This last weekend I attended the first Van der Spek meet up in Rotterdam. The meet up was hosted by Petra and the rest of the Van der Spek family.
Although the group was limited to only 10 people, we had travelled from far and wide to attend this great event (Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium and of course the home country Holland)
Most of the people arrived on Friday afternoon/evening and we started off in a restaurant in the centre of Rotterdam.
L-R Jenny, Lindsay, Anke, Christoph
Priscilla, Petra
The next morning after breakfast we drove to the Van der Spek workshop at Puttershoek which is south of Rotterdam, about a 30 minute drive.
Petra greeted everyone with a ‘goodie bag’ containing leather samples, a catalogue and other goodies!
We settled ourselves down for an interesting morning with talks and demonstrations of some of the different processes involved in the making of an organiser.
Jenny had chosen what leather she would like and Petra ran through the order in the usual way with JP
JP explaining all the notes on the order sheet to Jenny (just out of the picture)
Jenny looks on as JP explains about the different areas of the leather hide
'Shall we do the outside of your organiser here... or here or here' Live instant feedback from the customer
Template is placed... Jenny is quite excited!
JP cuts out the outside of the organiser and marks the rear to indicate which part this is.
Then he went to work on the interior parts whilst we all watched.
We moved over to the one of the machines that cuts out the parts more accurately
There we are... all the parts ready for stitching and assembly.
We had a lovely buffet lunch and we all had plenty of chance to chat with everyone in the group, we were not rushed, which I am sure everyone appreciated and we all had plenty of time to chat with Petra and JP as well as Rene and Andrea Van der Spek as well of course.
There was plenty of time to wander around and look through all the items on display and in the storeroom, which as Janet found in October is an Aladdin's Cave!
'Janet Leather' (JL) or 104 in colour numbers!
Ready made items that were for sale on the day.
More leather!
Orders ready for despatch
Petra has also designed a range of bags and accessories see http://bagusbag.nl
Like the colours of the rainbow, some of the different coloured threads used to stitch together the the organisers.
A confession.. I know these are Personal size (Standard) 30 mm rings without looking inside the boxes...
I will get my coat now
During lunch Petra showed off her new webshop, which should be going live very soon. The main improvements apart from the overall appearance to the site, is the ease at which Petra will be able to manage the site herself. The new site also includes Van der Spek Gift Vouchers... so you will no longer be able to say to your partners 'I don't know what I want for my birthday, anniversary, Christmas, Mothers/Fathers day presents (delete none of them!) ' and they come in various values too.
We all came back together in the afternoon and Petra gathered everyone around to make an announcement about a new product that Janet and I had helped design back in October 2014. Petra showed the group three nearly finalised prototype Travellers Notebook Covers in three different designs and different leathers.
Now although there are no rings in this product I am going to bend the rules somewhat and tell you about it, because I know a lot of our readers are using both formats these days.
Van der Spek as you know are well known for their huge range of leathers available for their custom organisers. Most of these will be available in the new Travellers Notebook range as well.
So some basics about the new product. At present it is only available in the normal travellers notebook size, which takes booklets that are 210 x 110 mm in size, a tall narrow format. Although given time I suspect a smaller size might be made available as well. The design is customisable, it comes as a basic cover and you then have options to add an inside left card slot pocket, a right hand secretarial pocket, and the last option is the pen loop. It has the capacity to take up to about 6 booklets.
On display were three different designs with different levels of options included.
Basic cover in natural 'Janet Leather' (104) with contrasting stitching
Undyed leather interior, no pockets or any extras.
This example was in red ostrich type leather on the outside
Black leather interior with optional left hand pockets and right hand secretarial pocket
A brown Italian leather exterior
Pink interior with all the options including the pen loop.
These aren't quite the final production version of what will be put on sale, the configuration of the elastics might change on the final version. But the actual cover it self is beautifully made, it wraps around the booklets with a very square profile around the spine of the cover. It is of course leather inside and out so it is very classy.
Van der Spek will of course be making these to order in their own workshop in the Netherlands, so the quality will be as good as we have seen with their range of custom made organisers a long with their excellent customer service both before sale and after sales.
The prices I think are very competitive and they are as follows:
Basic Cover - €85
Left hand side card pockets - €40
Right hand side secretarial pocket - €30
Pen loop - €15
These prices do exclude VAT and shipping. Availability or the acceptance of orders is as yet to be announced, but keep a watch on the Van der Spek shop and the Facebook group for more information.
Naturally the announcement about the Travellers Notebook cover caused quite a stir and excitement during the afternoon! But we were not finished.
JP Frumau who is a lovely fun guy who works for Van der Spek gave us a talk about leather and how it is prepared. Below is a video of his talk, it is unedited but I'm sure you will learn lots from this great talk.
We eventually finished our day in a restaurant in Rotterdam, tired but very happy with lots of great memories of the day.
A few of us stayed another night before travelling home on Sunday. It was great to meet a few more fans, some I had met before, some I was meeting for the first time. And of course meeting Petra and the family and JP once again.
Thank you Petra it was a wonderful event and I know how hard you worked on all the preparations.
We are continuing the North America Philofaxy Tour with Washington
Washington - Saturday 20th June 2015
So this is a 'calling notice' for people who would like to attend the Philofaxy Meet Up in Washington
Please read all of the post before you apply for a place on the meet up.
When and Where
We will meet initially at 12:00(Noon) at Bertucci's Italian Restaurant, 725-727 King St.
Old Town
Alexandria, VA 22314
You can read all about the restaurant on their website here
During the meal there will be plenty of time for chatting and sharing organisers...
Our meet up will finish at about 6:30pm
How to book a place on the meet up
To get a place on the meet up you need to email: steve[at]philofaxy[dot]com and mark your email 'June 2015 Washington Meetup', but please do not send it beforeSaturday 2 May 2015. Please only request a place if you are 99% certain that you will be able to attend on the 13th.
As places are allocated you will receive an email back again confirming your place on the meet up.
Please do not book travel tickets etc until you have a confirmed place. I will
attempt to confirm places within 2-3 hours of receiving your email.
Additional Information
There is a free parking garage on Jefferson St off of S. Washington St. It'll be a bit of a walk to King St, but it will give you the option.
We monitor over 400 blogs and sites, your Filofax/Organiser blog posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
We can not guarantee people will read your posts, but we know there is a higher chance of people reading your posts and returning to read other posts if you make them interesting with pictures and good hints and tips. Do not forget to give your posts a title...
Your Filofax/Organiser posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
For some general tips on Filofax Blogging, please see this post
We are on the look out for more people to take part in Reader Under the Spotlight. If you would like to appear in this feature then please contact Steve : philofaxy at gmail dot com Thank you.
And here are a selection of the latest Filofax videos for your enjoyment.
We are going to run another conference round-table voice chat using Skype. And the 'morning' session returns so our friends in the Far East and Asia can join in again.
I'm sure we are gradually getting to know each other's voices, but I will make a point of going 'around the table' to get everyone to introduce themselves this time.
So...When, Where, What, Who and How?
When? - Sunday 3 May from 10am London time, 11am Paris time, 7pm Sydney time.
Additionally I will be on line at 9am San Francisco 11am Chicago, 12noon New York, 5pm London time, 6pm Paris time etc. See the World Clock to make sure you have the right time.
The timing of these two sessions have been chosen to hopefully allow as many people to join in compared to previous round-tables. The timing of future ones will be varied to suit everyone if need be.
What do I need? - just a micro-phone and some head phones(in ear phones work fine) and a free Skype account. Using headphones or earphone reduces 'echo' on the call.
Who - All of you... connect up with Philofaxy and we will attempt to get as many of us linked in to the audio conference as possible. Come and listen if you don't want to chat. What do we talk about? Filofax stuff... but anything else as well. It's like long lost friends meeting up for coffee and a catch up.. but don't worry if you have never joined in before... you are an old friend too!
If you have any questions you want to ask then please let us know in the group or before we start.
How -
Connect to Philofaxy by firstly searching for Philofaxy in Skype, I will then add you as a contact.
Then 'Send Contact Request', I will then add you in to the chat room.
Then if you request it, I can add you to the audio conference as well. But if you just want to chat via keyboard that's fine. That way it's slightly less hectic for me!
Come and join in the fun, even if you only pop in to say hello... but don't be afraid to join in the discussion.
As with previous round-tables there will also be a parallel text chat room going at the same time as the voice conference, so you can listen to the voice chat and type if you wish.
If you need any assistance setting up Skype, please pop a comment in this post and I will try and help you get one line. Skype is free for computer to computer calls....
Today we go 'back' to the 2014-2015 catalogue as we get close to the end of this series of catalogues.
The content of this post is the intellectual property of Filofax Group Ltd. The scans are reproduced here with the full permission of Filofax Group Ltd.
As this is a picture heavy post, there is a break after the first image, please click 'read more' to see the whole post.
Introduction: Hello there; I'm Robert, originally from Gladstone, Minnesota, now living in Las Vegas. I work in the automotive industry. For a long time I was a disorganized Floating Papers person. Then I got into organisers, and now my productivity is much improved. I pay close attention to Philofaxy for tips and hacks.
1. When did you buy your first organiser and what was it?
My first one was a classic size Franklin Covey in 2012, which I quickly swapped out as the 3/4" rings were much too small for my needs.
2. What other brands have you used or considered using?
Time/system, Filofax, DayTimer (have bought many inserts and pages from them), Rolodex.
3. Out of the organisers you own which is your current favourite (Style and Size)?
My main one is a severely overstuffed (4 lb.) classic Franklin Covey with 1 1/2" rings that gets a daily workout. It's so full I can barely zip it shut anymore.
4. How many Filofax or other brands of organisers do you own?
FC classic, FC compact I'm keeping as an extra, A5 size Time/system and a Filofax Mini. I also have several FC binders that I use to store extra pages.
5. What is the oldest organiser in your collection?
The Time/system one is from the 1990s, I think. When I got it off eBay it came loaded with 1996 calendar pages.
6. What do you use your organisers for?
The Time/system I keep in my desk and use for work stuff. The Filofax Mini is my wallet, which works really well for me. The classic FC is for everything outside of work.
7. How many sections do you have in your organiser and what is each section used for?
FC classic front to back: Finances/Calendar/Compass cards/Goals/Journal/Key Information/Meetings/Notes/Occasions/Phone calls/Progressive task lists/Projects/Shopping lists/To do lists/Values/Websites
8. What was the feature about Filofax you like most?
The ability to move stuff around on the rings as needed.
9. If you could design your own Filofax what would it feature?
Two pen loops, lots of zip pockets, A5 size or bigger.
10. How do you carry your Filofax?
It's so heavy I don't carry it much; perhaps to work if I'm going to have extra time during the day for personal stuff. It has a handle like a little briefcase, which is very convenient.
11. Which Filofax in the current range do you like the most? Are you going to buy it?
I love my Filofax Mini--it makes the best wallet I've ever had. I have a few pages on the rings for notepaper, but otherwise I use it strictly as a wallet. I may have to get another one soon, as what I have now is getting a little old. What a shame Filofax discontinued the Mini.
12. What is the most you have ever spent on a Filofax or other brand of organiser? Which model?
$65 for the Time/system and another $100 for forms and accessories I was missing.
13. What's your favourite Filofax tip or hack?
Setting it up as a wallet. What a neat idea!
14. Turning to Philofaxy, what do you like the most?
Adspot has been a big help.
15. And what do you not like about Philofaxy?
I don't think there's anything I dislike!
16. What was the last music track you downloaded or bought?
"Death Rattle," the album by Minneapolis band Laughing Stock.
17. Have you ever attended a Philofaxy meet-up? if not do you intend to one day?
I don't know that there's ever been one here in Vegas, but I might very well attend one.
18. What was the last movie you watched?
A film I never tire of: "Glengarry Glen Ross." The dialogue is perfect.
19. What was the last book you read?
"Shattered Peace," book one of the Ravenpaw trilogy by Erin Hunter. Warrior cats!
Thank you Robert.
As you know we are always looking for new people to appear in our 'Reader Under Spotlight feature, you don't have to be 'well known' or a long term user to be considered to appear in this 'spot'.
So please contact Steve philofaxy at gmail dot com today. Thank you.
Before we get started..... we are pleased to announce a special promotion deal with Write at Home. Click on the logo at the right and go to their site and use the promotion code philofaxy before the end of April 2015 and you will get 10% discount on your order.
So now it is time to enjoy a small collection of blog posts and videos from around the internet.
So here are the latest Filofax blog posts from around the Internet:
We monitor over 400 blogs and sites, your Filofax/Organiser blog posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
We can not guarantee people will read your posts, but we know there is a higher chance of people reading your posts and returning to read other posts if you make them interesting with pictures and good hints and tips. Do not forget to give your posts a title...
For some general tips on Filofax Blogging, please see this post
Here are some Philofaxy posts you might have missed this week:
Do you have an "on deck" binder? Maybe you should. Here's what I mean:
I like to have a binder for my upcoming diary pages that are waiting to go into my daily use binder. When these pages are in a binder, instead of in a storage container or envelope, I can easily flip through them to fill in future dates. Then when it's time for those pages to go into my daily use binder, they are already filled in and ready to go.
(To those of you who needed a gentle enabling nudge to buy another binder: you're welcome. ;) )
And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything ring-binder related!
We all love 'Vintage' Filofax organisers of one sort of another.... but sometimes it is also lovely to see the older inserts that went with the organisers of the 1980's. Over the years I have built up a small collection of old inserts, some I bought myself back in the late 1980's in fact!
And before we go in to the inserts themselves let me just say.... the images within this post are the intellectual property of Filofax Group and are reproduced with their permission for historical interest only.
So I've split the collection in to two parts. This part will concentrate on 'Data Sets' There were two data sets in the 1980's as far as I can recall. A UK data set (DSET UK) and an International Data set (DSET INT). There were a few common pages between both sets which were labeled just DS followed by a number.
Naturally you could add in which ever of these pages you found of use, or include them within any part of your organiser.
Back in the late 1980's the various information pages we now see with diary inserts were part of the Data Sets, so effectively you bought your diary insert and which ever of the data sets you needed.
Phone numbers included give away the age of some of these inserts. London numbers were prefixed by an 01 dialling code until May 1990 when London was split in to 071 (Inner London) and 081 (Outer London) then a few years later in April 1995 the numbers changed yet again to 0171 and 0181.
I've paired each page in the following images so each pair is set as 'Front' and then 'Reverse' The designers I think did a very good job of keeping relevant subjects together if they one covered one side of a page.
So as this is going to be very picture heavy a break point will appear after a few images, please click 'read more' to see the full post.
You can read all about the restaurant on their website here
Please note we have booked a private room at Ben's Deli and there is a minimum $15 spend per person, but looking at their menu I don't think that will be a major problem!
During the meal there will be plenty of time for chatting and sharing Filofax organisers...
Our meet up will finish at about 6:30pm
How to book a place on the meet up
To get a place on the meet up you need to email: steve[at]philofaxy[dot]com and mark your email 'June 2015 New York Meetup', but please do not send it before8am (New York time)Monday 27 April 2015. Please only request a place if you are 99% certain that you will be able to attend on the 13th.
As places are allocated you will receive an email back again confirming your place on the meet up.
Please do not book travel tickets etc until you have a confirmed place. I will
attempt to confirm places within 2-3 hours of receiving your email.
Additional Information
If you aren't familiar with New York or how to get to from the station you are arriving at then use the MTA Journey Planner, it seems quite good.
Once we have our full list of people, we will exchange email addresses and if you aren't familiar with New York you might be able to get someone to
meet you at the station you are arriving at.
Your safety on the day and your enjoyment on the day is of paramount importance to me, so don't be afraid to ask any questions by email, I
want everyone who attends to get the most from the day.
We monitor over 400 blogs and sites, your Filofax/Organiser blog posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
We can not guarantee people will read your posts, but we know there is a higher chance of people reading your posts and returning to read other posts if you make them interesting with pictures and good hints and tips. Do not forget to give your posts a title...
Your Filofax/Organiser posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
For some general tips on Filofax Blogging, please see this post
We are on the look out for more people to take part in Reader Under the Spotlight. If you would like to appear in this feature then please contact Steve : philofaxy at gmail dot com Thank you.
And here are a selection of the latest Filofax videos for your enjoyment.
The content of this post is the intellectual property of Filofax Group Ltd. The scans are reproduced here with the full permission of Filofax Group Ltd.
As this is a picture heavy post, there is a break after the first image, please click 'read more' to see the whole post.
Hello, I’m Carol and I live in the North East of England, UK. I’ve always lived here apart from the beginning of my teens when my parents emigrated the family to New Zealand – and back again four years later, sadly.
I’m an administrator/receptionist in local government working with children and families. When my job changed about 1½ years ago I came back to using a planner after a hiatus of several years. A work diary was no longer versatile enough.
1. When did you buy your first organiser and what was it?
It was around 1988 when I bought my first organiser, a Winchester with 7/8” rings in burgundy.
2. What other brands have you used or considered using?
I have some unbranded ones including a personal black vinyl, an A5 which was quite cheap but is sturdy and works well, an old unbranded red hand-made personal binder from Italy with a portrait of Galileo embossed on the front.
A personal from Next which looks and feels like a Portland with an internal layout exactly like a Kensington.
I’ve thought of a Gillio or Van de Spek but they’d have to wait, maybe forever.
3. Out of the organisers you own which is your current favourite (Style and Size)?
Oh that’s so difficult. I’ll have to settle on two, probably because I use them the most. Personal Saffiano which I use every weekday at work. Pocket Malden which I currently use as my everyday when I’m not at work.
4. How many Filofax or other brands of organisers do you own?
22! I’m shocked, I hadn’t really counted until now!
Personal – burgundy Winchester, tan bridle Buckingham, brown Buckingham, blue Tejus, black Portland, black slim vinyl, tan Sherwood, teal Line Burst, aqua Saffiano, zipped wine Holborn. Black unbranded vinyl, red unbranded leather. Black (leather I think) from Next.
A5 – black vinyl unbranded, aqua Malden.
Pocket - yellow Piazza, aqua Malden, ochre Malden, green Windsor.
Mini - ochre Malden.
Deskfax - black Professional and an A4 black zipped Metropol.
As well as organisers I have aqua Malden iphone and ereader holders.
5. What is the oldest organiser in your collection?
I think it’s my Winchester. It doesn’t have the ‘f’ on the spine or on the rings. I’d actually ordered a green Gloucester but received the Winchester in burgundy instead. When I phoned to explain I was told there had been a mix up in their ordering and they didn’t have a gloucester in any colour to send me. Would I care to keep the (more expensive) winchester instead at no extra cost? I said yes especially as I’d (regrettably) asked to have my initials embossed on and didn’t want to wait weeks for a replacement.
6. What do you use your organisers for?
I have lots of uses! My everyday is non-work diary, address book and to-do/shopping list. I use a personal for work, I really need to be organised there.
I use others for:
Home information – financial, insurance, appliances, gas/electricity, water, telephone etc.
Hobbies - family history, stained glass hobby work, local history, ancient monuments & buildings, astronomy, countryside walking and wildlife. I did a basic computer technician course by Cisco at my local college and keep my handwritten notes in the unbranded A5.
Health/fitness. I was given a Filofax binder from the 2012 Olympics. I need to brush up on it though. I’m on adding info like doctor and dentist, prescriptions, appointments and outcomes to remind me. I have some vintage health info sheets to put in it – e-additives and calorie counter/diet sheets from Slimming World/Filofax.
I’ve made a resolution to make more time for my inner and spiritual self. I have the 2015 Canterbury churchbook & desk diary in which I make occasional notes/thoughts/inspiration. Also Gwydion’s Moon diary with dates & festivals of many religions and countries. This is A5 size which was easily punched.
I’m on making an astronomy almanac. Moon phases, eclipses, comets and meteor showers. I can get information from the internet (and I do) but I’d like a paper version I can quickly refer to. I recently found pages of constellations & descriptions to adapt to personal organiser size.
7. What was the feature about Filofax you like most?
That they’re portable little ring binders (not so much A5 and up) in rather nice covers, many with handy pockets and slots for cards and papers. Diary, notepaper, anything we like can go in them. It was my ‘epiphany’ moment when I first saw one and spotted the rings.
8. If you could design your own Filofax what would it feature?
A supple top grain leather with either ring protectors or leather strips down either side of the rings. One inch gold-tone removable rings. Full width back pocket, pockets as in a personal Holborn on a secretarial pocket inside front, gusseted zip pocket back or front. Optional matching zipped pouch to go on the rings. In fern or bottle green, or tan.
9. How do you carry your Filofax?
Most of mine normally stay at home. Those I carry about go in my handbag or backpack.
10. Which Filofax in the current range do you like the most? Are you going to buy it?
Holborn: I like the layout and all the pockets and the leather is so nice. I already have a zipped wine personal. I just wish it had changeable rings, not the riveted ones.
11. What is the most you have ever spent on a Filofax or other brand of organiser? Which model?
The most I’ve spent was £76 for my A5 aqua Malden.
12. What's your favourite Filofax tip or hack?
I don’t have my own yet but I have two favourites:
Making dividers and Today rulers with pockets.
Tips from Steve on fixing misaligned rings, which have helped so many people.
13. Turning to Philofaxy, what do you like the most?
The sense of community, all the more so for folk being located all over the world. And some of us managing to meet up! The shared enthusiasm and wonderful ideas.
14. And what do you not like about Philofaxy?
You jest!
15. What was the last music track you downloaded or bought?
I last bought and downloaded the Awesome Mix vol 1 album from Guardians of the Galaxy.
16. Have you ever attended a Philofaxy meetup? if not do you intend to one day?
Not yet but I would like to someday. They look like so much fun.
17. What was the last movie you watched?
Em … I went with a pal to see Shaun the Sheep: The Movie. Made by the folk who did ‘The Chicken Run’ and Wallace & Gromit. Two middle-aged women and no children with us. We weren’t the only ones and we didn’t care - plenty of laugh-out-loud moments which is what was needed!
18. What was the last book you read?
The Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey. A re-read as it’s an old favourite. I’ve always loved science-fiction.
19. George Clooney or Brad Pitt?
Neither. Gary Oldman with a side order of Tom Hiddleston, please and thank you.
Thank you Carol, you certainly have a great collection of organisers.
As you know we are always looking for new people to appear in our 'Reader Under Spotlight feature, you don't have to be 'well known' or a long term user to be considered to appear in this 'spot'.
So please contact Steve philofaxy at gmail dot com today. Thank you.
