Tentative date and time for the book club event ...

Hello everyone!

I'm sending this information via Group Post in case some of you aren't following some of the threads that exist on different member's pages.

I contacted Leigh and she said we can use the newly created Chat Forum to host our first book club meeting.

In the thread that's been started on mn.risley's page ~ a few of us felt that Wednesday May 13th at 5:30pm (Pacific Time) / 8:30pm (EST) would be a good date and time to give this a try.

I don't know how the chat forum will work - I'm guessing it'll be like MSN where your comments will be posted immediately upon hitting 'Enter' and so our experience will be more 'real time'.

I'd like to announce this gathering to the whole community once we've committed to a final date and time ... giving everyone an opportunity to discuss The Secret Life of Bees whether or not they've officially joined this group.

Will this date and time work for you?  We felt the Girl's Night Out times were good for most ... though we've pushed ours back a little bit as some people work until 5pm (Pacific time).

Let me know ~ and I'll post an invitation tomorrow or Sunday for the entire community ... Sally.

Getting Started

It's awfully exciting to be part of the electricity this collaborative possibility generates! There are so many great ideas and so many diverse talents that regardless of the ultimate outcome, we're all going to be better off for the experience.

I've noted that a number of Visions have been introduced for consideration. My feeling at this point is that this creative initiative needs to be managed like a process – with steps and structure.

We need an overall Vision, supported by a mission statement and/or goals – and this will provide us with something substantive to hold all ideas up to for evaluation.

Once we have our vision confirmed and our mission/goals agreed upon ~ we can then break the project down into steps with timelines … and divvy out tasks accordingly.

While I'd love to contribute to the creation's content as well ~ I'll lead this initiative with my left brain to ensure that the planning, execution, monitoring, control and closure of the project is being managed.

I'll seek to ensure we have a shared vision of the entire project from start to finish ~ and I'll do my very best to detail the process, the deliverables, and the step-by-steps so that we can maintain momentum and a clear sense of direction.

I'm most looking forward to tapping into the many talents and resources involved as we support each other, bring out the best in each other and work to realize a vision we'll be proud to share with others.

I think a good starting point is to determine what we hope to accomplish as a result of this venture.  Why are we engaging?  What is our intent?

Here is what I've pulled from previous posts as a starting point to answering these questions:

1. To defy the 'soul-lessness' of the Internet

2. To BE the spirit the world needs today

3. To encourage other women to find wonder in vulnerability

4. To increase the exposure/audience for our written expressions

5. To raise money for a woman-focussed charitable organization

6. To have a PNN celebration on Oprah

Let's start here.  Once we get clear about why we're doing this and what we hope to achieve as a result (our Vision, our goals) ~ we can then move into discussion about the book's format and content (Journal-like, poetry, short stories, etc.)

I promise you - while details and processes can be painstakingly boring to creative geniuses like yourselves ~ we will be far more effective and efficient in the end for working to clarity at the beginning.

So ~ as a group, what do we hope to accomplish as a result of this venture?