March 26th, 2006 @ 6:00PM - Book Club Interview No. 2 in San Francisco

This is another effort to find reach out into the 'real world' to meet target users for Chandler 0.7.

Information about the group:

• About 9 members of the group were present during this interview.
• Age range was from 25+
• All the members present were women.
• The majority of members were young professionals living in both the Bay Area & San Francisco.
• At least two members had kids within the group.
• The book club is about 3 years old
• Started with about 4 members, grew to about 14 people
• Started off as a night group, one of the members had a baby and it changed the group dynamics to brunch and afternoons on weekends.

Highlights

• One of the founding member, Ingrid is usually the one who keeps thing on track, bringing people together, good social group dynamics, "it's cool that everyone clicks" as more people are added on and other drop out of the meetings.
• Though once you're on the mailing list, it's a bit difficult to get off of it.
• Most of the coordination was done through e-mail although this time it was coordinated on 'evite'
• The host, date and time is picked at book club meeting.
• Whoever is hosting is usually the one who tasks people in bringing food.

Questions

• What are the different types of things the group needs to keep track of: Books, Food, Attendance, etc.
• What is the process for how these things are created and collected?
• How does the team keep track of these things once they've been generated?
• How do you update each other on status?
• How do you ensure that issues are closed?
• How do you store information that might be good to keep around as an Archive?

Interview

How is the book club usually coordinated?

• Usually coordinated through email, though this time was done on Evite.
• Ingrid is usually the keeper of the list
• The host does a follow up email, time, tasking people in what to bring, food/drinks etc. Sometimes Ingrid will step in to help coordinate
• Date and time is set at the end of the book club meeting. This is done way advance. This a huge attended group, when is better? At least a group of 4 or 5 people.
• If there is a last minute change in plans, the host or Ingrid will start from scratch to coordinate where to host book club
• Phone calls are used at this point to coordinate as well as e-mail

E-mail coordination

• Ingrid was usually the one who drives the meeting by email. "Ingrid is good at bringing people social group...it's part of her life."

How are the books chosen?

• The host usually decides on the book. There is no rule in needing to read the book first before suggesting it.
• Other members may also suggest books at the end of the meeting. Everyone comments if they've heard about it before or suggests another reading.
• There is no judgements about the book, a lot of us is really busy. There are no rules to read the book. Just show up and have a good time is key.
• The group rarely reads non-fiction. Read one biography.
• Books are usually no more then 100 pages because most of the members are busy people. Tried to read 2 books once, but it never happened.

How are the books discussed?

• This week there were questions at the back of the book for discussion. Ingrid suggested it in the beginning of the meeting. The book was passed around the room to the right to take turns in reading the question.
• Usually (and probably depending on the book) the discussion part of the book does not take a lot of the meeting time.
• Most of the time was spent catching up with each others lives. Social discussions and just plain

Other notes:

• Archiving: Haven't done it. "That would be a good idea."
• One member of the book club does not read her e-mail (too busy with child rearing) and has her husband reads her e-mail usually and tracks her events for her.