VCU Alumni has partnered with Professional Book Club Guru to create a virtual book club for alumni and friends, featuring lifelong learning, personal growth, novels and other books participants are interested in. The book club connects through a private forum where participants can discuss the current book and network with one another. Joining the book club is completely free, you just have to get a copy of the book to enjoy. The group will read one book every two months so you'll have plenty of time for each book.
by Colson Whitehead
You’ll be excited to participate in our book club for three main reasons. You can:
1. Connect with fellow alumni: Want another way to connect? Joining our book club will help you learn and grow with fellow alumni to help you improve your network at work.
2. Advance your career: A book club can enhance your career on two fronts. First, the books you read might make you more effective in areas critical to success such as leadership, communication and productivity. Second, the network you build might help you with career advice, introduce you to new people and find your next job.
3. Reading is good for you: Did you know businesspeople who read at least seven business books per year earn over 230 percent more than people who read just one book per year?1 Reading improves your intelligence and reasoning ability and has been linked to reducing the chance of Alzheimer’s.2 Joining our book club gives you the opportunity to read more and enjoy all the benefits that come with it.
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.
The group will start off reading one book every two months. The texts selected will be focused on lifelong learning topics and will take an average of nine hours to read cover-to-cover. If you have between one and two hours a week to read, you should be fine.
No, the book club will be entirely online. You can participate anywhere you have Internet access and on days and times that are convenient to you.
Participation is free for alumni.
Participants can get books for free at their local library or purchase them.
A moderator from PBC Guru manages the online forum where discussions occur. The moderator poses questions to the group, shares relevant articles and facilitates conversation about book topics. Members are encouraged to post and share, too. This format allows for ongoing conversation and makes it easy for readers to connect with one another through the forum.
A private forum hosts the virtual book club so it’s easy to connect with alumni. During our sign-up process, you enter the information to auto-generate your free profile. 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 Guru is a book club management company that works with businesses, alumni associations and professional societies. VCU has partnered with PBC to put this program in place for alumni. Visit pbc.guru to learn more.
If you are already a member, log in here.
Feel free to send an email to info@pbc.guru and we'll be happy to help.
1 Tuesday Morning Coaching by David Cottrell, pg 134.
2 Harvard Business Review, 2012, https://hbr.org/2012/08/for-those-who-want-to-lead-rea/
