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sun surfer · 05-08-2018, 01:51 AM

We're getting close to the end of our club year in June, and I think the cat's out of the bag that I was considering whether I wanted to continue on running the club or not. As it is, I am interested in continuing on running the club for now. This entire year was set up to finish out all our ongoing categories, so if we continue on we're ready for a completely fresh start, which will be a first since the lit club was started. As such, anything's possible.

I have a few ideas to throw in the ring and get the ball rolling:

-Instead of yearly cycles, we switch to three- or four-month cycles

This will give us more flexibility, such as we can choose upcoming categories closer to when we'll actually use them.

I did three-month quasi-seasonal cycles with my last two reading challenges in 2016 and 2017 and really liked it, so I think it could work well for the club.

-We divide discussion up into chunks of 5-10 days

This may encourage us to read the selections at closer to the same time and encourage more discussion posts about different parts of the book.

For instance, if we went in 7-day chunks, after the selection is chosen, we could devote the first week to discussing the first fourth of the book, the second the the first half, the third to the first three quarters, and the fourth and beyond to the entire book.

My thinking on this is that in-person book clubs require gathering together to discuss a book so it would really be unworkable to do anything other than gather to discuss the entire book at a date when everyone should be finished, and the format more or less stuck to the online transition. Online, however, we can post messages to further a discussion in a continuous manner which raises so many more possibilities, including discussing books in sections. It could be something interesting to try.

-We base our nomination/vote thread start dates on length of previous selections

This could encourage longer, harder or even shorter works to be chosen without concern for length, and give us the proper amount of time to read and discuss them.

For instance, if a selection is very short or simple, perhaps we may start the next nomination thread in only two weeks rather than a month. Or, if a selection is very long or challenging, we may put off starting a new nomination thread until a month and a half or two months or more rather than one month.

In this way, our schedule would become dynamic and based on the selections we choose.

I'd love to hear any thoughts or ideas on everything!

05-08-2018, 01:51 AM	#285
sun surfer languorous autodidact ✦ Posts: 4,235 Karma: 44667380 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: smiling with the rising sun Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage	We're getting close to the end of our club year in June, and I think the cat's out of the bag that I was considering whether I wanted to continue on running the club or not. As it is, I am interested in continuing on running the club for now. This entire year was set up to finish out all our ongoing categories, so if we continue on we're ready for a completely fresh start, which will be a first since the lit club was started. As such, anything's possible. I have a few ideas to throw in the ring and get the ball rolling: -Instead of yearly cycles, we switch to three- or four-month cycles This will give us more flexibility, such as we can choose upcoming categories closer to when we'll actually use them. I did three-month quasi-seasonal cycles with my last two reading challenges in 2016 and 2017 and really liked it, so I think it could work well for the club. -We divide discussion up into chunks of 5-10 days This may encourage us to read the selections at closer to the same time and encourage more discussion posts about different parts of the book. For instance, if we went in 7-day chunks, after the selection is chosen, we could devote the first week to discussing the first fourth of the book, the second the the first half, the third to the first three quarters, and the fourth and beyond to the entire book. My thinking on this is that in-person book clubs require gathering together to discuss a book so it would really be unworkable to do anything other than gather to discuss the entire book at a date when everyone should be finished, and the format more or less stuck to the online transition. Online, however, we can post messages to further a discussion in a continuous manner which raises so many more possibilities, including discussing books in sections. It could be something interesting to try. -We base our nomination/vote thread start dates on length of previous selections This could encourage longer, harder or even shorter works to be chosen without concern for length, and give us the proper amount of time to read and discuss them. For instance, if a selection is very short or simple, perhaps we may start the next nomination thread in only two weeks rather than a month. Or, if a selection is very long or challenging, we may put off starting a new nomination thread until a month and a half or two months or more rather than one month. In this way, our schedule would become dynamic and based on the selections we choose. I'd love to hear any thoughts or ideas on everything!