Announcements, Blog/Journal, News

Labors of Love

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Dear Lettermoians,

As we return from a long Labor Day weekend in the United States, we start to see signs of seasonal shift:

  • The third quarter edition of the United Stamps Postal Service postage catalog, Philetelic, has arrived in mailboxes.
  • Some of us are preparing our postcards for World Postcard Day (October 1).
  • Others are purchasing, pilfering, or pulling out stationery items for “-ber” monthly themes, such as school days, fall leaves, pumpkins galore, and approaching holidays.

The LetterMo Board continues to work on upcoming changes. Most recently, we virtually convened twice during the month of August to touch base on the new website’s layout and LetterMo 2024 rollout.

Last Call: Save Your Stuff

Please make sure to back up any LetterMo pen pal contact info by September 10.

Original August 2023 socials post recap: As LetterMo shifts to a new website, some information may be lost. Save any participant profile information from the LetterMo website you may wish to keep. It is recommended that all active members login to write down, print, or save electronically any directory information you may want to preserve, such as addresses, interests, or usernames.

We are looking forward to unveiling more details in the upcoming weeks, including a call for volunteers and a new LetterMo logo design contest. As always, we sincerely welcome your questions and comments at lettermo.contact@gmail.com.

Happy posting!

Blog/Journal

Change is in the air!

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We’re already halfway to 2024’s kick-off and wow, do we have news for you!

Big changes are taking place at LetterMo, including a new website, new forum, and a refresh of the social media and general vibe around here. We’re working hard to minimize the downtime for you, the members, while also maximizing the time to flex those writing fingers!

The most notable change is that we have bid adieu to our beloved founder, Mary Robinette Kowal, who has gone on to do great things with her writing career. She has entrusted the continued care of all things LetterMo to a board who is working overtime to keep the site as awesome as it was, while also breathing new life into the challenge. 

So meet LetterMo’s new board!

Chief Officer: A. Catherine Noon

Technical Operations Officer: Adam Yates

Acting Secretary: Nicole Ford Thomas

Treasurer: Christy Shorey

Membership Relations Officer: Caitlin Córdova

As a team, we’re working hard to make 2024 the best thing to happen to mail since the non-lick stamps! We appreciate your patience as we make this big change together and welcome your questions/comments at lettermo.contact@gmail.com. 

Stick with us, Posties! It’s about to get really good!

Announcements, Blog/Journal, News

Work in Progress

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Welcome to April, everyone.

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are beginning the process of transitioning this site to our new leadership structure.

Due to this, the page will not be reliably available in the upcoming months, as we deal with the Domain name and hosting, security, etc. We will also likely be turning off features on the site during this time.

Our Facebook group remains active, or if you need to contact the volunteer leadership team, you may reach us at LetterMo.contact@gmail.com

Announcements, Blog/Journal, News

LetterMo 2023 Wrap-up

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Welcome to March, LetterMo-ians. We have crossed the date line into March. We hope you’ve had a rewarding experience writing and receiving post for the past month. If you are so inclined, we encourage you to March on, and keep in contact with you pen pals, new and old.

This website becomes a bit of a ghost town from mid-March until January. The LetterMo.com website will be active and available to you during that stretch, however your industrious team of volunteer admins will be making improvements, and updates. This may cause minor disruptions to access to the site, but be confident we are working on it.

LetterMo.com Website Survey

In order to provide the best experience we can, we are asking 2023 LetterMo participants to give us feedback by way of a survey. Your answers will help volunteer admins know where to focus our energy.

https://tinyurl.com/LetterMo23Survey

The form has 13 questions in 5 sections, and should take about 10 minutes to complete.

GoFundMe

Thank you to those of you who contributed to the GoFundMe campaign we ran to raise the funds to keep LetterMo.com up and running for 2024.

I’m excited to say we reached our goal of $1,000, and a little beyond.

If you found LetterMo worthwhile, and still want to contribute, any additional funds we raise will be directed to the creator of LetterMo. She has generously been funding the website hosting and domain name despite turning over the care of the site to volunteer admins.

You can still donate here: https://tinyurl.com/LetterMo-2023-GoFundMe

Blog/Journal, Fun Things

Collaborative Blog Posts

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Why do you write letters or postcards?

I love the exchange and meeting new people from around the world. 

Fabi

What stories have you seen / read / heard that include letter-writing as an essential part of the plot or style?

Perhaps one of my favorite books written in a letter writing style is the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Anne Barrows and Mary Anne Shaffer. It was a very pleasant book to read, although the topic was not so charming, the German occupation of the Island of Guernsey during World War II.

I understand it was made into a movie. To date, I have never seen the movie. Sometimes when a book is much enjoyed the movie does not always live up to the written word.

MaryKayFL

The Flower Letters

Toucan

weylyn42
Announcements, News

Keep LetterMo.com Up and Running – Update

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We wanted to take a moment to thank our wonderful volunteers and donors. With one week remaining in the month, we have nearly reached our GoFundMe goal of $1,000.

Thank you for those who have already donated to Keep LetterMo.com Up and Running for 2024, your contribution is greatly appreciated.

The $1,000 goal post will let us keep the site going for 2024. If we are able to exceed this goal, we will be able to reimburse the founder of the site for part of the 2023 expenses, which was paid from their personal funds.

We are also excited to welcome more members to the Volunteer Admin team for 2024. Welcome!

If you’d like to get involved, see the “How do I help?” below. There is a link to the original post, which contains more detailed information, at the bottom of this post.

So, how do I help?

A Message from Your Admins re: the future of LetterMo.com
Announcements, Blog/Journal, News

You’re Invited – Virtual Social and Write-In

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Make your writing public!

LetterMo is hosting a virtual letter writing social. We have a Zoom room dedicated to the Social and Write-in, and the Volunteer Admin Team will be hosting in the room twice on the weekend of Saturday Feb 25 – Sunday Feb 26 (depending on your timezone).

If the larger online meet-up doesn’t work for you, we encourage LetterMoians to coordinate with letter writers local to them, invite friends and family to join in a real location, coordinate an online hangout with your favorite pen-pal, or simply take your letter writing to a public place.

Full invitation with passcode to enter the Zoom room can be found at these Members Only sites:

Continue reading You’re Invited – Virtual Social and Write-In →
Blog/Journal, Fun Things

Describe your ideal pen pal

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A Collaborative Blog Post

The ideal pen pal would be a great friend who gets as excited about receiving a letter as I do. They would be open and thoughtful and a joy to write back and forth with. 

catholicamanda

My ideal pen pal would share my love of fantasy stories and our letters would be a joined creation of a story and a universe, with everybody playing their character.

Toucan

My ideal pen pal is patient. I have a difficult time (especially lately) with making prompt replies. They would also have some interests that overlap with mine, and some that are different. Someone who likes sending and receiving inserts, found objects, tea, etc.

Christy S.

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Why do you write letters or postcards?

Due Feb. 21

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Blog/Journal, Fun Things

How do you personalize your letters?

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A Collaborative Blog Post

I try to read the profile and each person gets a different letter – something I think they might be interested in. Then there’s sometimes washi tapes and wax seals

Toucan

I typically tend to use stationery I print myself, write with my fountain pen, and seal it with a wax seal. I’m not super artsy or creative so that tends to be the best I can get for crafty personalization. What I write depends on what was written to me. I don’t like to use form letters so I don’t.

catholicamanda

I try to personalize my letters with stickers, crafting paper and everything else I can think of. 

Fabi

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Describe your ideal pen pal.

Due Feb. 18

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Blog/Journal, Fun Things

Tell us about a letter that you sent or received that has special meaning for you

2 Comments

Collaborative Blog Post

This might seem odd, but here we go:

I am big geek and as such I go to conventions in steampunk costumes. It is great fun to meet people there. And some steampunks take a liking to penmanship as well. So for a couple of years I had a pen pal in Sweden and we used to write each other in our steampunk persona. We talked about our adventures and made sure to include outdated vocabulary and old cards to keep up the façade of two ladies in the 1880s writing to each other. It was the best and I still think about it from time to time. 

Toucan
Steampunk style typewriter
David Copperfield's Hollywood Star

When I was about 10 we went to see David Copperfield perform magic at our local civic center. Afterwards I was waiting in line with my mom, clutching a purchased 8.5″ x 11″ head shot for him to sign. As we got closer to the magician himself, I realized he was signing things, and taking pictures with people, but he was not getting anything in return.

Dismayed, I asked my mom for a pen and paper, and being the woman she was, she was able to provide a small notebook and pen from her purse (a good habit I have taken up). I wrote a quick note to Mr. Copperfield, signing it with flourish.

Heart pounding, I waited while my glossy was signed, then handed him my note. I think I told him it was because he wasn’t getting anything. I no longer have the picture, but I do have a great story.

Christy S

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How do you personalize your letters?

Due Feb. 16

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In February, mail one item every day it runs. #lettermo Sign up to find Lettermo Penpals!