Whether you want to make new friends, spend more time outdoors, or simply praise your favorite books and authors, starting a book club can be a huge step forward in the right direction. But how can you ensure that your community will meet regularly? With these simple hacks, of course! Check out these simple and effective ways to make your club really successful.
The Ideal Book Club to Start
The first step to make is what kind of club you want to run. Of course, variety is crucial here because you can’t simply focus on one genre and steer clear of all else. With that in mind, there’s always a good idea to have a particular topic in mind on which the entire club will revolve. Depending on how active you want the club to be, you can choose LGBTQ+-oriented articles and books, classic novels, thrillers, etc.
In-Person or Online Meetings
Once the tone has been established, it’s time to figure out how the book club members will meet. Generally, there are two options – in-person or online. In-person meetings are associated with socialization and the allure of refreshments (drinks or snacks), whereas online meetings are generally more affordable and appropriate for people who travel a lot.
In addition, we can’t go without mentioning the hybrid model. As you might imagine, it combines both in-person and online meetings. This option is especially helpful if you’re running a bigger club and not all members can meet at the same time – some might join via a Zoom meeting.
Time to Meet the Book Club Members
Gathering people to join can either be the most awkward or one of the most exciting moments of the book club establishment process, depending on your personality. If you’re feeling too nervous, try teaming up with a dear friend to help you pitch the club more eloquently and without stress.
Of course, people who don’t fancy such “aggressive” approaches can try putting up signs in public places advertising your club or simply do it online. Remember that many clubs start off small, so don’t get your hopes too high.
Meeting Structure Is Essential
It’s vital to have a strict meeting structure, just like it’s crucial to get all book club members on board with it. Unstructured conversations might sound like a good thing, but they can get off point very quickly. So, decide the length of the whole meeting and divide it into structural elements, such as socialization, book discussion time, questions, etc.
These simple hacks will help you establish a thriving book club. You can try various activities to spice things up, introduce new discussion elements, or anything else that’ll bring more and more people to your club.