Book Club Coordinator

Professional development opportunity in the form of a book club/discussion group for UTSC Representatives.

Step-by-step guide

1. Survey UTSC Representatives about which books they want to read
   1. Create a survey in Qualtrics and associate the UTSC Group (Ask UTSC Program Coordinator for assistance)
   2. Give respondents no more than 10 book choices. All book choices should be related to the workplace in some way.
   3. Include relevant information about the book, such as the title, a summary (or link to a description), the author, and the number of pages
   4. Send an email to All Representatives with a link to the survey and a deadline. Let Reps know this book will be ordered for them with UTSC money and they may keep the book if they wish.
2. Let survey respondents know which book received the highest number of votes and ask them whether they would like to participate in this round
3. Order the books with UTSC money
   
   1. Count the number of people who say they are interested and add about 5 books to the total. There are usually a few people who want to read the book, but can't make the commitment to attend a discussion group.
   2. Send an email to the UTSC Program coordinator and ask for assistance ordering them. Include link to Amazon so there is no confusion about which book should be ordered.
4. Schedule a room for the meetings and invite the participants
   
   1. Feedback has been that meeting every other week works better than meeting every week.
   2. Generally meeting 3 times per book is enough, but base the number of meetings on the density of the content.
   3. Send a calendar invite to the participants
5. Advertise to the Representatives which book will be read, when the meetings will be, and what the expectations are. You may get some additional people who are interested. You may also get some people who would like to read the book, but can't make a discussion group. That's OK.
6. Once received, mail the books to the participants
   1. Include information about the meeting dates, times, and location
   2. Include information about which pages or sections they should read for each meeting
7. Optional: Set up an online attendance option, such as Adobe Connect.
8. Facilitate the first session
   1. Ask questions more, talk less. Question ideas and general tips can be found on the I Love Libraries page.
   2. Get volunteers to lead the remaining sessions. This is a leadership growth opportunity for them. Give the volunteer an opportunity to succeed, but be prepared to jump in and redirect the conversation as necessary.

Related articles

• Page:
  Book Club Coordinator