English

VBG Design

A complete operating manual for a book group that meets online, built for people who cannot easily leave home — residents of continuing care communities, hospital and hospice patients, and anyone housebound. The design uses two free tools and nothing else: a groups.io email list to reach everyone, and Google Meet for the conversation. There are no dues, no committees, no reading assignments, no attendance records, and no software to install. Any member may host a session on any book by sending a single email. The guide covers the twenty-minute group setup, the exact wording of a session announcement, a minute-by-minute plan for the hour, a copy-and-paste welcome message, six rules of the road, and a first-thirty-days schedule. It is written to be handed to one person who then starts a group. Costs and platform limits are stated plainly, including the sixty-minute cap on free Google Meet group calls — the design works within that limit rather than against it. By Mel Haas, published by CivicGoodBooks.

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