Reading Revellers Club of Bay Area (RRCB)
Welcome to RRCB
The main motivation of this book club is to organize like minded individuals and their families in an environment where we can foster a culture of book reading, critical thinking and discourse regardless of gender, age or professional background. This club is open to everyone! So, please share this link to invite like minded people in your respective communities.
The Book Club Format
The book club format looks like this:
One volunteer family hosts a meetup for an afternoon (2:00 pm - 4:30 pm) on a weekend every month
For convenience the meetup day is the first Saturday of the month, we can discuss alternatives as needed
Topics (themes) or books are recommended at least a month or two in advance for people to have time to review
During the meetup
Kids/youth are first encouraged speak on the book or a topic of their choice to nurture public speaking
All participants are invited to share their views and critique on the topic/book
There will be a session for open discussion
The host (family) chairs the meetup as a moderator and consolidates all the presentations
The host (family) also shares the meeting minutes to the mailing list for posterity
Recommendations for the following meetup(s) are gathered at the end of the monthly meetup
Alternatively, the corresponding host (family) may recommend their topic/book of their choice
At the end of the meetup, the next host (family) is identified
Hosts may be assigned for a few months in advance to avoid last minute volunteer reach outs
For times when there are no volunteers available to host the program in-person, it may be held online.
Exceptions
During the summer/festive season, the club might consider hosting a picnic or an outdoor event
For special topics, the club may invite domain experts to give a talk, either on the regular meetup
If the book club identifies some topic relevant for a public discourse, TRR platform may be used to host public events. See The Reading Revellers Series (TRRS) for past events. TRR events may be held in a different schedule than the regular monthly meetups to better align with the guest schedules.
Fees
There are no fees associated with the membership of this book club.
Your time and volunteer contributions will keep this organization going!
Please volunteer in whatever way possible!
About the genesis of the book club
This book club was originally created in Vancouver, BC as Reading Revellers Club of Vancouver (RRCV) a.k.a. "the book club" and founded by Naresh Koirala nearly 22 years ago. The genesis story of the book club can be found in this Globe and Mail news article. RRCV book club holds on to this tradition and continues to inspire the next generation of readers and revellers.
The Reading Revellers (TRR) is an outward facing entity created by the book club. It was born at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic and serves as an extension of the book club by hosting public discourses on contemporary issues.
As we begin
Now, lets begin our humble book reading journey in the Bay Area. We may call our club "Reading Revellers Club of Bay Area (RRCB)". Creative name suggestions are always welcome! So, please share your ideas! Let's aim to foster the culture of book reading and discourse to meet the needs of our local communities and beyond. As we move ahead, we can gradually align our book club to further cater to the upcoming needs and challenges in our communities.
Please fill in your contact information in the following form and share how you would like to contribute to this club!
Your response will help us estimate the number of participants, topics and availability of volunteers to better organize our upcoming meetups.