Invite Some Friends ...

When you start your book club, you may want to consider only asking friends who are "tech savvy" enough to be on-line and capable of opening an email, or evite. It is so much easier to organize groups of people using the internet!

Even if the people you want to include in your book club aren't currently on-line - use this as an opportunity to do a good deed and get them set up with an email account. They don't even need a computer (although seriously, are there still people out there who aren't on-line?) as they can check their email accounts on the local library computer, if need be.

Appearing organized for your first book club meeting will help set the tone - this is a real group, with a real mission, and we're really going to meet and be active. Talking to other book clubs is a good way to learn how to organize a group and also benefit from the lessons they've learned along the way. I would sugggest you plan to meet once a month to get started and I think the group size is optimum when limited to 10 - 15 active members. Anything larger than this gets really hard to coordinate. If you are starting with just a handful of friends, that's fine. Once word gets out that you are an active, interesting group - friends of friends will be clamoring to sign on!

Get started by sending out your first evite, on-line invitation. There are some wonderful resources out there. Here's a list of on-line invitation recommendations:

• http://www.evite.com/ - free on-line invitations with a great book club template;
  
• http://www.mypunchbowl.com/ - free on-line invitations;


• http://www.sendomatic.com/ - free version has some ads attached, but if you upgrade to a paid version you can get no ads;


• http://www.pingg.com/ - free version - these designs are terrific;


• http://www.socializr.com/ - free version has a great book club template;


• http://www.purpletrail.com/ - free on-line invitations, with no ads
  

Many of these on-line invitations can even be sent to cellphones and social networking sites like facebook, twitter, etc. Most will track rsvps for you, and send reminders, eliminating time consuming follow-up for the organizer.

So decide on a time and place to meet (some groups rotate homes, and others meet in public places like libraries, Starbucks , Peet's, or some other local gathering spot), and get your first book club meeting on the calendar. You can start off your first meeting by having the organizer choose the first book or you can make the first meeting an organizational one. Either way, be sure to include all the details for your first meeting on your evite, including: time, place, date, and a reminder to 1) read the first selection and be prepared for discussion or 2) bring along two or three book suggestions so that your group can start the process of calendaring each month's reading selection.

You're now ready to get on with the fun of sharing the joy of reading and talking about books.