| Annette raises an issue that many of you face as well. How to reduce the mailing list?I have over 50 addresses two programs for each when only 20 attend regularly. My communication person has emailed several emails asking the recipients to let her know If they are interested in remaining on the list. Even the 2O “regulars” did not reply. I have started a new list with those 20. I plan to delete the list 6 months after the date that we can meet in person. Does anyone have other suggestions? Annette work is going BEYOND the call of duty. It’s a good idea to open it to the Hasafran list. I live in North Carolina, but attend one program in Long Island and one in New Jersey. I hope that it will continue on ZOOM when meeting in person is possible, but, still need to reduce the list. Amalia W. Sent from my iPad On Dec 7, 2021, at 8:20 AM, Annette Goldsmith via Hasafran <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Safranim,
I run a monthly virtual book club for adults at my Temple. It's called the Second Sunday Book Club and the next one is this Sunday, Dec. 12, at 1:00 pm PT/4:00 pm ET. People just talk about what they're reading, Jewish or not, so there's no preparation required. I wanted a no-stress book club. I started it during the pandemic, when Zoom was the obvious way to go, but even as some things have opened up again I want to continue the book club online because older and more isolated people can easily attend -- and who wants to drive in LA traffic anyway? My problem is that I had only a few people from the congregation at the start, and now they do not come at all, even though some say that they intend to come -- or come back -- sometime. I advertise the book club in my regular column in the Temple's online newsletter, and I have maybe 30 people on the dedicated email list. Every now and then I ask if people wish to be removed from the list, and no one has ever followed up to be removed. I understand that not getting a response is the norm here, and it's not just me. But what to do?
So I started to invite some of my friends in Toronto (my hometown) to come, and they love it! It just so happens that they are all librarians or married to librarians (something I just realized now!). I wanted to maintain the Jewish character of the book club by making sure that I talked about one or two Jewish books every time, but I have found that pretty much everyone else does too, whether or not they are Jewish, so there is Jewish content every time. I usually talk about one adult book and two or three children's books. I start us off with a poem (often, but not necessarily, Jewish) and then we take turns sharing and talking about our books. What's not to like? Depending on how many people come, we go for an hour or two. It's very small -- maybe five people, and I still have hopes of getting the (new, avid reader, YA fan) Religious School Director to join us. If a few of you would like to come, too, I could tell the Temple that their book club is drawing attention from well beyond our community. Maybe that would spark a little more interest from the people for whom the book club was intended. And honestly, I think you would like it, too!
So if you are interested in coming to the book club on Sunday, please reply just to me ( [email protected]) and I will send you the Zoom link. If you can't make it this Sunday but are still interested, let me know and I'll put you on the email list. I send out a reminder with the attached flyer about a week before we meet, and then after the meeting I send my notes with the poem and a list of all the books that we've read.
Thanks for your patience in reading this rather long post, and I hope to see a few of you on Sunday! And if any of you have advice for me on how to improve attendance, apart from showing up yourselves, I'm all ears.
Annette
Annette Y Goldsmith, PhD (she/her) Part-time Faculty, Kent State iSchool; Librarian, Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, Los
Angeles
"A book is like a world you can carry around with you." Liniers
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Second Sunday book club December 2021.docx
