Hello Everyone, Following our announcement that the Friends of Bookshare was establishing book clubs or reading groups, there has been much interest and questions asking for further clarification. It seems, therefore a definition and some general guidelines posted to the lists might be useful. Definition: A book club, also referred to as a reading group, is a collection of readers who participate in the regular discussion of books. Traditionally, a book club consists of several members who meet in person each month to talk about a specific work. Guidelines for Friends of Bookshare Book Clubs: To lead a Friends of Bookshare Book Club, all you need is a PC running Windows 2000 or XP, an Internet connection, a microphone, and sound cards. The conferencing software is provided free of charge by the Accessible World.. As each new club is formed, we want to showcase its first meting on a Tuesday evening in the Friends of Bookshare Community Room. Subsequent meetings will then be held at times and frequency the leader or group deem appropriate. The community room is available 24/7 so many day and time can be scheduled. Some leaders are initially choosing the first book to be discussed. Then, by getting the news release circulated well in advance, participants will have had a chance to read it prior to that first meeting and the discussion can begin immediately. Other leaders might choose to focus on an author of the genre during that first meeting and suggest a couple of titles the group might want to discuss. N electronic poll can be taken and the group's preference is known immediately. Since we are supporters of Bookshare, we want to select books that are in the collection. If a chosen book is not already there, however, a group of volunteers is standing ready to immediately get the book, scan, validate, and submit it so it will be in the collection right away for the group to download and read. We are not dictating how the leader wishes to conduct the discussion or how he/she markets it. We believe different leadership styles will make the reading discussion experience interesting to everyone. If additional clarification is needed, please let me know. Also, if you would like to lead a reading group, please let me know. Pat Pat (Patricia) Price, Planning Committee Chair Friends of Bookshare http://www.friendsofbookshare.org Community Room: http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e 317-254-1185 Skype: patprice1 Email: pat@xxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.