Hi all,
Heard that the meeting last week at Ina’s was a great success. Sounds like everyone who attended had a lot of fun. Thanks, Ina for hosting and leading this special night.
As promised, there has been some behind the scenes brainstorming going on over the last several weeks. As we get ready for the important Book Selection Night on September 11th, Jill, Grace and I (along with your feedback) have been working on coming up with some ideas to help make our club even better and to attempt to even out the participation and work load a bit.
Rolling into the start of school and the beginning of a new year of reading, we realize that not everybody can make the Book Selection Night meeting. Because it is so critical to the planning and success of our club, we have decided to proactively tackle some organizational groundwork ahead of time. For 2013-2014 there is an important issue our club needs to address.
Despite several attempts to make “steering” the discussion or hosting the meeting as painless as possible, we are still hurting for volunteers. At one point, we had hoped that there were enough people willing to host or lead that those who were uncomfortable in either role could simply serve by frequently offering to bring snacks or help with clean up. That has not proved to be the case.
While we are blessed with a core of individuals who have consistently offered to steer the discussion, having a variety of leaders capitalizes on the diversity and enhances the perspective of our group. Preparing to lead a book discussion can greatly increase your own enjoyment of a book. In regard to hosting, with the pool shelter now equipped with weatherproof sides, electricity and heat, organizing a meeting there in the warmer months becomes an option for those who feel their homes are not suited to hosting. The “long, classic read”, which has been moved to the spring, is another consideration for a hostess who can handle only a smaller group.
We recognize that part of the problem may be that we are asking for people to volunteer only a month or two ahead of time which can pose planning difficulties based on what everyone has going on in their busy lives. For that reason, we are attaching a sign up sheet to the end of this newsletter. We have projected the approximate number and timing of our meetings for the next 12 months. This way you can choose what would be a good fit for you to host or lead. You can consider teaming up with somebody if that helps. Once the book selections for the year are in place, we may even be able to match hosts and leaders with books they suggested or are especially interested in.
Back to the issue of encouraging all to participate and spreading out the workload, we recently tabulated hostesses and leaders for the past 2 years. Jackie, Jill and myself were overrepresented. I propose that these three J’s take a break from hosting and leading in 2013-2014. Having said that, Rob and I will continue to host the co-ed meeting (unless someone else wants to?). Jill has graciously offered to act as a mentor to anyone volunteering to lead a discussion that needs a little coaching on how to prepare. No doubt Jackie will continue to play an important role as well.
In the course of these weeks spent brainstorming on how to encourage members to volunteer to host or lead, the suggestion was made that we drop back to one book every 6 weeks. While we are certainly willing to hear from more of you on that topic, the decision to go with a book nearly monthly has successfully accomplished a few things. By selecting more books and meeting more often, members have been able to pick and choose the selections that most interest them. This has kept attendance at any particular meeting to a manageable number. I think it has also helped in the sense that if you miss one meeting, either because the book doesn’t appeal or because it is a bad time for you, there is not such a long stretch before the next gathering. (Let’s face it. We all love the social and friendship aspects of our group as much as we love the reading!)
I realize this has been a lot for you to read and for that I apologize. Please take it in the spirit in which it is intended. We are constantly striving to improve our club via tons of member involvement. Our book club is truly a special group of women who accomplish great deal in the community (not just reading, snacking and drinking) through the strength of the bonds of friendship and concern our mutual love of books has fostered.
A separate e-mail with more details regarding the selection night will follow in a few days. In the meantime, please look at the sign up sheet at the end of this newsletter and let me know where you can fit in. If we have more that one person per slot, we will try to work things out. Our goal is to have the slots tentatively filled BEFORE the Book Selection Night.
Savor these last weeks of summer and outdoor reading!
Jan
