EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion
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Moderator Support & Feedback
Hello all,I wanted to update you on our current mod situation. Tori and I are currently working under this proposal:
A. Tori helps with moderating on an interim basis. Permanent moderating will be discussed together and then with the group.
B. We start the yearly challenges. We’re using posts that Marcos started, creating a new one for TBR Challenge. Marcos’ reserved spaces will remain as they are now so that when he can take them back over when he comes back.
C. We are not starting any competitive challenges during this time.
D. We are not making any major changes to the group during this time.
E. If by March, the situation has not changed, we will revisit this proposal. This will get us through the next couple of weeks, but it is not a long-term plan.
Essentially, Marcos and I are not seeing eye to eye right now. Since Sunday, I have heard from him once asking me to hold off until we can discuss and to be able to move forward as a team. I asked for a timeframe because I didn’t feel comfortable letting things sit in limbo for an undetermined amount of time. He didn’t respond, nor has he responded on the above proposal. I am sorry that that this makes for an uncomfortable situation. However, we are trying to keep things going as normal as possible.
Please know that despite our current differences, Marcos and I both care about the group and it’s future, as I know Tori does as well. Marcos is our most active member and his presence is missed in the many discussions he typically participates in, with his catching enthusiasm and thoughtful comments. Hopefully, his busy life returns to a normal pace soon, and he can come back.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Joanna
This is a difficult situation and I am sorry to see that Marcos is not as active as he usually is. I do have to say Thank You to Joanna and Tori for beginning to move forward to keep the group active and engaging. I hope this all resolves itself shortly.Thanks again to ALL the mods. You spend your free time helping us reach our goals.
Joanna, you're doing a great job, and I know you have the best interests of the group at heart. Thank you Tori for stepping up to help the group stay strong. You all have our support. This is a very active group and you need several mods to avoid burnout, so keep doing what you believe is right. I hope Marcus will come back after taking a little break.
I’m grateful to Joanna & Marcos for rescuing this group a while ago, & for all your hard work with the group. Marcos, I appreciate your knowledge & expertise which has been invaluable in resolving book problems quickly & efficiently. When your other commitments settle down I hope you will be back here with us. Thank you to Tori for stepping up to help the team.
Like other members, I appreciate greatly the work of all moderators and miss Marcos very much.I am happy to be able to start with the new challenges, thank you for making it possible!
Thank you all three. I hope you find a way to resolve the situation, but if any of you need to step down for the sake of your mental health, I support you in that, too.
I know tori has been around for a while. I think she does a lot of the challenges. I don't do the challenges. I do the discussions only. Could she reintroduce herself? I would love to get to know her.
Mod
I am 26 years old and live in the United States with my boyfriend, our two dogs and a chinchilla. I'm an Antiquarian (I buy and resell antiques) my specialty is with antique toys and stuffed animals but I dabble in artwork and glassware as well. In the summer I travel to art festivals and sell my handmade soaps and bath products.
I've been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. However, when I was in my senior year of high school the mental backlash of several events caught up with me, and I went from reading 4-8 books a month to (maybe) 4 books a year. Joining Goodreads really helped me get back to normal. I tracked the books I read in a year and every year set my goal 2 books higher then what I had read the previous year. In 2016 I joined the EHRTBM and that is what finally got me out of my reading slump! At first I was barely keeping up with the 2 books a month, but I found the time because I always really enjoyed the books this group would pick out! Last year I read over 100 books and could not be more happy! This group means a lot to me personally, it is because of this group that I feel like myself again. I am very happy to be helping out and giving back to the group that has done so much for me!
Yay Tori! What an inspirational story... GR should totally buy it for their marketing.
I’m really grateful to Joanna and Marcos for stepping in and keeping the group going. This is one of my favorite groups! I hope Marcos gets things resolved and can participate again soon. I’m glad Tori can step in and pick up some of the slack.
Thanks for the intro Tori! I agree it is inspirational :)Also thanks Jennifer, Nancy, Trisha, Monique, Cheryl, Renee and Megan for the support and well wishes for Marcos. It is much appreciated!
I'm so happy to see Tori as a co-mod, she was a great Hufflepuff leader!! I'm very sad about the problems right now, and can only say I think both Marcos and Joanna are wonderful, wonderful mods. I hope whatever the issues are can be ironed out for their benefit & also that of the group- I selfishly hope very much that they will both continue to serve!!I've had a difficult January on job & family fronts & been a bit MIA, I'm willing to admit. Only read 4 books last month but still love the premise, vibe & openness of this group.
I don't know what the issues are, and really don't need to know, but my perception is that expectations vary a great deal among group members. Some want simplicity and others want complexity, especially among the challenges. I can only imagine this can be exhausting for mods. I think it's important to continue to be welcoming to members, regardless of whether they choose to read 1 book here per year or 24. I hope it's workable for members to either work alongside mods with challenges to help implement, or for a pair to entirely run one if it's complicated.
To me, the core (& priority?) of this group is the monthly polls and group reads/discussions. Challenges are nice, but we already have the group challenge for how many group reads we each choose to complete. I'm concerned that the labor & expectation needs to be reasonable upon mods. It would be awful to go there again as last year.
I have other things I'm thinking, but maybe I should catch up first on what's already been discussed. I'm also sure others won't entirely agree with me, but that's OK - Much love to my fellow "new & old classics" readers <3
Thank you Tori. I am looking forward to your moderaring.I love this group for many reasons. I enjoy be reminded of books I always meant to read. It is a bonus for me that I then get to discuss them.
I also enjoy revisiting books and discussing them too.
I am not a challenge reader. But I do like the fact that they are their if I want them.
Thank you all for the work you do.
Thank you for sharing, Tori, what a lovely story!
I have been a bit MIA this year so far as well (health, life, etc.), but I definitely want to add my thanks to Marcos, Joanna, and Tori! I really love this group, it is a lot of fun for me and a wonderful community. I appreciate everyone who helps keep it going, and especially Marcos and Joanna for stepping in when Kasey disappeared, and now Tori for stepping in to help lighten the loads and get challenges going! (I love your story too!! Thank you for sharing!)I hope Marcos is able to come back soon, he is such a pillar here.
Susan wrote: "I'm so happy to see Tori as a co-mod, she was a great Hufflepuff leader!! I'm very sad about the problems right now, and can only say I think both Marcos and Joanna are wonderful, wonderful mods. I..."Thanks Susan. Great thoughts, and I appreciate your POV and support. I can’t speak to the future, but I did want to address one aspect of your comment. The differences between Marcos and I are very recent. I am not too keen to address the topic too in depth without Marcos able to offer his POV, but I do think it’s possible that we can work together in future, though likely in more defined roles.
Joanna Loves Reading wrote:That's very good to hear, Joanna- in any & all cases, I appreciate both you & Marcos so much! And my dear Hufflepuff friend Tori! I hope Marcos will see how important he is to the group & that this can all be worked out in an affirming way. I have no doubt that's what everyone wants.
Hi all,Just wanted to give a quick update. I have not heard back from Marcos yet. I did email him yesterday. If I hear back, I will let you all know. It does not appear that he has been on GR since early this month.
Tori is going to run the BOTM suggestion threads in March for our May reads. We are also going to start discussions on BOTM themes, hopefully to have a theme for June’s reads and a plan for how we select and how often we have themes going forward.
If nothing changes in the coming weeks, discussion threads will also be opened on our future moderating structure.
Let us know if you have any questions! Thanks!
ty for the update, and warmest wishes
I did enjoy the Japanese themes. Themes can help you get out of a book selection rut. LOL It still wont stop me from wanting to discuss Clockwork Orange.
Has anyone heard from Kasey? It's been a year already.
I have never heard from Kasey since then, although I tried for some time to reach her.But I've certainly not disappeared, I'm still very much around. :-)
I intend to post some news tomorrow, Saturday.
oh Marco, I am so glad to see you. I hope you are well. I have been worried that you were unwell. Really good to see you
Welcome back Marcos!!!!Edit - I was on my phone and hit send before I realized it said "Marco"
Glad to have you back, Marcos! Hope you are well.
Welcome back, Marcos! I'm really glad we'll get to travel together!
Hi Marcos! Glad to hear from you and welcome back
Dear members,It has been two months since Tori was added as an interim moderator, and we are at point future, more permanent moderator changes are needed. The timing is partly born from personal reasons because late spring/early summer is looking busy for me but also because February was meant to be the interim month and it’s April now.
First of all, I would say I fully support Tori continuing on if she is keen. She has been wonderfully supportive and positive throughout and is a longtime member.
I think the Mod team could be several-persons strong. It could potentially work on a rotating basis or mods for specific group activities (I.e. BOTM, Challenges or For Fun Discussions).
Right now, I would appreciate feedback on how you would like this process to go, if you have an interest in helping moderate (feel free to PM with questions/interest) and any other considerations you would like to consider.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Joanna
I am worried about Marco. Is there any news?
I have not heard anything further, Renee. I hope he’s ok. I assume he’s just been too busy in real life.
Yes, this group has too much going on for just one person, for sure. I'm too busy modding in other groups otherwise I'd volunteer. If you can get enough ppl onboard, to split up duties, no one person would have too much to do. Good luck!
Mod
I am very excited to see someone has an interest in moderating, thanks Catherine! Sorry you had problems messaging Joanna, I'm sure she will get back to you soon.
Thanks Catherine! I updated a couple of settings yesterday and it must have changed that without me realizing it.
I fully support adding Tori officially. I wish I could offer my support but I will begin training for my last work certification this year and I expect that to take up much of my time. A huge Thank You for everything to the Mods for all the hard work.
I absolutely support seeing Tori added permanently to help Joanna while Marcos is not available. And Catherine on a temporary or interim basis too..... I still hope Marcos can come back soon & let us know if he's doing OK. I would still love the same for Kasey too. I think 3 mods is barely enough for a group this size, and 5 would not be too many! Some large groups have numerous mods with specific functions. I don't know if other members here function that way in some other groups, or know more about it.
I agree with the comments above & support Tori & Catherine as mods if they are happy to be in the role. Tori’s temporary promotion has been successful, & Catherine was a great prefect during the Hogwarts challenge.I have a further suggestion that may help. In another of my groups, members can volunteer to host the discussion for a single book. The monthly reads are chosen as in this group, mods set up the discussion thread then the host member takes over that thread for the rest of the month. It encourages people to participate, & people volunteer for a book where they have an interest, in a month when they have sufficient time available. It allows the mods to spend their time on the other challenges, future book choices etc.
I agree. Thank you Torrie, You have been good for the group.This months discussions have been a bit slow but I think its just because of the time of year.
Hello all!Please welcome Catherine to the mod team! She is starting out as interim mod, similar to the way Tori did, and will be helping out in various aspects. Catherine did an excellent job as a prefect of the Gryffindor group and has been a member of the group since November 2017.
Also, we have a volunteer to lead a BOTM thread next month, great suggestion Trisha! Betsy reached out to help out moderating and has been welcoming to the group in the introduction thread. She has been a member since November, so we thought starting as a discussion leader and possibly add as a mod in future.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks all!
Catherine wrote: "Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "Hello all!Please welcome Catherine to the mod team! She is starting out as interim mod, similar to the way Tori did, and will be helping out in various aspects. Cathe..."
Catherine, this Catherine thanks you for stepping forward and volunteering!! (and you spell your name the right way!!) ;)
Hello everyone, and thank you Joanna for introducing me to the group.EHRTBM is an incredible space for encouraging growth in many ways, not only reading more or differently but also meeting and discussing important and interesting topics with great people.
I want to thank Joanna and Tori (and Marcos) for leading EHRTBM in such a creative way, and everyone else who gets involved in different ways in the group for continuing to make this group an inspiring place.
Really looking forward to leading a book discussion next month! If you have any ideas or thoughts about what you'd like to get out of the experience, it would really help me in knowing what my role is. Please get in touch with me, either here or writing a private message.
Thanks!
Could I ask again for the new moderators to give a small introduction? Its nice to know who people are.
Nice to meet you Catherine :) What are some of your fav fantasy books?Hi Renee, I know I'm not considered a mod but I'd like give a small introduction too.
I've always been a reader; some of my earliest memories are of being glued to a book. My parents both instilled this sense in our home, and I continue to talk to them about what we're reading.
I am also happy to try anything, as long as the voice grabs me, I'll give it a go. My tendencies lean towards character driven narratives rather than plot based stories (although, of course, we need a good balance of each to make a great read). I'm also a big re-reader; there are moments in the year when I need to grab a book like you need to meet a friend, and check in to see where you both are.
Some of my recent loves have been:
Circe
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
A Fine Balance.
Can't wait to talk to you all soon,
Thanks
Catherine wrote: "A Fine Balance is one of my favourite books!"It is such a heart-wrenching read. Beautifully written, compassionate and detailed, but if A Thousand Splendid Suns is anything like it, I'll need to wait a bit to get over this last one haha!
Thanks for talking about some of your favourite fantasy novels; they look interesting! I haven't heard of the The Night Angel Trilogy or Ranger's Aprentice series, but I have read A Song of Ice and Fire and really enjoyed it. I'll definitely check the others out.
All the best
Congratulations, Catherine. It’s good to have you as a moderator here. Welcome to Betsy too, it’s nice getting to know more people through discussions.
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EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up...
Books mentioned in this topic
Circe (other topics)The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (other topics)
A Fine Balance (other topics)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (other topics)
I regret that this was brought up in a public way after multiple messages in private. I have not heard from Marcos since this message was made and have been waiting hoping we can work something out.
Yes communication is key but it’s a two way street.