Gabi Vesey '18，Diya Ram'15，Hadley Chase'15，以及Brittany Lamon-Paredes'15，最近在华盛顿州的一博士俱乐部会议。

When Hadley Chase ’15 moved to Washington, D.C., after graduation, she landed in the city knowing only one other person. Her solution was to head to the Washington Wellesley Club’s young alum book group. “I figured this would be a good way to make new friends. And it was!” Chase says.

Chase eventually became the young alumnae coordinator for the D.C. club, running and moderating the book club. Gabi Vesey ’18 took the reins of the group last fall and hosted her first book discussion in September 2018.

We asked Chase and Vesey to give some tips for getting a young alum book club up and running.

你需要什么才能获得一本书俱乐部？

Chase: You don’t need much! I found it was easiest to start with asking my friends if they were interested in joining. That way we had a core group of three to five people, who I knew would attend most meetings. Then we branched out to others.

Advertising through Facebook groups and events has worked best, but there is no substitute for reaching out directly. When a new member attended a meeting, we would text them before the next meeting to say, “Hey, we really enjoyed discussing X book with you, we hope you can make it on this time and date.” It can have a huge impact to let people know that you valued their presence.

如果你开始通过Wellesl读书俱乐部ey network, I highly recommend reaching out to folks who just graduated. A lot of those people will have just moved to a new city and are looking to get in touch with other Wellesley folks.

你怎么选择书籍？

Chase：我通常只是让会议上的人民决定下次会议的书。我认为那些是最有可能出现会议的人，所以如果有一本书有人着想阅读，这是提升出席的最佳方式。我们[还]尽可能多地支持Wellesley作者。

vesey.: For my very first book club, I got advice from my dad, who is a librarian, on what book to pick. I settled on无处不在的火。目前这是一个非常受欢迎的书，被Hulu接受了一个电视剧。我觉得这会吸引更多的人！

Who leads the discussion?

vesey.: I downloaded some questions from the author of the book to lead the discussion. You’ll find that “book club” type books have discussion questions already made if you search on the internet. After a few prepared questions, the conversation just flows.

Chase：我会引导自己的讨论，但有很多给予和接受集团。人们互相问过问题并开车了家庭不同的观点。它没有花很多准备。我会进入一些我想讨论的问题和段落。

Where do you meet?

Chase：我们已经旋转了会议位置。我们经常在公共上庭中的史密森尼博物馆之一见面。我们还完成了公园，以及我自己的家。当人们在自己的家中举办人们时，出席人数略高，并且在那里提供零食和饮料也更容易，只要有人拥有中心所在，易于无障碍的房子，那就很好地锻炼身体。

vesey.: [For my first meeting,] I decided to hold it at the National Portrait Gallery. The museum is free, and there’s an indoor courtyard with lots of chairs and tables set up for people.

让它包容的最佳方式是什么？

Chase：人们出现时，要欣赏，并努力了解他们。对于全职工作的人来说，并不容易，以便每月读一本书并参加会议。所以当他们这样做时，让他们知道你真的很高兴他们能成功，你想知道他们对这本书的看法。

我们努力选择通过当地公共图书馆访问的书籍。不幸的是，这有时可能意味着它们不是最新的选择，但是D.C.图书馆确实有一个非常好的选择。如果我们正在阅读通过图书馆无法获得的东西，我常常只会购买自己，快速阅读它，然后将其借给其他成员。

任何最终提示？

Chase:Don’t be discouraged if attendance is low. I’ve had meetings where no one shows up before. I promise, it’s not because they hate you or the book club, it’s just because there are busy times of year when people can’t commit to extra activities. They’ll come next time.