What does it take to start a book club? In my very recent experience, just a few like-minded readers who what to share their love of books and a Facebook page. I recently posted in my local Mom’s Facebook group about wanting to join a book club. A few people commented that there used to be a book club in town years ago, but not a lot of people showed up to the meetings and now there was no club. Not one to sit back and just let it go, I immediately started a Facebook page and let the other Mom’s know that it was active, if they would like to join. Within a few hours we had over fifty people in the group! I thought that was pretty exciting but honestly from past experience there are always a lot of “joiners” but not a lot of “doers”.
I had never intended to be the only one in charge of this page or the book club itself, but someone has to start something in order for it to get going. Within the group I posted a few times about what our first book should be and encouraged people to vote. I found it surprising that very few people even took part in this portion of the book club. A few of us ended up choosing the book and a few weeks later we had our first meeting.
Now with a group of over fifty people in our book club I had expected maybe ten people to attend the meeting, in reality only three other people showed up. THREE! Remember what I said about joiners vs. doers? Here is the thing, I get it, I really do! People are extremely busy, life is just so busy these days! Why so many people join is that they truly want to be a part of something. They want to enjoy a night out with other like-minded people having good conversation about a topic they love, in this case books.
This got me thinking, what converts someone from being a joiner to a doer? When you have over fifty people join a group and only three show up, what does that say about our community, our society as a whole? I think it comes down to a few things, but what I want to focus on for this post is commitment. In essence your word. This might be a little hard to hear for some people, but if you say you are going to do something just do it. Do not make a commitment and then not show up. In this day and age I see this more and more and to be honest it makes me sad. I think your word is everything and when people make plans and so easily cancel with a simple text message, it just sucks! I don’t know what to blame it on, technology that easily allows us to cancel without even speaking to each other. Laziness? Busyness? Tiredness? There are so many reasons why people join and don’t actually show up.
Within the newly formed book club, I was surprised by the number of people who attended but I was still so happy to be there. Meeting three new people who were so warm, kind and who loved talking about a subject I loved too! It was a great first meeting and I truly look forward to the future meetings we will have. In the end if only one other person shows up at the next meeting I will still have a good time.
I just wish more people would take the time to keep their word, to themselves and to others. They are truly the ones missing out. I encourage you to say YES to more things and to FOLLOW THROUGH! I think you’ll surprise yourself with how much more fun you will have becoming a “doer” and instead of staying a “joiner”.
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