Thanks for your confirmation update, Robertmp!
Welcome to compiler for joining the list of readers/participants for the Jan-Feb book
Being Mortal. I’m adding you to the list, below—with the confirmatory “checkmark” as previously described—based on you obtaining the book and your implied intent to participate in discussion. If you contribute
just once to the February discussion, compiler, that’s enough to count! Hey, it’s just a
“say/do” thing…I want to try to avoid what seemed to happen in the Movember thread where some people “said” they would participate, but they basically disappeared from the thread after that (“say,” but no “do”). I’m just asking for a little follow-up commitment to help keep the process sustained.
compiler asked a couple questions about
the Book Club processes; firstly:
compiler said...
Your guidelines seem quite reasonable -- are these typical of other book clubs or did you just make them all up?
The short answer is: “both.” But, I'm rarely inclined to short answers, so let me embellish...
I’ve actually never seen (nor did I investigate in advance) any
online Book Clubs…although I suppose it’s likely that they exist. I am intimately familiar with in-person Book Clubs, and have noted that variation in the organization of each Club exists to adapt to the particular group/setting. Despite the variation, all seem to follow the high-level steps I bulleted in my
opening paragraph on 1/3/17. Besides what I've already written, here’s a couple of principles, or thoughts behind the principles, which I felt were important in an in-person setting which were also given consideration here:
• A “critical mass” of committed participants is needed to for the Book Club to endure, but too many participants makes the process unwieldly
• Most in-person Book Clubs I am familiar with meet with a new book monthly; but others (fewer) have a deliberately more casual pace of bi-monthly. I initially wrote GUIDELINES Item-2 with a monthly cycle, but changed it just before hitting “Submit” to bi-monthly based on a gut-feel that every 2-months would be a more acceptable pace for this group. Also, many Book Clubs "take off" the months of November & December because of other busy holiday stuff.
• Laying out a set of guidelines for the group up-front helps let people know what they are getting in to, and helps hold it together over time. It’s important to recognize who wants to be here under a reasonable set of guidelines, and who doesn’t, and encourage the participation of the people who want to be there. If people don’t want to participate under the guidelines, that’s completely ok…nobody’s holding a gun to their head. Also there’s an element of “enthusiasm” to be called upon. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.” There’s got to be a certain amount of people actually wanting to be here, wanting to participate, for the setting to endure…especially in an online setting where we can’t offer wine to participants.
• I realize that some people don’t like or feel comfortable “taking the lead,” even when the process calls-out upfront for them to take the lead on a limited, rotational basis. I wanted to be very clear that other participants (besides myself) would be called upon to “facilitate” if their book is selected for reading in a future cycle, and what it meant to “facilitate”…so GUIDELINE Item-4 was my attempt to be clear, up front, with that expectation. (Secretly, my “fear” is that this is where the HW/PC Book Club falls apart after a cycle or two…the commitment and enthusiasm will dwindle, and it will fade away…we’ll see…I hope it does better than HW/PC’s Movember did.)
Lastly and separately, I want to directly address your question, compiler, about
GUIDELINE Item-6, which reads:
”Let’s pick books that are at least in some way related to why we are all here at HW/PC…we'll leave it to you to creatively describe the connection.” I’m frankly not a fan of “off-topic, (OT)” posts here at HW/PC, and I generally try to avoid/ignore them. In my view, this forum is not a place to go get-a-life (please don’t try to chase this point down a rathole), and therefore there needs to be a connection to the central reason we are all here. I think that if someone here wants to find a Book Club to talk about
a book which is
completely unrelated to the reason we are all here, then they should go do that…in real life. There are plenty of Book Clubs out there…or go start one.
With that being said, I deliberately worded GUIDELINE Item-6 with plenty of “leeway” so that subjects only remotely connected with HW/PC could be included. Be creative.
Hamilton? (The book I’m reading now.) No.
Six Frigates? No. (A book someone else randomly mentioned in this thread; although I may read that book…it’s an interesting juxtaposition for me of the founding fathers which I am now absorbing everything I can get my hands on due to being caught up in the Hamilton wave of interest, and the Navy where my daughter just got her first job.)
Just because I am reading it or might read it doesn’t make it a good candidate for recommendation to the HW/PC Book Club…there has to be some sort of
reason. This is
not another “OT: What are you reading” thread.
Pleased, as always, to help clarify...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Updated:
HW/PC Book Club Participant List, so far, for the Jan-Feb reading/discussion of Being Mortal (these are the clear "yes" replies I have ascertained, with a "check" to confirm continued involvement):- JackH -- check
- chris1960 -- check
- halbert -- check
- DYank
- 81GyGuy
- Robertmp -- check
- Tim G -- check
- Infohound2
- compiler -- check
Post Edited (JackH) : 1/10/2017 12:15:54 PM (GMT-7)