A NORDP Book Club is forming with enthusiastic readers and thought-provoking books. The concept of a book club started to solidify at the NORDP 2017 Conference on Twitter. Conference-goers, specifically those attending the Leadership Without Authority session with Brian Ten Eyck and Shay Stautz, collected some titles to begin reading after the conference.
A virtual book club has begun to take shape. Anyone can join at any time. The majority of the book discussions will take place online. The NORDP Book Club, like any book club, will have many options, based on your preferences:
- Read with the group’s pace and engage in group discussions about insights and actions you might take in your work.
- Read with the group, but keep insights to yourself.
- Read at your own pace, using the book list as inspiration for your next read.
Facilitation
The book club will be facilitated based on the preferences of the group. A few options have been created to offer as starting points. We can add and delete from this list of options as we move forward with the book club:
- Goodreads Group: This is nice because it offers an easy way to make a book list, link to user’s desired book format (even audiobook and public libraries), and have discussion. It requires that all participants have a Goodreads account. (https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/219569-nordp-book-club)
- Slack Channel: Maybe more people are on Slack than on Goodreads? Readers can have discussion and side convos pretty easily. Of course, if you’re not on Slack, this would also be another sign-up. I have it currently integrated with an Airtable database to keep a running list of books. (https://nordpbookclub.slack.com/signup)
- NORDP Book Club Circle in the members area of the NORDP website. This could easily be done, too. The downside of this option is that there may be people who are not NORDP members that want to participate.
Booklist
A booklist has been created on Goodreads. It can also be found by clicking on “bookshelf” from the NORDP Book Club Goodreads page. Anyone can add books to this list. There are tags (called “shelves”) that can be used to show which books are “to-read,” “read,” and “currently-reading.” This list automatically updates a #booklist channel on the NORDP Book Club Slack.
Groundrules
There have been several suggestions for format, frequency, and facilitation. These have been shared in Slack. Generally, though, we are looking at a monthly discussion of a title chosen by the group. To participate in the discussion, you won’t need to have read the book. All books should be generally applicable to research development, higher education, or professional development.
As the NORDP Book Club develops, we’ll post updates on the NORDP Blog. Please send any feedback and ideas to Jessica Brassard (jnbrassa@mtu.edu).
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