Affiliated with
a Non-Profit Educational Organization
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Season's greetings!
2011 has been a good year for Houston Great Books and we are planning and budgeting for an even better year in 2012.
Highlights for 2011 include:
- Presidents' Day review of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
- July 4 review of Amendments 13, 14 and 15 to our Constitution led once again by Rocky Rhodes
- October annual meeting with a lively discussion of Barn Burning
- Discussion Enhancement sessions on Philosophy & Poetry and Discussing Philosophy
- End the year with 21 active groups meeting most months with total attendance of about 200
At the October annual meeting we began offering membership for 2012 and 36 people have already enrolled (list attached) with many also contributing an added donation for the support of the organization. Dues are only $10 per year and are used to support the above events. In 2011 membership reached 48 and we'd like to increase that to 70 in 2012. With that in mind we will be e-mailing previous members and wish to contact attendees to the individual groups to invite them to join. I ask each of you to forward this e-mail to your group distribution list asking them to consider joining the Houston Great Books Council. We have found the most direct way is for the individual group leader/facilitator or our Board contact to that group remind the individuals of the value of joining at their January or February book discussion meeting. For those times we found it most convenient to just accept cash. Individuals can always join by going to our website http://www.houstongreatbooks.net/ where you can pay online via credit card. After joining each member gets a welcoming e-mail from our secretary, Frances Leland. While we promote membership, we also remind everyone that membership is not required to attend the area meetings or the individual book discussion groups.
Attached is the updated list of the assigned Board contacts for each group. The purpose of this contact is to learn of your needs, where we may be of help and receive your feedback as to how the Great Books Council can better promote our mutual goals.
As I mentioned before, some of the potential goals between the HGBC and your group include:
- promoting thoughtful reading and discussion in the area
- increasing attendance
- gently asking attendees to become members of Great Books
- offer to help with discussion quality
- keeping informed of HBGC activities
- convenient distribution lists
- keeping schedule of readings on the Houston Great Books website up to date
- general coordination between HGBC and all the groups
Please talk with your Board contact about these and other specific areas of coordination and support.
I thank each of you and your groups for keeping the light burning.
While we've assigned a Board contact for ease of coordination and I continue to welcome your direct contacts with me.
Enjoy your reading
-Eric
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