The main issue that I’ve encountered with the various online book clubs that I have tried to join over the years is that they’re almost always at an inconvenient (or impossible) time for me to attend. They either meet at midnight in my time zone or if they’re during my day, I just don’t have the time to join
on top of the other meetings I attend as part of my regular work and communities I'm already a part of.
The Community Reading Guild aims to remedy these common issues with online book clubs by creating one for community professionals that has three core features:- It is fully asynchronous – no live chat, video or voice calls, and no need to be online at any particular time.
- It is designed for long-form discussion – the platform is designed to facilitate discussions that give you time to think about your responses before you post, without any pressure to respond to anything immediately.
- It is 100% private – only guild members can access this site, ensuring that any discussions you engage in are only available in this space. This allows you to be more honest and open when sharing your thoughts.
While we will vote on the specific books we will read and discuss together, they will all be books that are relevant to community professionals. The topics will cover things like building communities, managing the business side of communities, organising events, bringing people together, creating social connections, psychology, sociology, or anything else we decide on together. So long as it is at least tangentially community related, any member can suggest a book to read.
The criteria for joining are fairly straightforward:
- You must work in community building in some way - full-time, part-time, contractor, volunteer, hobbyist, or anything else.
- You must be willing and prepared to engage with the books and the other members - this is intended to be an active community of learning with everyone taking part in healthy discussions.
Does this sound like something you would like to join? If so, please submit your details below. Since this will be a private group, I will review all applications and send out invites accordingly. If this grows too quickly, I may decided to cap the members at a certain number for the first cohort and then accept additional requests for new members in the future.
This group is being organised and convened by me, Hugh Lashbrooke - I will be the only person who sees what you submit in this form and I will only use the information for the purposes of verifying that you fit the criteria above and sending you an invite to join the group. 