"Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading." - Rainer Maria Rilke
We have created a virtual book club exclusively for UBC alumni focusing on lifelong learning, leadership, harnessing creativity, communication skills and much, much more. The book club will connect through a private forum where alumni can discuss the current book and connect with each other.
Joining the book club is completely free. You just have to pick up a copy of the book—at your library, local bookstore, or online—to enjoy. The group will read one book every two months so you will have plenty of time to read. Plus, you don’t have to commit to reading every book—we’re not grading you.
by John Green
There are three main reasons we hope you will be excited to participate in our alumni book club:
1. Embrace Lifelong Learning: The facilitated book club will broaden your career and provide new insights to get results in making you more effective in areas including leadership, communications skills, and achieving a fulfilling life.
2. Reading is Good for You: Reading can reduce stress, help you sleep better, and improve your relationships.1 Did we mention it also makes you smarter? Reading increases your verbal intelligence, your emotional intelligence, and your creativity.2
3. Connect with Fellow UBC alumni: Our book club will introduce you to fellow alumni across industries, generations, and geographies all while gaining different perspectives through reading the book. The network you'll be building may help you with career advice, introduce you to new people, and find your next opportunity.
<i>“Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge.” - Stephen Hawking</i> Below are a few examples of the kind of books the group may read. We will vote between several options each period and select a book based on reader interests.
We’ll be reading one book every two months. The books selected will be about advancing lifelong learning and career development and take an average of eight hours to read cover to cover. For most readers, this means having between 30 to 60 minutes a week to read: on the bus, with your lunch, or before bed (especially if you want to improve your sleep). There are no strict expectations on members for this virtual community; if you are particularly busy with work, family or other obligations and can't read one of the books, that's totally fine. If you can only read part of a book and contribute a little to the online discussion, then that's okay too. The goal of this program is to connect UBC alumni together through reading, as often as you can.
No, the book club is entirely online. You can participate anywhere you have internet access and on the days that are convenient to you.
Participation is free for alumni! You are responsible only for finding a copy of the book.
Participants can get books for free at their local library, or purchase a book at their local bookstore or online.
The book club will have a moderator from PBC Guru who manages the forum where discussions occur online. The moderator will pose questions to the group, share relevant articles and facilitate conversation about topics in the book. Members will be encouraged to post and share their own thoughts as well. This format allows for ongoing conversation and makes it easy for alumni to connect with each other through the forum.
We are using a private forum to host the virtual book club so it is easy to connect. During our sign-up process, your free profile will be created. After you complete the sign up, we'll send you a link to the forum and you can begin to post right away!
Professional Book Club (PBC) Guru is a book club management company that works with businesses, alumni associations and professional societies. We are teaming up with PBC to put this program in place for alumni. You can check out their website at www.pbc.guru if you want to see more of what they do.
If you are already a member, you can click here to log in.
Feel free to send an email to info@pbc.guru and we will be happy to help.
