Last Friday, I had the honor of being the Hubmaster (“HM”) for the Palo Alto Pelikan Hub for the second year in a row. I wanted to share some thoughts as a Hubmaster so folks get some insight into what that means, especially if you’re thinking of volunteering as HM next year.
If you haven’t heard about the Pelikan Hub before, here’s an article from last year that talks about it in more detail, but in short, it is a Pelikan-sponsored, volunteer-led pen meetup that happens on the same day at locations all around the world.
Pelikan requires individuals to register/sign up for a Pelikan Hub. New for this year was a two-step process (I don’t know why). The first step in late April/early May was filling out a Save the Date application to participate in the Pelikan Hub. A couple weeks later, you received an email inviting you to complete the registration process with a username and password, allowing you to change your selected hub city down the road (up to a certain date so they can ship the right number of gifts to the right locations).
I don’t think there was a location drop down menu, just a blank field for you to enter a city/region that you want to attend. Assuming at least 7 people signed up for that location and that one of them also checked the box to say “I volunteer to be a Hubmaster”, Pelikan approves that Hub location. This allows them to know who will organize the local Hub as well as where to ship the Pelikan goodies. If no one volunteers to be a Hubmaster, Pelikan will email folks that signed up for that location, informing them that there is no Hubmaster and if no one steps up, there will be no Hub there.
Once Pelikan sorts through all the registrations, they notify the volunteer that they are the Hubmaster for their location. If there are multiple volunteers who want to be Hubmaster, Pelikan decides who gets to be HM, but I presume that what you write in the registration comments is taken into account. I also think that experience as prior Hubmaster will likely give you an advantage, even if you were the HM in another city/state, but that’s just a guess. Pelikan sends the HM a list of the registered attendees along with their email addresses. At this point, it is up to the HM to get in touch with their attendees.
At the same time, Pelikan sends an email to the attendees, informing them of the Hub location. They don’t tell them who their HM is, and there is no further communication from Pelikan. I saw lots of posts on IG and FB from folks all over the world who were frustrated because they hadn’t heard a peep about their Hub, they didn’t know who their HM was, couldn’t reach out to find out if the Hub was still happening, where it was, etc. I understand that some HMs were trying to secure a location before sending out an email but this frustration and radio silence could have easily been avoided with a simple email, even if it’s just to say “Hi, I’m Kimberly and I’ll be the Hubmaster for Palo Alto. Stay tuned for more info!”
In July, Pelikan notifies the HM with a tracking number for the Hub gifts and other supplies. This year’s gifts included Pelikan-branded paper pad, a bottle of the Ink of the Year, and a postcard of the upcoming M600 Art Collection - Glaucoma Cambon, and the Hub supplies included a Pelikan Hub banner, Pelikan-branded name tag labels, permanent markers (for the banner), a sign-in sheet and a gift for the HM. Last year, since it was the first Hub since the pandemic, Pelikan did not include any ink. People were glad that Pelikan resumed giving inks as part of the Hub gifts. Note that people generally did NOT like seeing photos of the gifts because they felt like it should be a surprise, and that people should want to go to the Hub regardless of what the gifts are, etc.
The Pelikan Hub banner and gifts from Pelikan.
As HM, my biggest challenge was trying to find a place to host the event. Last year, we had 18 people attend the Hub, but this year, I had 31 people. I wasn’t sure that the same location would be able to fit that many people, so I spent a lot of time looking around. Finding a venue can be fairly easy if you have a 7-person Hub, but if you’re the HM for a big hub like Denver or Berlin or Quezon City (50+) or DC where there were 100+ attendees (!!!!), it can be an extra daunting task. The only places you’re not allowed to have a Pelikan Hub are those with a religious affiliation, aka no churches, mosques, temples, or related property.
There was some drama around some hubs that charged a fee to attend. Pelikan Hubs are supposed to be free events, so this caused quite a stir. I think that it’s important to realize that free event spaces aren’t always easy to find, especially if you have a large group and that HMs aren’t given any stipend or allowance to pay for a venue (and I don’t think it’s Pelikan’s job to do so either.) Asking their attendees up front for input on costs (of venue and/or food) would go a long way in avoiding any ill-will or drama.
Here are some ideas for venues: Restaurants - some places will allow private parties without a fee if you spend a certain amount. Community centers Libraries Outdoor parks/picnic areas Food courts at shopping malls Company conference rooms (depending on the company’s policies, of course)
After I was notified that I was the HM for Palo Alto, I sent an email to everyone on my list (I BCC’d because not everyone wanted their emails shared) introducing myself and letting them know that I was looking for a larger space because we were looking at a 30+ person Hub this year. I also asked folks to confirm their attendance and if they were interested in me buying pizzas for dinner. I also told them that I would not be shipping or delivering Pelikan gifts if they could not attend the hub (more on this later). I sent another email once I confirmed the location and a couple more times before the actual hub. I included parking information, the agenda (hint: there was none) and other important information like you don’t need to have any Pelikans, bring anything you want to destash, giveaway or sell, bring your favorite notebook, etc.
Every HM runs their Hubs differently - some choose to make gift bags with gifts in addition to the Pelikan ones, some have ink testing stations, or sample stations, or door prizes, or slideshow on Pelikan history, etc. Some HMs ask vendors to provide goods for raffles or giveaways. There is no right or wrong way to run a Hub - as I said earlier, it’s about getting people together to celebrate pens, and a great way for Pelikan to get some publicity and good will out to the pen community. If you’re looking for ideas for next year, both the Pelikan Hubs Facebook group as well as the Pelikan_Passion IG (Hubs 2023 stories) are filled with pictures and posts from Hubs around the world if you want to see how the different groups varied in size, location, activities, etc.
Since I was coming off the heels of a travel-filled August and SF Pen Show, I wanted to keep the PA Hub low key. I already had Hub goodies and other things I wanted to raffle and give away. Someone had brought a sample set of all of the Iroshizuku inks to give away, so I snagged those for a raffle prize too. I came up with some Pelikan questions - some about the Hub, some about Pelikan models and even some about me (Which was my first Pelikan? (Pelikan M200 Smoky Quartz) Most recent Pelikan purchase? Pelikan M215 Blue Stripe), and every correct answer gave them a raffle ticket. After we had pizza and held the raffle, we took a group photo, people roamed around the room, showing off their pens and trying other people’s pens, looking at people’s sell binders, picking up freebies that people put in the destash pile. It was a fun time, so much so, that as usual, I forgot to take photos during the Hub. Oops. :-D
Got the banner hung up!
I did manage to get everyone in the photo!
The flock that I brought to the Hub, including the Pink M600 which was inked up with the Pelikan Ink of the Year, Rose Quartz.
All in all, based on feedback from the attendees, people had a good time and enjoyed meeting new people and playing with each other’s pens. So I count that a success!
A few things I wanted to call out:
People didn’t know about Pelikan Hub - You can’t sign up for something you don’t know about, right? If you’re in the group of folks who didn’t know about the Hub until it was too late, there are a couple options to get more information for future Hubs. (1) Follow Pelikan_Passion on Instagram or (2) Pelikan Hubs on Facebook. You should start seeing information about the Hub around the May timeframe. If you’re in-the-know about Hubs, share it with your pen friends/followers/subscribers/pen group members/Slack/Discord/IG, etc.
Hub locations are unknown during registration - When you are signing up for Hub, Pelikan doesn’t have a listing of cities until a couple weeks AFTER registration is complete. So, if you lived in the Bay Area, for example, you might not know that there were Hubs for San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Jose, Oakland or East Bay. So how would you know what to enter if you didn’t have a list? A lot of people didn’t know that’s how this worked - all they knew was that last year’s Hub was 2 hours away, so they didn’t even bother registering!
Pelikan, if you’re reading this, figure out how to implement this better in the registration process.
If you know 7 or more folks who want a Hub in another city, make sure you all enter the same thing when registering for a Hub, like “San Rafael, CA”. Date/time not very convenient - Friday night at 6:30PM isn’t the best time for a lot of people to meet. They have jobs and families that they may need to take care of before going to Hub. And that doesn’t even include rush hour traffic. After this year’s Hub, I asked my attendees if they had a preference for Friday or Saturday and if the latter, whether they’d prefer a day or evening location. Most of them said they would much rather meet on Saturday. I also intend to provide this feedback to Pelikan so that maybe we can have a Hub weekend instead of it being Friday night at 6:30pm. I know of at least one Hub that asked to hold theirs on Saturday instead because it was easier to find a venue for their large Hub.
Hubmasters aren’t unknown until they reach out - I think that Pelikan should let the attendees know who the HM is for their Hub. They don’t have to give out their email but they should at least know their name. I saw so many posts asking “Do you know who the HM of XYZ City is?” Of course, the onus is still on the HM to reach out (and to do so early and more than once), but knowing who their HM is upfront can avoid a lot of confusion. What about people who didn’t register but want to attend? - This is entirely at the discretion of the HM. Several people were unable to attend so I knew that I would have room for extra folks, so I let them know they could attend but I might not have gifts for them since Pelikan doesn’t send extras. But…
Extra Pelikan gifts - Since some folks couldn't make it, I decided to give unregistered attendees the gifts. What if you still have extras? This is my opinion only, but I feel that, as HM, you’ve already volunteered your time and effort to put on the Hub, so you don’t have to expend more energy to deliver or ship the gifts, unless you want to. I repeatedly told my attendees that I would not be delivering or shipping anything but that I would bring them to our weekly posse meetups for the next several weeks for them (or a friend) to pick up. You can also donate them to a destash table, save them as gifts for next year - whatever you want.
Ask for help/volunteers - Just because you’re the HM doesn’t mean you have to do everything. My introductory email asked for volunteers for setup and cleanup as well as options for venues. Ask for volunteers to figure out food (finding a restaurant or picking up pizza), donating stuff for a raffle, etc. It was great to have a person check people in and give them their gifts, so I could focus on finishing setup, etc. Obviously, the bigger the Hub, the more you’ll need volunteers but even if you have a small Hub, ask the group for things they want to destash or to come up with Pelikan trivia, etc.
HAVE FUN - Remember, if you’re the HM, have fun! You don’t have to make it a big event with lots of activities, unless you want to! You just have to get people together, pass out goodies and enjoy each other’s company! And if you’re not the HM, have fun! This is a great opportunity to meet other pen enthusiasts and see/try pens you might not get to see otherwise (especially if there aren’t any pen shows in your area).
As I said before, it was an honor to have been a Hubmaster again this year and have already begun brainstorming ideas for next year’s Hub! Until next Hub, stay safe and stay inky!
