Tri-State Postcrossers group

Language & Geographical Communities North America
#1

I’d like to gauge interest in starting a local Tri-State Postcrossers group for in person meetups - following local Covid restrictions and guidelines.

Tri-State area

We’d be meeting in a rotation of areas in the the CT, NJ, and NY area. I’m thinking something seasonal, or every month or two. I’d love a centralized method of communications to get help in scoping out meetup locations and discussing dates. I’ve organized a handful of meetups in NY, PA, and DC in the last year, and met some really awesome people along the way.

Communication

We can maintain an ongoing thread here to discuss upcoming dates, designs, locations ideas, etc. I’ve seen some very organized, but extremely long threads. It can be done.

Alternatively we can create a Facebook group - but I’m not sure if everyone will have FB or be active on it. I’m open to suggestions, but for now, I’ve added a poll to see which direction to take this.

  • Ongoing Postcrossing forum thread
  • Facebook group

0 voters

Meetup postcards

I’ve been licensing art and using my personal Adobe license to create and print postcards via Vistaprint, but totalling to about $70-100 out-of-pocket per meetup, it’s not the most sustainable for me in the long run. Any ideas for a better method is welcome. For my last meetup, the attendees chipped in at-cost for their cards, which helped me a lot.

@Hobbittsy @LisaAquarius @ayellowdaffodil @citlalidoessnailmail - moving this convo here so as not to mix up the April 30 Tarrytown meetup thread :smile: Also tagging @cabanafred @Livletliv @RockyRoadTrip

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[Beacon, NY] World Postcard & International Coffee Day (Metro North Accessible) Oct 1, 2022
#2

Upcoming Meetups

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#3

Archived Meetups

1 Like
#4

Reserved 3

#5

Reserved 4

#6

We can start a discussion while we figure out the best place to organize.

First meeting

:tada: Let’s start discussing a neighborhood and date! :smile:

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Bordentown NJ Meetup, 8 Oct 2022
#7

Thank you for creating this thread/group, @silverdragonia!

Did you see this October 8 NJ meetup thread: Bordentown NJ Meetup, 8 Oct 2022 - #16 by stunclock
I will invite people from this thread to join our group. We could also add a link to this thread to our profiles so that more people could learn about it.

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#8

Sure! :slight_smile:
I would prefer meeting in NJ or NY. I believe that most of us would prefer meeting on weekends.

I’ve never been to Newark, if anyone is interested in visiting this city, I could do some research on it. I’m sure there should be some souvenir shops and interesting places to visit.

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#9

I voted for both a Forum thread and a FB group because either is fine with me. I’d love to help find spots and host. Poughkeepsie and Mid-Hudson Valley is easiest for me because I know it and I’m here but I like the idea of moving around a bit. Especially if there are people who are at various spots to research, and if we can use public transport or carpool.

Newark sounds great, and I’ve marked Bordentown on my calendar tentatively.

Bimonthly sounds like about a good frequency to me. I’m somewhat flexible on days because I’m not working but agree that weekends may be easier for many. So given that we’ve got Tarrytown in late April and Bordentown in early Oct, perhaps we could think about something in June and something in August?

And maybe one of the spots that does summer street art would be fun? I see that Catskill has confirmed their cats and Saugerties is doing owls. I’d be happy to scout out those places for possibilities, alone or with someone else. Or maybe there’s another idea.

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#10

Thanks! I’m hosting the 8 Oct 2022 meet-up.

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22 May 2022 - How about an NYC meetup?
#11

Hi all! Thanks for inviting me to this group. I do vote on a Facebook Group. An ongoing forum thread would be fine too.
.
The 8 Oct 2022 meet-up in Bordentown is mine. I certainly would love to host future events - do allow me to get this one done first. The Library where the meet-up is at is my employer (thus I can use the room without issue). If the event is successful, I have leverage for another meet-up - most likely 1x a year. I went for October because Bordentown celebrates Halloween big time.

Bordentown has a Cranberry Festival the first weekend of October. That does bring in a very large crowd. I choose not to do a meet-up on Cranberry festival (or any other event/festival happening in Bordentown) because of parking. I wanted to ensure the meet-up attendees could find a parking spot since roads are closed for the festival/event. No one wants to drive around an unknown area searching for parking spot - only to find out a) must parallel park or b) walk blocks away.

I do concur providing meet-up cards on a frequent basis can be a pricey endeavor that all may not be able to do. Other options would be welcome.

Regarding a Newark NJ meet-up. All I am familiar with Newark is there’s an airport and a NJ transit train stop. Other than that, I know nothing.

That’s my feedback for now. Thanks.
Barb

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#12

As I said in the Tarrytown thread, I think this is a wonderful idea! @silverdragonia I grew up in NYC, and am in the Yonkers NY area for school now, so I would be more than happy to assist in planning meetups for the NYC area.
@Hobbittsy suggested doing a meetup in June. I am currently trying to reserve space around June 25 / the NYC pride parade for a NYC post crossing pride meetup.

Going forward, I think offering meet up post cards at-cost is reasonable, especially as we construct a formal group. I think there also may be a way we can be inclusive for those who the at-cost price maybe too much. Creating a donation scale between a minimum of $1-$5 and asking people to chip in what is possible for them, is one way people who can afford to donate a little more, will compensate for those that contribute a little less. If there is excess, we can always save it in a group fund for future meetup cards. As @BPLUM said, there’s no reason meet-up cards have to be on a frequent/consistent basis.

I do not have Facebook, but I can always create one if that works best for the group!

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#13

I mentioned Newark because it’s a big city and it’s close to NYC, but I just read about it, and it seems that it is not really worth a visit, unless you’re going to watch a game or a show.

#14

I’m so excited to see that there’s interest in both organizing and attending :smile:

@LisaAquarius Thanks for the cross posting - I’ve also added the Oct meetup to the list up top. I can further organize this thread over the weekend as I’m a bit busy with work this work. I don’t know Newark all that well - I’ve been looking up any area with a boardwalk or museum.

@Hobbittsy I know you mentioned you know the Hudson Valley area better so that would be a great help for me. I hosted a meetup last year at the Poughkeepsie Barnes & Noble, but I don’t really know where else to meet, and definitely have no idea where we can get local postcards. Maybe the Walkway someday warm?

@BPLUM I’m looking forward to the Oct meetup - thank you so much for organizing it! I love the idea of visiting during the Halloween season, sounds like fun!

@citlalidoessnailmail Barb brought up a good point about parking - since a lot of non-city folks would probably be driving in or taking the metro, I’ve been trying to find locations that are both car and transit friendly. And free or low-cost lol. I love the idea of doing a pride month meetup!

I love meetup postcards so I’m open to other printing options if anyone has tips. For my last meetup, I asked for pre-orders for the printing and charged 50 cents per card. It was a small order so I still took a loss, but it still helped offset the cost. For Tarrytown, I just went ahead and ordered 500 (:bangbang: :rofl:) cards to drive to cost down to about twenty-something cents per card.

Is anyone interested in designing cards? I’m not great at digital art, so I’ve just been buying licenses for art. I do have a history in photography and I still have my Photoshop subscription. If we had a group of resident artists contributing that would be really cool.

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#15

thanks for the idea, poll and options … it’s exciting to see the interest. I’m in Connecticut and there are several PCers here. If I can help scouting places, I’d do that. I hope by fall I can be more active with PCing again. I voted for PC forum for info exchange, I don’t do FB for a variety of reasons, but I know that’s popular.

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#16

I am interested and I live in NYC area. Please keep me posted.

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#17

Ooh, I just realized this is going to be close to the Bordentown meetup, but Oct 1 is World Postcard Day!

I’d love to do a meetup that day. Last year I did a group buy of postcards for the official postcard design (along with a Postcrossing meetup card :joy:).

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#18

I’ve bought postcards locally at:

  • Locust Grove’s gift shop on Rte 9 - a few pretty watercolors of the Hudson River
  • Walkway over the Hudson did have a few cards last summer but their shop isn’t always open
  • Loeb Art Gallery on Vassar campus - They have lots of choices of art from their permanent collection including Hudson Valley scenes but it’s cash only. $1 per card, no additional tax. Entry to the art gallery is free and it’s just inside the Main Gate off Raymond Ave.
  • Three Arts Bookstore on Collegeview had a few postcards relating to Vassar College history last time I checked

I haven’t checked the Vassar College bookstore on the corner of Collegeview and Raymond. It seems like a likely spot. Didn’t see any at Vanderbilt. Haven’t been inside at Roosevelt or Valkill but maybe the next time I hike those. I also haven’t been inside the gift shop at the CIA recently. And I suppose Marist must have a bookstore or gift shop. I’ll look into those, and I’ll keep my eyes open generally.

I tried to add Poughkeepsie to the list of where to buy cards in the US but it didn’t stick. Not sure if I did something wrong or if it got deleted for space reasons.

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#19

I’d love to attend a meetup on Oct 1, too. Maybe something small, knowing that we’ll be meeting with a larger group the next week?

How was Barnes & Noble as a location? I could also reserve us a room with a long table in my church (free since I’m a member). Or look around for another spot in Pok.

(I’m excited for my first World Postcard day as a Postcrosser. I’ve already made a couple of cards to send out, and plan to do some more.)

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#20

Barnes & Nobles was decent - there’s ample parking and right on rte 9, but I imagine its not the best if someone were to want to come up from say, NYC by public transit. We sat in the Starbucks cafe, and took up three tables. It wasn’t noisy, we ordered drinks and no one bothered us. I was hoping for more stationery options.

I thought about Beacon, because there are cute shops like Zakka Joy on Main st, but I’m not sure where we could meet/sit down/swap and sign cards. If we’re note worried about postcard shopping, I know the Wappingers Starbucks has nice seating, if we’re a small group. Or maybe the Panera. I looked into local libraries, but it seemed more complicated to rent a room (insurance + costs) than I’m used to from my hometown.

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