MEMBERSHIP INTAKE
1. Membership Designation. NCBC is designed with the mature, African American person in mind; as such, new members must be of
like mind, African American, and of adult age to join this group.
2.
Membership Mindset. Only serious readers apply as we formed for the primary
purpose of reading and discussing books by and about African Americans and we expect everyone to be active.
3. Introductions. All new members are asked to introduce themselves to the group. These introductions
are meant to be helpful (and not intrusive) in helping us to get to know each member better.
Existing members are asked to introduce themselves to the new members.
4. Group Size. NCBC Membership is limited to twenty (20) active participants.
5.
Guest Policy. Each member may freely invite guests to join the monthly book club discussions.
6.
Waiting List. If and when the club reaches maximum capacity (stated in item #4 above), a waiting list of perspective members will be maintained.
As vacancies occur, perspective members will be contacted in the order they were received to ascertain interest level. If so interested, perspective members will be invited to an NCBC meeting as a participating guest/observer. A follow-up call will determine if candidate will make the commitment to retain membership into the club.
MEMBERSHIP RETENTION
7. Active Membership. Members are expected to read and participate in any of the monthly group book discussions at least
9 of the 12 months during a calendar. Periodically, the attendance list will
be reviewed to determine member participation.
8. Meeting Attendance and Absences. An RSVP system is in effect for NCBC meetings to allow the hostess to plan properly.
An e-mail reminder to poll members regarding their intent to participate in the monthly meeting attendance will be sent
a week before each meeting. Members are asked to notify the moderator if they plan to bring guests as well.
In the event that you can not attend a meeting, please contact us beforehand or soon thereafter to let us know your
intentions of staying active.
9. Meeting Date(s) and Location. Currently the club meets the second Saturday of the month between the hours of 4-6 pm at Montsho Books unless otherwise announced or noted. Upon
occasion the meeting date, time, venue will change to accommodate the majority of the members. Members will be contacted and
given ample notification of such a change.
BOOK SELECTIONS
10.
Genres. We will discuss all genres of books.
11. Monthly Book Selection Process. Members are asked to nominate books either verbally, via e-mail, via eGroup site, or by mail. Usually a list is formulated; an eGroup poll is created to allow members to vote on the Book-of-the-Month
selection. In lieu of the eGroup poll, a nomination and election will be conducted
after the monthly meeting to select the upcoming book(s).
12. Optional Partnership: The Central Florida Advocate. The Central Florida Advocate
(CFA) and the Nubian Circle Book Club have partnered to form a bibliophile's dream!
The CFA will solicit publishers and distributors for books and the Nubian Circle
will read and submit a 300 word (max) book review for publication in the Advocate. In
exchange for the book review, the NCBC member is allowed to retain the selected book.
Thus Book Review = Free Book! The Book Review is not a requirement to
retain membership within NCBC; it is purely optional. See Phyllis
for details.
YAHOO! eGROUP
13. Status. All members will be automatically placed on moderated status. This means their
messages will not go to the loop until approved by the moderator(s). This is to prevent spamming.
14.
Polls. When a poll is posted to our Yahoo! eGroup site, the list is automatically
notified. It is preferred that you respond to the poll via Yahoo! eGroups. However, in the case of technical
difficulty, send poll votes to NubianCircleClub@aol.com. Members are asked to participate in polls as requested. Polls help track
things and allow you to have YOUR say.
15.
Files. Members are asked to post and/or update their reading lists monthly to
the files section in the Files Folders. Also, share any reviews, links, photos, etc. that you'd like in the appropriate
folders.
16. Mailing List/E-mail Addresses.
Our mailing list and email addresses are PRIVATE along with our personal information, so please don't use our email
addresses for your use unless you know a member well enough to do so. If we notice any of our names being used improperly
for mass mail, the offending member be removed immediately and will be reported to AOL, Yahoo Groups, hotmail
or whoever you have as your e-mail provider.
17. Signature Files. Signature files should be kept to a maximum of 10 lines and be non-offensive.
18. Chain letters, spam, virus alerts, jokes,
etc. are forbidden on the eGroup. No exceptions.
FUN FACTOR
19. Members are expected to adhere to all guidelines
(initially given upon joining and any additional guidelines) developed. If any member is not following the guidelines as stated,
they will be asked to leave the group.
20. NCBC is
a Give-and-Take Group but we are also about bonding and having fun! If at any time, the group is no longer enjoyable...please
let me know and I'll do everything to ensure that it is.