I am truly humbled. I did something I haven't done in far too long: I ran the numbers. And the numbers are looking great!
Type Pals connects 449 members in 34 countries!
Think of that. That is truly incredible.
Type Pals has its roots at the beginning of the pandemic. Bob Marshall (Typewriter Muse) and I were just getting started in promoting his local typewriter club when the pandemic struck. The world shut down, and so did our fledgling typewriter club.
In the coming months, many of us went back to work, but it wasn't business as usual. We had to get used to this new concept of virtual meetings. As we got acclimated to this new way of life, meeting people through Zoom or similar software became--dare I say it?--comfortable.
At some point, in a conversation with Bob, he had planted a seed in my mind of meeting fellow typewriter collectors online. In an a-ha moment, I put two and two together. On September 13, 2020--my birthday, of all days--I hosted the first ever Typewriter Club LIVE. The meeting was small--four people on-screen and a few more watching on YouTube--but it was enough to make me see the potential.
The meeting grew steadily to the point that we had a dozen or more people on-screen and dozens more watching the livestream. Hosted weekly and running up to four hours, many regulars would pop in and out of the meetings. Bonds were formed.
The only thing typewriter collectors enjoy more than talking about typewriters is using their typewriters. The natural next step--the origins of which are buried somewhere in those early meetings--was to become pen pals... with typewriters.
The first iteration of what would later become Type Pals started as a simple email newsletter featuring a list of names and addresses of members interested in exchanging letters. Next, we added birthdays to the list, offering just a bit of information to spark written conversations.
The pen pals list grew from a dozen or so to 20, then 30. As it approached 40 people, making for a LONG email newsletter, I knew I had to find a better solution... fast. After much searching, I discovered WildApricot membership software.
With the solution in hand, our typewriter pen pal group officially launched as Type Pals on March 19, 2021. We started right out of the gate with 50 or 60 members representing half a dozen countries. Through little effort on my part--this is, after all, just a hobby for me--we have steadily grown ever since.
I've said from the beginning: "Type Pals is, and always will be, free." That has not changed. Unfortunately, the costs of running Type Pals continue to change. But it is thanks to our paid members and donors that we can continue making valuable connections with people all over the world... with our typewriters.
Thank you for being a Type Pal!
