Future of Dallas UX Book Club

[Crispin]

Hi guys,

Over the last two meetings we have really seen a drop in participation
in the UX Book Club. It has become apparent, at least to me, that
Book Club needs to change if it is to have a future. One thing which
might help is going back to having meetings every other month instead
of every month. This might give people more time to prepare and
read.

However, I think that the Book Club also needs more members in order
to get a minimum attendance at the meetings. In order to do so, I
think the Book Club needs better leaders. I started Book Club mostly
because I wanted to attend Book Club, not because I wanted to run an
organization. Pretty much everything I've done has been of an
administrative nature -- posting polls for books, and updating the
website, Facebook pages, etc.

I think in order to thrive, Book Club really needs an evangelist --
someone who has some time to spend aggressively looking for new
members on the internet, putting flyers out at UPA meetings, putting
flyers up on message boards or in UX books in bookstores, stirring up
interest for the meetings by posting about the books ahead of time,
and that kind of thing.

I, personally, really don't have the time to devote to this that I
would like, and I've been carrying the "Book Club Torch" for almost
two years now. I would hate to see Book Club go away, since I have had
many wonderful conversations about work, UX, and Interaction Design in
general, and I have learned a lot from all of you. However, I think
the Book Club leadership needs to get shaken up a bit.

Therefore, if someone would like to come on as co-leader, or if
someone would like to take over the leadership of Book Club entirely,
I would welcome either opportunity. Otherwise, I think that Book Club
will cease to exist as of next year. I would like to see if we can
finish out the year because, well, I've already bought a lot of the
books (haha!).

Anyway, I welcome your ideas, suggestions and participation!

Thanks,
Crispin

[Lorie Whitaker]

Well, I know for me, personally, a lot of the books which were chosen
don't really deal with the topic that I wanted to learn more about:
usability. Rather, they mostly deal with design elements, interaction
design, etc.

Maybe if we offered more conversations about usability (tips,
techniques, books like 'The Persona Life Cycle') we would get a
stronger response from groups like DFW UPA.

Lorie

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[Sullivan, Brian]

Hi Crispin --

Here are a few novel ideas (pun intended, "novel"...get it).

First, let's have a book club social with some of the authors of these
UX books. On the Thursday before the Big Design Conference, we are
having a social with the organizers, speakers, and sponsors of the
conference. We can expand to UX Book Club members. (No more than 25 UX
Book Club people, though.)

You are going to see many UX authors in attendance--Susan Weinschenk,
Russ Unger, Jared Spool, Nathan Shedroff, Bill Scott, and Theresa Neil.
I propose that the UX Book Club just have a social in May at the
Thursday night before the actual event.

Second, the Big Design Conference is going to have a UX Book Store.
Jackie Damrau of STC is going to run the book store on Friday.
Personally, I would love for the folks of the UX Book Club to step up
and take Saturday. STC and the UX Book Club can keep any of the profits
from the sales of the UX Books. You can look at it as a UX Book Club
Fundraiser. I plan to have slots for the speakers to actually sign
their books.

NOTE: I do not know how much money will get raised, but it could be
used for another UX Book Club Event or social.

Third, I would love to see a joint meeting with DFW-UPA and the UX Book
Club. It could be as simple as members of the UX Book Club come
prepared to talk about a specific book. At the end of the meeting, we
could do a book exchange, which was very popular last year.

Fourth, consider a virtual UX Book Club webinar or conference call over
lunch. My biggest issue is that I am not able to attend meetings
because of previous commitments (mainly, my 11 year old's soccer and
basketball schedules). Everyone does lunch, though. I am willing to
bet that you could get an author to actually talk about their books,
too.

Fifth, nothing beats a good schedule. You may want to have quarterly
socials, quarterly meeting, quarterly webinars, and quarterly joint
meetings (two with STC, two with DFW-UPA). Then, you have 12 meetings
throughout the year. The socials can be very fun and interactive (ex:
UX Book Club Jeopardy).

Anyway, think about these ideas. I am willing to say that DFW-UPA would
do some joint meetings with you. It would ease your scheduling burden
and provide some focus to both groups.

Thanks,
Brian

PS Let me know if ya'll want to run the Saturday book store at the
conference. It is a natural fit for the Book Club, a fundraiser, and
you get to meet a lot of authors, too.

Hi guys,

Thanks,
Crispin

--

[JudyKR]

I would agree that we may need more members than the 4 "regulars" plus
4-5 "occasional" attendees in order for any one meeting to have at
least 4-5 persons attending. And I'd agree we might want to go back to
every other month, since that was working pretty well last year. And
thank you, Crispin, for taking on the burden of the administrative
tasks to get this all going. IMHO, I don't think we need the
evanglist to aggressively seek more members. Since we already have
chosen books/locations and, I think, leaders for each book discusion
this year, why not have the Leader for the month's discussion take on
some additional responsibility like post a reminder to this list 7-10
days before the date and the day before, including a little synopsis
or question or two, since the Leader probably has read the book? The
monthly discussion leader could also send the reminder to the UPA-DFW
email which would then get sent out to the designers/usability/
interaction people that make up UPA-DFW. (I feel like UPA here has
quite a mix, not just usability folks now.)

Regarding Brian's suggestions, it would be nice for the Big Design
group to invite the UX Book group to the social w/the speakers, etc.
And some of the book group may be willing to volunteer to help on
Saturday if the conference team is trolling for volunteers. (I
haven't seen anything in email, but maybe you'll ask tonight at the
UPA meeting!) However, the UX book group is pretty informal and I'm
not sure we have a need for income generation! I also think making a
book discussion/book swap the focus of a UPA meeting would be a
mutually beneficial solution-- generate more interest for both, etc.
Judy

On Mar 22, 10:26 am, Crispin <crispin_re...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> Over the last two meetings we have really seen a drop in participation
> in the UX Book Club.  It has become apparent, at least to me, that
> Book Club needs to change if it is to have a future.  One thing which
> might help is going back to having meetings every other month instead

> of every month.  ...

> However, I think that the Book Club also needs more members in order
> to get a minimum attendance at the meetings.  In order to do so, I

> think the Book Club needs better leaders.  ...>
> I think in order to thrive, Book Club really needs an evangelist ...>
> > Crispin

[Sullivan, Brian]

Hi --

My thinking with generating some revenue for the UX Book Club would be to pay for travel expenses for an author to actually come to a UX Book Club meeting. DFW-UPA can certainly do the following things:

1. Post your event on our calendar.
2. Send out a reminder for the UX book club with our regular emails.
3. Do a joint meeting with ya'll (and the book swap was really loved last year--we did it twice).

With respect to volunteering at the conference, we are not trolling for volunteers. To me, it is a natural fit for the book club to (perhaps) run the book store, talk to authors, collect money (for future endeavors), and so on. Again, it would be cool to pay to have an author talk about their book.

Finally, we have these lunch tables that we are going to set up for the conference. If you can get the book club together at one or two of the tables, I will get some of the authors to have lunch with you. I know that Nathan Shedroff would be glad to talk with you about his books "Making Meaning" and "Design is the Problem".

Anyway, let me know.

Thanks,
Brian

--

[Crispin R.]

As far as the conference goes, I'm not going to be able to attend since we have our family reunion on Memorial Day weekend, so I'll leave it to the rest of the group to decide if they want to participate and in what capacity.  Sounds fun, though, wish I could be there but you guys know how those family reunions are.  :)

Judy -- I agree, if the leaders of each discussion can take on the responsibility of generating some discussion and doing the reminders, that would be a great help and could probably generate more interest. 

Thanks all!

---

From: "Sullivan, Brian" <Brian.S...@sabre.com>
To: ux-bookcl...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Darv...@gmail.com
Sent: Tue, March 23, 2010 2:20:35 PM
Subject: RE: Future of Dallas UX Book Club

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[Sullivan, Brian]

Hi –

 

I talked with the DFW-UPA officers.  We have an opening to do a joint meeting in either June or July. 

 

Let us know.

 

Thanks,

Brian

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[JudyKR]

Brian,
The UX Book Club is pretty small, like I said about 4 "regulars" and
several others who have come to one or two meetings. That's the
situation that started this discussion: we don't know that we have a
large enough core group at this time to continue monthly meetings, let
alone plan a big event with an author (Author asks "how many attend
your book club?" We answer "4, but if you came 40 might show up.")
or to staff a book sale table for a day. (Hey, if I can attend (not
sure of family plans) and have an hour in which I am not planning to
hear a speaker, I'll volunteer an hour at the table.)
Just my opinion, maybe the other 2 "regulars" have different opinions.
Judy

On Mar 23, 2:20 pm, "Sullivan, Brian" <Brian.Sulli...@sabre.com>
wrote:

[Sullivan, Brian]

I understand. The book club is completely invited to the Thursday night mixer at CoHabitat. There will be a lot of authors there.

I do think that we can do a joint meeting with DFW-UPA and the book club. DFW-UPA tend to get 18-20 people with some overlap in the book club.

Thanks,
Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: ux-bookcl...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ux-bookcl...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of JudyKR
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 9:15 AM
To: ux-bookclub-dallas
Subject: Re: Future of Dallas UX Book Club

--

[Stacy Anderson]

In response to this discussion, and, as the next facilitator up for our next meeting, I have a plan for a series of posts to drive interest and participation as well as reminds 10 and 2 days in advance.

 

Question, where is the standard meeting location? I'd want to include that in my messaging plan.

 

Thanks all!

 

Sincerely,

Stacy Anderson (Felish)