The Next ReadaThing... ??

I need to pass the ReadaThing Coordinator-Organizer Bookmark (can't call it a baton, can I?) on to other(s).

April & May crept up on me and I realized that there was supposed to be a ReadAThing around now!!

I missed it and I apologize to the group for not doing something sooner, whether organizing or stepping down. I think it is better that I step down.

If anyone wishes to step forward to coordinate, please do so.

If you are willing to help with any part of the next RT, post here, as well.

Having a group of LTers to coordinate would be wonderful!

It doesn't have to be done the way I did it...... but it needs to be done the way the group wants it.

Thanks to everyone for your help with past ReadaThings!! It was a lot of fun!!

I'm willing to help, but not to be primary organizer. I'm insufficiently organized in real life to drive something online... but I could help with wiki stuff and ideas.

> 2 I haven't participated much lately, but I'm willing to mark my calendar and nudge with announcements and try to keep this going and such . . . I'm at a loss with wikis so if jj can handle that . . .

Really like the idea of having regular Read-A-Things . . . but if they're now being done by some of the other LT groups instead, maybe this group is redundant??

Not really - there are readalongs and readathons in various groups, but this one seems to be the best cross-group connection. Also, I don't know of anyone else that does the long-time ones - I really like this reading for a week thing, with someone reading all the time (and reporting it!).

It really doesn't take a whole lot to organize a ReadaThing. The biggest workload is setting up the timetable (an excel file, easily modified for a new week) and setting up the wikipage & the threads. After that it is quiet... just checking the threads & the wikipage. If someone wants to follow my pattern, that's fine. Or they can modify it. Once I let it loose, I will not "control" it.

My current situation is that I cannot promise that "oh, yes, next Tuesday I can dedicate 2 hours to setting up ReadaThing!"

I could easily choose a date & set it up fairly quickly if I had the time to do just that, but I couldn't even guarantee that I could watch the group threads & wiki during the ReadaThing! It is usually 3-4 weeks between announcement & event.... or it should be.

But I will not choose a date for the group!! (I usually give the group about a week or two to decide on a date and I cannot do that.)

ReadaThing isn't about me & my needs or wants, it is about what the group wants.

I'm just not hearing an outcry of "let's keep this going" . . . once I hear that, I'm willing to pitch in to make it happen.

I'd love to see it keep going. I'd pitch in to help.

#6: You aren't hearing it because most don't want the responsibility of running it. That's completely understandable. and, they are afraid that if they speak up, it will be "dumped" on them.

I don't dump stuff on other people.

That's why I can't commit to this right now.

I am afraid that I would start it & have to drop everything to handle some IRL stuff unexpectedly. My life is a little too fluid right now to make the commitment that RaT requires. (IMO)

#2 & #7: jjmcgaffey & majkia, Great!!

Let's see if anyone else wants to help!!

So we've got three people willing to work on it - majkia, LucindaLibre, and me. I think that would be enough to run it...now we need some expressions of interest in having another RaT! I'm going to post over in Talk about LibraryThing, and see if we can draw in some more people. It's been long enough many may not have been checking this group for a while.

>9 jjmcgaffey: Good idea!

I just don't want to go to all the work if there isn't much interest . . . has there been much participation in the recent RTs? (like I said, I've been AWOL for a while)

I'm game - depending on when it happens obviously.

Obviously. But the first thing that needs to happen is a discussion of when...the first thing after we get enough people declaring themselves interested, at least. And as I said elsewhere, I'd like to do the full week again - so most everyone should be able to squeeze in a few hours here and there.

Getting a few more at http://www.librarything.com/topic/137829 - looks like this is going to happen. Next week(?) we should open a thread for when - what week it should happen. I'm going to be completely useless from Monday evening until probably Wednesday evening (running a polling station Tuesday, 16-hour day mostly on my feet), but could start a when thread after that if no one else wants to.

Normally I'd say I could start it but we are RVing and I've got limited internet access until we get home.

I would be interested in participating, but I can't commit to volunteering (unless it's something small, like helping people fill in their wiki slots).

>13 jjmcgaffey: good luck on Tuesday . . . are you in Wisconsin? That's going to be an interesting day!

Are you thinking some week in June or July? or August? I can't remember what the "schedule" is, but I remember doing one once in August . . . and another in September . . . so I'm not sure if we're monthly or bi-montly or ??

If someone reminds me of the syntax for setting up those little polls/votes, I could set up a thread presenting several options and asking folks to vote and comment . . .

Okay I found it! pretty simple . . . I was thinking more complicated.

As a test I think I'll start a thread polling the next couple of months . . . then, next week we can try to get more specific.

Just a note that June'll be harder for me to help with publicity for; anytime after the first week in July will be easier from that perspective ... just something to keep in mind :-)

Planning and voting has begun here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/137922

16> No, California...that's going to be bad enough. 8 boxes of different ballots, in different languages, each ballot two cards...sheesh. Gonna be fun. It is every time....

I don't think we ever had a schedule as such. There was interest in having one in May, but, well, didn't happen. So we start from now. It might be a good idea to have it on a schedule, so that people factor it in to their plans...every two months, maybe? But that can wait until after this one's worked out.

Good luck, Jim. I'm a precinct clerk in Florida and also train election workers and work early voting. We'll both need stamina this year.

Thank you all for stepping up to lead us. Let me know if you guys need help.

I haven't been on here that much. I don't know if I will be able to participate in the next RAT. I don't have as much time to read and my best free time would have been the first week in July since I am off from Wed-Mon.

Good luck to those that have stepped up to organize it this year. I will try to check in from time to time.

Yeah - that would have been a good time, if it had worked out that we could organize it by then. But it didn't happen. I hope you can squeeze out some time at the end of the month! The nice thing about a week-long reading period is that just about everyone can grab a little time to read within that period. I've missed long-weekend RaTs entirely - just too busy - but with a week-long one it usually works.

I don't have time to set aside more the 10 minutes at night if lucky. I work 10 hour days for the summer and by Friday I am exhausted and don't even want to read for that long and need to catch up on all the house work, laundry, yard work etc. I may read but I won't be participating in it because I can't commit to much time.

Oh, whee. Yeah, I've done that (well, 9 hour days and an hour-and-a-half commute, each way) - and essentially didn't read for close on six months. Well, you can put yourself down in the untimed reading - it doesn't _have_ to be in hour-long blocks. If you can manage 10 minutes once or twice in the week, that counts!

>26 jjmcgaffey: I do the 1.5 hour commute. I still 'read' -- audiobooks!!!

I tried - I really can't do audiobooks. I read faster than I hear, so I'm always grumbling at the reader to hurry up... There are a couple audiobooks that have worked for me - but literally a couple (Nicol Williamson reading The Hobbit, and Derek Jacobi reading The Daughter of Time). I tried listening to new (to me) books and got lost, listened to old favorites and discovered how annoying they were... I listened (and sang along) to music on my commute, mostly.

BTW - audiobooks count for RaT, of course! If they work for you (any of youse), go for it.

I drive to work so I can't listen to a book because my commute is about 5 minutes if that. I have only listened to 2 books. One I loved because I have read all those books the other one was alright.