New Club Guidelines [revised]

Here are the guidelines we've adopted to help strengthen and grow our club:

1. Choosing Books – This will remain the same; everyone agreed that the way we’ve been doing it recently is fair and makes a lot of sense
2. Planning/Running Meetings – If the book you nominate is chosen, you will be the host for that meeting. This does NOT mean you have to host at your home, just that you will be in charge of planning. You will need to do the evite or email, pick a food theme, prepare discussion questions and additional info if desired, and lead the discussion.
3. Locations – To cut down on housecleaning stress we will meet at one of three churches during the winter months (and Chevy’s during the summer, plus our pool party). If you are hosting a meeting (see #2) you need to choose which church location works for you. Of course, if you would LIKE to have us at your house, that is still an option – feel free to volunteer whenever you like.
4. Meetings – Each meeting will begin with socialization. This will give us time to catch up with each other before discussing the book. It will be the host’s job to get the meeting started after we socialize, and everyone should avoid side conversations during the discussion.
5. New Members – We are again welcoming new members into the club. As before, you are welcome to bring a friend to one meeting. If the group agrees that the new person is a good fit then she will be invited to join the club. This “one-meeting-trial” will hopefully prevent any problems with overbearing or otherwise problematic new members.
6. Help – I’m willing to help any of you with planning a meeting, especially those who have never done it before. Please don’t hesitate to ask for suggestions or assistance if you need/want it.
   

These decisions were based on the emails I received when I asked for suggestions, the discussion at our January meeting, and input from all our current members. Hopefully these guidelines will give everyone more ownership of the club and spread the responsibilities more evenly.

Books for April - June 2009

We tried something new this time with our book voting and it worked out VERY well. So here’s how we will do things from now on:

• You get to nominate a book if you’ve been to at least 3 meetings. The same criteria goes for voting.
• If you nominate a book and it is chosen, you cannot nominate one in the next round (but you can in the round after that).
• A week before the voting you should submit the title, summary and reason you want to nominate that book to me. I’ll compile a list and send it to the entire club.
• Everyone will rank the books in order from most preferred to least preferred and email me their list.
• The three books that get the most “top 3” votes will be our choices.
  

So … here are the results of this round of voting, with the three winners first:

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
9 votes
nominated by Beth

Queen of the Road
9 votes
nominated by Amy

Little Bee
8 votes
nominated by Heather

The Art of Racing in the Rain
7 votes
nominated by Stephanie

Alias Grace
4 votes
nominated by Jennifer

Still Alice
3 votes
nominated by Nancy

If your book was not chosen, feel free to nominate it again next time. The only people not eligible to nominate books in the next round will be Beth, Amy, and Heather (me).

I’ll get a meeting schedule posted sometime next week so stay tuned …

Christmas Book Swap: The Rules

In preparation for our upcoming Christmas Party, I give you ...

Rules for SdelleS Christmas Book Swap

Each gal should bring a new or gently used book to swap. Books must be wrapped or bagged so that no one can tell what is inside.

Playing the Game:

• All wrapped gifts are put in the center of the room.
• The gals draw numbers from a hat to determine the order in which we pick gifts.
• Gal #1 chooses a gift from the center and opens it, and shows it to everyone. That is the end of her turn ... for now.
• Gal #2 chooses a gift from the center, opens it, and shows it to everyone. She may then swap her current gift with Gal #1 or keep the gift she has.
• Gal #3 chooses a new gift, opens it, and shows it to everyone. Gal #3 may either keep the gift she opened or swap it for another Gal's opened gift.
• We continue like this until each person has a gift.
• Gal #1 may then swap her gift with any other gal.
• That’s the end of the game!

Note: There is no limit to the number of times a gift can be “stolen” ... good luck!