L.I. Pen Club Questionnaire

At our last Long Island Pen Club meeting, I gave members a pen
questionnaire. It was a refreshing change of pace. I thought they'd
take it home and fill it out, but everyone insisted on filling it out
right then and there. I think it was because it gave everyone an
opportunity to use their pens. And it gave me an opportunity to see
their handwriting and to find out a little bit about the members and
what they get, and would like to get, out of pen club meetings.
I thought this might be of interest to other pen people as well so I'm
posting it in a few groups.

Regarding collecting:
Most of our members have been using pens since grade school, but
actually started collecting them in the past 15 years or so. The
majority have about 200 - 250 pens, some have many more, others have
less. We have an equal number of people who consider themselves
collectors versus users, and some are in both camps. Regarding the
percentage of vintage versus modern pens, most people sway extremely in
one direction or the other with only one person being 50/50. A little
over half the people swayed more towards vintage pens.

Regarding meetings:
I found out that the only day everyone seems to be able to make it is
Thursday nights. Why Thursday? I don't know. Everyone seems agreed
that a semi-structured meeting is best for us. Most like meeting every
6 weeks.

Why we attend pen club meetings:
Everyone, without exception, seemed to agree in unison as to why we
attend pen club meetings; We come to learn, to buy, to sell, to trade,
and most importantly we all agreed we come to enjoy the company of other
people who enjoy collecting/using fountain pens.

None of the news in the informal survey was really surprising or earth
shattering, but I wonder if these are the general characteristics of
most pen club members. It would seem that most of the members are
within the 40 - 59 age group, but I didn't ask age, income, or
occupation questions.
Do you think we all share certain traits?

I'll see all of you Long Island Pen Club members (and new members) at
the next meeting on Thursday, June 10th at Hofstra University across
from the Nassau Colisseum. Join us for show and tell, buy/sell/trade,
and the tentatively scheduled lecture in which member Rich Picciochi, a
retired NYPD detective, will be discussing his specialty work involving
forensic document examination using handwriting analysis and ink
analysis.

Nancy