5 Simple Steps to Start a Staff Book Club at Your School

Last week I shared How to Build Relationships in the Workplace and one of the ways I suggested was to start a staff book club. So, this week, I am focusing on the details of how to do that.

Step 1-Staff Interest

To start off, you will want to find out the amount of staff interest in starting a book club. This can easily be established by sending out a simple Google form through email. Take a look at the results and if there is enough interest, it’s time to move forward!

My minimum amount of interest would be 5 staff members. You’ll have to decide what that minimum number is for you to make it worth it.

Step 2-Meeting Time

Next, you’ll need to figure out the best day of the week and time to meet. I suggest meeting once a month. For instance, the last Thursday of every month. That way everyone has enough time to read the book before the meet up.

Again, a Google form will be a good way to find out which days and times are preferred for most staff members. When creating the options for the form, be cognizant of when after- school events and staff meeting days usually are.

Step 3-Where

After establishing when the book club will meet, you will need to decide on a meeting place. This can be included in the Google form with days/times. You could add an item for meeting place suggestions or add in a multiple choice, if you have ideas in mind. A few suggestions are the school library, local library, or a nearby cafe/restaurant.

Step 4-Book Selection

Then, you will have to decide how the books are going to be selected. I have been in a few different book clubs, and in each one the book selection was done differently.

One of my book clubs had 11 members, so each member chose a month to select the book. And the the leftover month had a theme. Themes we used were: everyone read a holiday book in December, read a nonfiction book, read a local author, and read a book from the year you were born.

In another book club, everyone in the club that had a suggestion gave it. Then, the suggestions were listed in a poll on our private book club’s Facebook page. After 3-5 days, the poll closed, and the one with the most votes was the book we read.

Yet another way to do it would be to either place every member’s name in a container or book titles in a container. Then one slip of paper would be pulled out, and that would be either the person who selects the next book or the next book that will be read.

Most likely, you will choose the first book to get everyone started.

Step 5-Book Club Name

The last thing to do is to name your book club. This can be done collectively at the first meeting or as the book club initiator, you can name the club. Be as creative as you want. One of my most creatively named book clubs was “The Overbooked.”

Final Tips

1. Decide who is in charge of bringing discussion questions. Is it always going to be you? Is it going to be the person who selected the book? Will you all take turns? The answer to this will depend on how you choose to select the books.

2. If the book club meetings will be held in the school library, will snacks be brought? Everyone could bring a snack to the meeting.

3. Keep in mind how easy it is to get a hold of the books that are selected. I encourage you to see if the book selection is available at the library and/or available at a used or bargain price. You don’t want members to have to spend a lot of money in order to participate.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this post and will be inspired to start a staff book club at your school! It’s a great way to get know each other over a shared interest. It is, also, really fun to explore books that you may not usually read. In fact, some of those have become favorites! For inspiration on what to read, check out my posts Summer Reading: Teacher’s Edition and Summer Reading: Teacher’s Edition Part 2 (they’re not just for summer)!