Sunflower Reading Group - A Book Club

Announcement - Food for Thought

Hello everyone! Whether you're one of our Sunflowers or you're considering joining, feel free to interact with our polls below! Since this is a new book club idea for us, we want YOUR input, as our new (or, hopefully, will-be) members!

So here are some ideas we have. We'll eventually make these decisions and unpublish this chapter, but until that happens, feel free to respond. If no one responds, we'll make these decisions on our own.

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1 - Spotlights vs Pairs

So we thought about this one a lot prior to making this book club... Should we spotlight one book a week in each group or pair you in your groups?

I want to clarify that your groups remain the same regardless, it's just a question of when you receive feedback.

With spotlights, which we currently have, you receive feedback from all other group members when you're spotlighted. But you receive no feedback when you're not spotlighted, unless you're the Book of the Week. It's essentially all or nothing.

With pairs, you'd be paired with someone in your group every week, so one person is reading two chapters of your book weekly, while you're doing the same for them. It's a little bit every week.

Logistically pairs makes more sense. Let's say there are five people in your group: with pairs, you're rotating back to the first person after four weeks; with spotlights, we're rotating back to the first person after five weeks. We'll complete more rotations with pairs than with spotlights, and you have more incentive to stay in the club (I'm being honest here) when you're receiving feedback weekly.

Cons of pairs: the BotW isn't as big of a deal when you're receiving weekly feedback, and you won't really have the week off when you're spotlighted anymore. We won't change our time off because we're working in terms this time, so in the long run you are doing more work. More rotations = more work for you. But I suppose you're also reaping the benefits of that work.

I leaned towards spotlights because it's different than other group-based book clubs I've seen, and it's also more different than our other two book clubs. However, I do think you should have a say: spotlights or pairs? We'll probably start with spotlights just to see how that works and make our decision some weeks later, after forming more of an opinion about spotlights. But let us know now how you're feeling in the comments!

2 - Demerits?

We've also thought about changing the warning/strike system up a bit. You'd still get warnings and strikes, and the ultimate consequence of having to sit out a term (for warnings) or leaving entirely (for strikes) doesn't change, but we've thought about other potential "punishments"—I don't like that term, let's use "demerits"—for both strikes and warnings.

Let's say after one strike or three/four warnings you can't be spotlighted for the following round. So next time you're supposed to be spotlighted, too bad. Moves onto the next person. Your next strike and/or next three/four warnings, same thing happens. Of course, strikes and warnings clear between terms, but if you get enough warnings or another strike at the very end of a term, you will miss your first spotlight the following term.

I do like this idea. It's more of an incentive to follow the rules, and if we change to pairings, we can easily make you a reader only for a couple of weeks to produce the same effect. Now, that does leave the question of how this applies to readers only, which I don't have answered.

It does make me want to add more positive incentives besides the BotW, but I can't think of any. So what interests you? Let us know in the comments!

3 - Golden Group?