frequently asked questions

Workshops and Classes: Contact the coordinator on the event calendar.
Membership: Membership payments are not individually acknowledged. If you have a question about your membership status, contact the membership coordinator (see the Join page).

We collect only the information we need to register you for classes, workshops, and lectures and to publish in the membership directory. See the Join page for Membership directory specifics. We never share or sell your information.

See our How to Instagram document for a brief article on how Friends of Calligraphy uses Instagram, and how you can use it.

FOC’s online payments are processed through PayPal. You may use a credit card or PayPal to make payments. Refunds are also processed through PayPal.

Yes. If you have a Venmo account, and have activated Venmo in PayPal, PayPal will allow you to make Venmo payments. See PayPal help.

Register for class by clicking on the class Pay Now button on the classes page. Alternatively, mail FOC a check and the registration form in the class brochure.

Within a few days after your payment the FOC class registrar will notify you that FOC has received your payment and tell you your status in the class or on the wait list. The registrar will next send a welcome message approximately three weeks before the class starts. The registrar will email immediately if there is a change in the class schedule or location or if you are on the wait list and a spot opens up.

If you have not received a notification, please check with us. Occasionally it happens that the registrar mistypes an email address and the notification does not arrive. Or, it may be caught in your spam filter, or sent to an email address you don’t follow closely because that is what is in your PayPal account.

No. Registrations are processed in strict order of receipt. We use the online (credit card and PayPal) date and time stamp to determine the order. If you mailed a check, we use the postmark date and time. We post the information that there is a wait list as promptly as we can. The Registrar will notify you about your place in class as soon as possible.

No. There is a difference in fees but not in how class assignments are made. Class assignment is made in strict order of payment receipt, whether online by credit card or PayPal, or check by mail.

If you are a member of FOC at the time you register, you are considered a member. If you submit two payments, one for registration and one for membership, you are considered a member. The determination of eligibility for the member fee is made at the time of registration. If you join to take a class at the member rate and later withdraw, your class fee is refundable in accordance with the refund procedure on the classes page but your membership payment is not. See the FOC join page for membership procedures.

Please use the Special Instructions field when you make your payment to tell us if you are signing up for someone else (include their name and email), if you use an email address other than the one on your PayPal account, or if you use a different name than the one in PayPal.

Our basic maximum number of participants is 16.

In general, FOC classes are meant for beginners. Calligraphers with some experience who wish to continue improving their skills are welcome.

If you need to withdraw, a full refund will be issued 14 days before the class begins. Otherwise the tuition fee is forfeited unless a wait-listed student can take your place.

Send an email to the FOC class registrar.

Yes, payment of tuition is necessary to hold your place on a wait list.

The classes page lists the basic supplies you will need. Any special requirements for individual classes are in the individual class descriptions and the annual brochure.

No. If more registrations are received than the available spots in the workshop, some people who register on the first day will be offered a position on the waiting list.

No. All online (PayPal/credit card) payments made between 8:00 AM and Midnight, Pacific Time, on the first day of registration and all mailed payments with a first-day postmark are considered equally (however, in workshops where nonmembers are allowed, members have priority over nonmembers). This has been determined to be the fairest way of considering workshop applications. In particular, it accounts for receipt of checks by mail, and also recognizes that not everyone can get to a computer, or get through to our website, at 8:00 AM.

No. In the case of online-only registration, all payments made between 8:00 AM and Midnight, Pacific Time, on the first day of registration are considered equally. The only other ordering factor is, in workshops where nonmembers are allowed, members have priority over nonmembers.

If more registrations are received than the number of available places, a blind lottery is held. First, the workshop coordinator waits a week to make sure that postmarked first-day registrations have a chance to make it through the mail. All first-day postmark registrations are combined with the online first-day registrations and each registration is assigned a number (in a workshop allowing nonmembers, they are placed on a waiting list unless there are spots available after all members who registered on the first day are enrolled). A blind lottery is then held to select the workshop participants from among the first day registrations. In some cases, the coordinator puts numbered slips in a container and typically has someone else (a spouse/partner, a friend, etc.) pull out the numbers. Another way of holding the lottery is to use a computer program that randomizes the assigned numbers. The computer printout of the randomized order is used. In either case, the random order is what determines who is enrolled in the workshop as well as the order of placement on the waiting list. The random order of numbers is then matched up to participant names.

Note: In the case of online-only registration, there is no need to wait a week; once the list of registrants is confirmed for purposes of membership, a lottery (if needed) can be held and participants can be notified more quickly.

The registration information is on flyers in a brief form. We have tried to be as clear as possible despite the need to be brief. A typical flyer statement is:

Enrollment is limited to [maximum number] FOC members. If more than [maximum number] enrollments are postmarked or made online by credit card on [initial day and date of registration], [maximum number] participants will be selected in a blind lottery from those enrollments

Some workshops are open to both members and nonmembers. Where the flyer indicates that nonmembers may take the workshop, it states that members will be given priority. This means that all members registering on any given day are considered before nonmembers. If there is a lottery, members are enrolled before admitting nonmembers to the workshop.

If you join FOC at the same time as you register, you are considered a member. In other words, if you submit two checks, one for registration and one for membership in your envelope, you are considered a member, or, if you join online at the same time as you register online for a workshop, you are considered a member. Please note that, if you join for the purpose of taking a workshop but do not get in to the workshop, you are still a member. Your workshop fee is refundable in accordance with the terms of the workshop flyer but your membership payment is not.

A week or so after the day registration opens, allowing time for a lottery if needed, the workshop coordinator emails all those who have made it into the workshop to let them know they are enrolled. A separate email is sent to all who registered but did not get in, letting them know they are assigned a spot on the waiting list. Anyone who does not want to be on a waiting list may request a refund. Refunds are made to people on the waiting list at any time upon request, and refunds are made to anyone who did not request a refund but did make it into the workshop during or immediately after the workshop takes place.

If it is a week and a half after the initial day of registration and you have not heard from the coordinator, you should contact the coordinator to find out your status. The coordinator’s email and phone number are given on the workshop flyer. The downloadable PDF flyer remains on the FOC website (Classes page) until the workshop takes place. In particular, if you see our “workshop is full” message on the Classes page, but you have not received a notification, you should check. We try our best, but it does occasionally happen that an email address is mistyped and the notification to that person does not arrive; or, it may be caught in your spam filter or have mysteriously disappeared in cyberspace.

Our basic maximum number of participants is 20. However, sometimes an instructor feels that a class cannot be taught to that many students—it may be that more individual attention is required. Or the facility/equipment for a class may dictate a lower number (for example, we held a class involving the use of etching presses, and the class size was necessarily limited). For online classes, sometimes the maximum has been above 20 where the instructor felt the subject matter could be taught to more students without adversely impacting the class. Maximum enrollment is stated on the flyer.

FOC offers most of its workshops to all levels of experience, meaning that even people with minimal or no calligraphy experience can benefit. However, in some cases, a workshop is only appropriate for calligraphers with experience, because it teaches a more advanced skill with a hand.
In general, the following descriptions apply:

• ALL LEVELS: Anyone, even someone with no prior calligraphy experience
• INTERMEDIATE: Knowledge of one or more calligraphy hands (sometimes knowledge of the hand being taught) and competence with the type of nib (e.g., broad-edge, pointed, brush)
• ADVANCED: Knowledge of several lettering styles, skill with lettering tools and proficiency in writing

Some specific examples of classes requiring intermediate or advanced skill levels are:

• A workshop on variations of copperplate, where students must already have experience writing basic copperplate and be comfortable writing with a pointed pen in order to learn variations.
• A workshop on roman capitals or italic involving pen manipulation and pressure-release, where students should already be comfortable using a broad-edge nib and have some experience with the hand being taught.
• A layout and design class, where knowledge of at least one calligraphic hand is required.
• A class in pointed pen oval flourishing, where students are expected to know how to write a pointed pen script in order to flourish the letters.

If a particular type of experience is required for a workshop, as in the examples above, the flyer will indicate the type of experience needed.

Issues of Alphabet for the current membership year are reserved for new members. FOC sends the current year Alphabets to everyone who joins during the membership year, no matter when in the year they join, as long as we have copies. If we have copies left, they will be available at the beginning of the next membership year, in July.