site is set up to organize the event listings by location, or on the calendar page by date. Because virtual meetings are, in a sense, location less, they are not set up to accommodate that. Thus you have to list the virtual meeting as occurring somewhere (we use the home location of the host for ours), so that the time issue gets covered correctly. You can list your event on the site, it is just clunky. But because of that, it is difficult to search for virtual events to attend. Best practice is to list that the event is virtual in the title of the event, then end users can easily see that on the calendar,
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@meiadeleite @Star-Mix-1982 (I found the link finally, sorry for messaging you before)
Thank you @eta55 for the lessons learnt and writing it down here. Am I correct, that there are no upcoming virtual MeetUps?
I would like to organise a face to face meet up in London (UK). (I have never attended one) I would be interested if you could share an learnings from physcial meet ups?
If I was to have a Design Card made (I would pay for it),
- How does the card signing work?
- Who pays the postage, or
- What account does the postcard come out of?
I have about 21 slots that a postcard could be sent, but do I share that with others in the meet up?
- Do people generally like visiting Postal Museums and then do postcard signing?
- Do MeetUp normally happen in cafes? Do you tell the cafe in advance?
- What is the best number for a Meet Up? Min 8 slots up to 20 slots?
Any other learnings/ experiences from Face to Face meet ups?
Thank you for your tips and answers!
Seaview
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Face-to-Face meetups lessons learned:
Bottom Line Up Front: Attend a few meetups and see how it is done and ask the hosts about their experience. Then cherry pick what you liked about the events and use those aspects to design your own.
At its most basic, a meetup is simply a gathering of those who enjoy this hobby. In general, the most basic activities that people engage in at meetups is a discussion of Postcrossing experiences, and a sharing of one’s knowledge gained. In my experience, the host usually designs and has printed a postcard to commemorate the event. The host usually bears the expense for this process, and does not charge for the card. Usually, that card contains the Postcrossing logo, which can be downloaded from the site, and is copyrighted, so be sure to follow their guidelines. Commonly, all of the cards printed for the event are then passed around amongst the group, and each attendee “signs” the card, either manually with a writing instrument, or by use of a rubber stamp or sticker. Once all of the cards have been signed, the host usually distributes the signed cards to each attendee, so that every one leaves with some. It is also common practice at that point for attendees to address cards to people they share them with (trades, direct swaps, friends, family, whomever), including themselves (always good to send a card to yourself from an event!), so that they can be sent locally with an appropriate postmark. All attendees are responsible for the postage when they send the cards.
Here’s some key gouge:
- Venue: this is the hardest part. One needs to find a venue that will accommodate the entire group, but ideally incurs no cost. Cafes and learning centers in museums or visitor centers, or a table at a postcard show are some ideas here. Some folks are very organized about this and some do it more ad-hoc. Two examples:
a - I recently attended a meetup that was held outdoors in a park, and we commandeered a couple, of picnic tables in the park. We got lucky with available tables and good weather for this one!
b - I have also attended an event held inside a postal museum where the hostess coordinated with the museum to use their learning center (a private room) to host the event.
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RSVPs: great to ask for but don’t count too heavily on them. This goes hand-in-hand with venue, and is part of what makes hosting a challenge. In my experience you will get 30-50% more positive RSVPS than the number of people who actually show up. Life gets in the way sometime, just part of the challenge really! The numbers can vary, I find that the local (or regional) population density can be used as a rough gauge to estimate the number of postcrossers who may be available. You can also search on the postcrosser website to get a sense of how many people in that area are active in the hobby.
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Where to begin (LOCATION): One aspect to picking your location is accessibility. Is there adequate parking available there? Is it near a public transportation hub? Make it easy for your attendees to get to and you will get more attendees! In major urban centers it is often good practice to meet at a given subway/metro/tube stop and then walk to the venue. Consider how everyone will recognize each other (at the last event I attended we all met a DC Metro stop and everyone wore green). The host should consider carrying a postcard!
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With regard to all of the above, consider the aged and physically challenged; postcrossers come in all shapes and sorts of bodily configurations, try to be inclusive as you can!
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Often at an event, the transit from where attendees initially gather to the venue includes shopping stops along the way where postcards can be bought. Postcrossers seem to like postcards for some reason, and this always seems to appeal! Train stations, museums, souvenir shops, visitor centers all may have postcards and all are locations you may be able to leverage along the way.
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Some hosts do much more extensive events, that include a tour of a local landmark first, or some other activity. These are fun, and you learn more, but it takes more time and work to set up, and requires more time on the part of the attendee, and not everyone will want to give up a whole day of their weekend. If you do decide to go that route, make that part optional.
Direct answers to your questions:
- I’ve already answered the first two
- Not sure what you mean by " 1. What account does the postcard come out of?"
- Postcrossers generally enjoy visiting postal museums
- Cafes can be a challenge; in general they expect paying customers, and you will want a fair number of tables all together; it would be best to arrange this ahead of time
- How many attendees? Crunch the numbers. How many cards do you want each person to leave with? How many cards will you need to have printed? What is the cost? Also the more cards you print, the more there will be to sign. The last event I attended had a dozen attendees, and it took us about 90 minutes to sign. I think there were about 500 cards brought and I think we signed 400 of them. Also consider that the card can get kind of crowded with more signatures…10 to 20 attendees is my sweet spot. If you got 20 attendees and printed 250 cards that delivers 11 cards per person. I usually print 500 cards, and I am swimming in extras…good for trade, but many are blank and less useful for trade.
There’s my thoughts and experiences, hope you meet with success and have a great time. I would happily attend an event in London were it not for the Atlantic Ocean, which is something of an impediment for me at this point!
Good Luck!
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Thank you @eta55
I like your response and it has helpful insights.
There is a lot to think about here.
You answered all my questions.
A shame the Atlantic Ocean is an impediment to you joining a Meet Up.
When the day comes, that I host a Meet Up, you will be the first postcard written. I promise.
Have a great summer!
Smiles, Seaview
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I would like to know more information on the meet up in Madison Wisconsin? I was wondering how long it is? And where it is going to be held at? Cuz that’s about the closest place for me. I’m new to these meet ups.
@bellamae: All information is posted here: Madison, Wisconsin Meetup - Saturday, October 9th, 2021
But this one (not yet added to the “official” list - I guess the admins will do so shortly - edit: now it is) is even closer to you: Rochester (SE Minnesota), Sept 18, 2021
I am hosting the one in Rochester and plan to attend in Madison, so feel free to ask any questions.
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Thank you. I just saw the one for Rochester. And asked a bunch of questions.
Here in Norway it is common that the participants buy the desired amount of postcards from the creator and pay what it costed to print that number of postcards. Some order few cards and some order many from the creator.
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There’s no meetup account. So people just draw officials themselves when they send meetup postcards. Or they send the meetup cards as swaps or RAS.
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@Norway_girl Thanks for letting me know.
It was the one thing I was not sure of.
I can not wait to go to a meet up one day to understand how it works.
Smiles,
JoannA
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I do wonder, how people find the ‘creator’ or designer, who designs the postcards.
But that is a great idea, that the organiser pays for the design, or designs it themselves, and participants can pay for how many they want printed directly from the designer/creator.
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Sometimes the host of the meetup creates the card. Other times a participant volunteers to make it.
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You are welcome to join us at our next virtual meetup, it is posted on the meetup calendar on these forums, “6th Annual Washington, D. C. Meetup” will bet hosted on 02 OCT 2021 on Zoom.
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How do I create a virtual meetup?
Azimvth - you might want to read my post from November of 2020 in this thread, it has some pointers.
Hi! How do I place my meeting in the meeting calender??
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Just create the topic on the respective meetups section and if all the details are in there, soon @mundoo will add it to the calendar.
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Did not happen
@seaview - For the German meetups, the cards get posted by the creator(s) in the meetup thread, so that everyone has a chance to buy.
You can usually choose between having them mailed to you prior to the meeting (which is good for preparation) or pick them up at the meeting.
Like @Norway_girl said, it is not typical here that the host will pay for the cards, the participants will.
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I’m sure @mundoo will add it to the calendar when she has time to do it. She’s in another part of the world than us. And people have a life outside Postcrossing as well.
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