New! Coworking Book Club. "Community: The Structure of Belonging"

Hi y’all!

I’m so excited to finally wrap up Chapter 4 and to feel caught up. I’m feeling so stinkin’ HOPEFUL as I read this book. Like the possibility of a better future is absolutely there and achievable, even though I know it’ll take a lot of work. But that kind of work sounds way more interesting and fun than ever before. How about you?

I’ve loved seeing the quotes and thoughts coming through on the shared doc - @alex thanks for setting that up!

What’s next?

S

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Hey book club peeps!

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed and behind on the reading…you’re in good company. I got off track last week and didn’t even get to post the reading assignment. WHOOPS!

Good news is, the month is only halfway over so there’s still time to a) get caught up and b) contribute to the AMAZING notes that are being shared in the google doc.

If you’re playing catch-up (or want to plan out your readings for the next couple of weeks, here’s the reading assignment schedule. Don’t be intimidated by the number of chapters…they’re all pretty short and go by quickly!

Week 1 Reading (Complete by July 7th)

  • Welcome
  • Introduction: The Fragmented Community and Its Transformation
  • Part 1: The Fabric of Community
    • Chapter 1: Insights into Transformation
    • Chapter 2: Shifting the Context for Community
    • Chapter 3: The Stuck Community
    • Chapter 4: The Restorative Community

Week 2 Reading (Complete by July 14th)

  • Complete Part 1: The Fabric of Community
    • Chapter 5 - Taking Back Our Projections
    • Chapter 6 - The Inversion Into Citizen
    • Chapter 7 - The Transforming Community

Week 3 Reading (Complete by July 21st)

  • Part 2: The Alchemy of Belonging
    • Chapter 8 - Leadership is Convening
    • Chapter 9 - The Small Group Is the Unit of Transformation
    • Chapter 10 - The Questions are More Transforming than Answers
  • Summing Up: Six Conversations
  • Chapter 11 - Invitation

Week 4 Reading (Complete by July 28th)

  • Chapter 12 - The Possibility, Ownership, Dissent, Commitment, and Gifts Conversations
  • Chapter 13 - Bringing Hospitality into the World
  • Chapter 14 - Designing Physical Space That Supports Community
  • Chapter 15 - The End of Unnecessary Suffering
  • In Summary The Social Architecture of Building Community

Special thank you to @jboron, @nomadicq and @tonybgoode for your EXCELLENT notes so far!

Everyone else following along: you can still commit to getting caught up this week!

If you are caught up but haven’t added any notes or questions yet, please consider doing so.

Later this week, I’ll schedule the end-of-month video discussion :smiley:

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Thanks, Alex!! Amazing how hard it is to find time to read a great book.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach (does that work for consuming ideas?)!

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I have been caught up in doing work and had to set the book down for a week. I am back at it and adding notable quotes. I should be caught up by Friday. There is SO MUCH good stuff in this book!

Really enjoying this book so far-- I find it to be inspiring in so many aspects of my life in addition to coworking. Just finished ch. 6 and have some notes to add… hoping to be caught up by the end of the week. Have really enjoyed reading others’ comments so far! :grinning:

Hi All,

I am really loving the book so far and so thankful to Alex and for the group participating that it got me going on reading through this.

I’m posting here to try to get a discussion going about how we might structure this group in a way that would be most productive. It seems like an online book club has a lot of potential, but also a lot of challenges if it’s going to be more than just a bunch of people independently reading the same book. Great, perhaps, that we’re starting with this particular book as a way to get ideas. This isn’t a criticism, but really a hope for great solutions since I think this has a lot of potential that we’re not reaching yet.

Two particular constructive suggestions from me:

1. I’d like better incentives (for myself and for participants in the group as a whole) to keep us all up to speed on the readings.
I’ve been behind from the first week and unable to catch up, and judging from the activity of others I’m not the only one. For me at least, this means I’m never ready to participate in the discussions we could be having. I’m not sure how big a difference it would make if we were all caught up, but I suspect it’s a pretty essential first step: just the fact of having other folks actively engaged in the “club” would give me motivation to stay engaged myself.

What might be some good ways to incentivize ourselves and participants of the group as a whole to keep up? Or does the idea of pressure to keep up seem bad to you?

One suggestion I’d have, given my own busy life, is to lower the reading load. I could do a chapter a week. Four chapters full of ideas is probably always going to be too much for me. But maybe that just means I’m not ready for a book club. See next comment for another possibility.

2. I’d like an improved system for interaction and discussion.
Even if I were caught up, I am not really sure how best to use the Google document or this discussion forum to engage, and I suspect I’m not the only one. An immediate benefit, I think, is that it would help incentivize me to keep up, since I’d know that to join the great discussion, I have to do my homework. I don’t mean to put the pressure on Alex for this, and I think we as a group could come up with good norms, but for a next book, I think it might be useful to have more details on suggested best ways to do this, along with some “how’s the club going” group discussion time to improve processes.

Here are a couple suggestions:

  • Propose particular discussion topics in this Discourse forum topic and discuss them right here? I’m not familiar enough with Discourse: can we have sub-threads for discussing different topics that people can opt in and out of?

  • A weekly Google Hangout discussion as a central part of the club, where we really engage as a group. Anyone could join just to listen, but it would be emphasized that people who talk should be up to speed on the reading. For me that would be a great additional incentive to keep up with the reading, and it would help a lot in giving the “club” aspect of this group meaning and value.

Thoughts? Objections? Suggestions? Or am I the only one who would like to have this discussion?

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Will!

I completely feel your frustration and desire to forge ahead. For me the simplest thing to do has been to fire up an in-person book club here at Office Nomads to keep the wheels churning. I sent a message out to the members letting them know that we’d been reading it amongst coworking spaces and that I wanted to bring those conversations into real life in the space.
Our first meeting is next week and that has given me the added nudge to keep reading! Maybe you could give that a whirl? I’m personally way more accountable in person than I am over the screen. Happy to admit that. :slight_smile:

Love that suggestion… as I’ve been reading the book I’ve been thinking how timely and relevant it is, not only for our coworking community but for other efforts happening in the city. And I’m also feeling the need for more face-to-face discussion!

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Thanks, Susan! I think that’s a great idea. Doesn’t work for me at the moment because I’m away from the coworking space, but filed for future opportunity!

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Hey folks,

Life continues to get in the way of finishing Community. That being said, this is the second time I have read the book and I am getting sooooooo much more out of it. Thanks to Alex for starting this book group.

It seems like many folks are all having some challenges in getting through the book. For me, I find that the book is dense; lots of good ideas and because there is not a lot of fluff in the writing, there is a lot to process on each page.

If the group is ok, can we stretch the reading schedule out a few more weeks? Also, would there be benefit in scheduling an online discussion around the first half of the book? Maybe that would act as a motivator to read more. What are everyone’s thoughts?

If people are interested, I am willing to host a Zoom meeting to discuss the book. Please let me know!

Jason

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Jason, I agree. I find I can’t read much more than a chapter at a time if I want to actually digest and absorb info-- and I don’t want to rush through it. I’d be down for a first half zoom discussion. Thanks for offering to organize!

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Delighted you proposed this @jboron!
I’ve read the book before but I’m finding it hard to keep up with this group.

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Knowing that there is some interest in hosting a halfway point book discussion, how would Wednesday, August 14th at 2:00pm EST work for everyone?

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That date and time works for me. Could you send an appt to fccoworking at gmail with access instructions?

Same as angel, please send to [email protected]. Thanks for the initiative @jboron!

I’d have to sign off at 2:30 but I’d love to catch the beginning. You can invite [email protected]. Thanks for organizing!

If you requested an invite to the book discussion, you should have received an invite from me. If you did not receive the invite, or would like to be added to the discussion, please let me know.

We will focus the discussion on Part 1 (pp. 1-88). I look forward to seeing everyone there!

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