Pickering Public Library has brought the pot to an overflowing boil with its new Revisions Policy.
The libraries 5 book clubs will be seriously impacted by the new policy which will likely see the end of all of the clubs in June 2009.
GEORGE ASHE BOOK CLUB
Books we have read
Wool
A Man Called Ove
Brain on Fire
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
When Breath Becomes Air
The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio
Tuesday with Morrie
Up next:
The Elephant Whisperer
Being Mortal
The Verdict
The Girl Before
Call the Midwife
From the secretary’s desk…
A bomb dropped on our meeting in February. Two representatives from the Pickering Public library addressed our members telling us the news, our days as a club were numbered.
The bomb wasn’t quite that explosive, but close.
The library claims it would like to expand its contact with the community and give Pickering residents more opportunity to read more books and join book club discussions.
However, there is a wrinkle to the library’s goal. All current clubs will terminate existence by July 2019. After that date, members of the club can join all other Pickering residents, putting their name on to book club discussion groups from which names are drawn for potential participation in temporary book clubs. These clubs would terminate their existence at the end of each of their meetings. In this way, the library feels more people would have a greater opportunity of joining more book club like discussions.
The library is correct in theory. However, as the old adage goes, “You can lead a horse to water….” People may sign up for book club discussion dates but will these registrants attend, as they are all equal and new members, how will the meetings be conducted, who will direct the meetings? The parameters of what can go wrong are endless…but more people can sign up for these opportunities of meeting failure and unproductive discussion.
The George Ashe Book Club has expressed its concern with the new revisions plan being proposed. The club has always supported greater integration and more participation by locals in the GA Book Club. As it is the responsibility of the library to recruit new members, available empty member places have been filled as quickly as molasses flowing in January. Again, the recruitment process seems to be slow at best.
The more important consideration about the new revision plan is that current clubs, clubs which are vibrant, energetic and successfully filling the role for which they were created, will be terminated by July. 2019. After which, book clubs in the old sense will no longer exist. Instead, the library will post upcoming topics as possible book club meeting discussions for each month and registrants will be drawn as a lottery. The group would disband after each meeting and need to resubmit their names to the drawing for the next title. Obviously, a great amount of energy expended with a multiplicity of vulnerabilities. Will enough people register for any particular book? Will the registrants actually attend? Depending on their experience, will they sign up again? The whole lottery system without procedures and meeting directives is fraught with flaws and potential failures in many areas.
The GA Book Club is in the process of making its views known to Cathy Grant, CEO of the Pickering Public Library and the appropriate city councillors. We will be requesting that the GA Book Club be ‘grandfathered,’ continuing its existence as it currently exists.
[su_highlight background=”#f2ec2e” color=”#f32323″]We welcome anyone who would like to give support to our request of grandfathering the GA Book Club…send your name to Richard at richardszpin@gmail.com[/su_highlight]
Our reads….
February Meeting book
The February book was given short shrift as the meeting early explosive news affected the mood of all the club members and tainted the usual great discussions that are the norm.
Again, the club was divided and split not so much about the
