GOING REMOTE: Tips for Taking Your Comic Book Club Online A Resource from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Art by Emi Lenox
Book clubs are a great tool to create community, stay connected, and share the love of comics! If you have an existing book club, closures of libraries, schools, comic stores, and other meeting venues creates challenges. So, we assembled this resource and updated our comic book club handbooks to provide tips and tools to help you take your book clubs remote. And if you don’t yet belong to a comic book club, now’s the time to start one! You can use these resources to launch your book club community. The coronavirus crisis is a terrible situation for everyone, but there’s no reason you can’t keep your book club community together. There are lots of free and low-cost online tools you can use to keep your group connected and engaged during the current shutdown. Whether you decide to teleconference, videoconference, or take your group to Facebook or Slack, you can find a way to keep your book club going and ensure participants’ safety. If comics teach us anything, it’s that with a bit of ingenuity and effort, we can overcome any obstacle. While preparing to take your comic book club remote, don’t forget that comics retailers are still there to help! Their doors may be closed, but comic shops can still help you make selections, ship books to your members, and offer insights that will inspire your conversation. Here’s a list of the terrific CBLDF retail members who are available to help you out: http:// cbldf.org/retailer-tools/retailer-spotlight-on-covid-19/ Community is our superpower. Find yours with remote comic book clubs! Charles Brownstein Executive Director, CBLDF
Art by Heliscope
What do you do when you have a geographically dispersed group of people who want to participate in your comic book club? How can you include people who are unable to attend meetings in person due to health or access issues? How do you keep your comic book club going when the place you normally use to meet is closed? Go remote! People can meet remotely in many different ways. Consider the following formats for your remote comic book club discussions: ➤ Meet at a specific time to discuss the book via videoconference, teleconference, or group chats. ➤ Conduct an ongoing discussion about the book via email, in a group chat, or on a dedicated social media group. A remote comic book club isn’t much different from an in-person meeting, but you do need to take a few things into consideration.
What Kinds of Technologies Are Available to Your Members? Technology is a must when it comes to remote book clubs, but that technology doesn’t need to be advanced. For the most basic remote meeting, all your participants need is a phone. But if your participants have access to computers or social media, there’s a lot more you can do! For book clubs that are going from meeting in person to meeting remotely, the format you choose should be based on the kinds of technology that most of your members can access. For example, if most of your group doesn’t have access to a computer or the internet, but they have access to a phone, then you may want to meet via teleconference. If computer access is an issue, but your members have access to smartphones and social media, then a group chat or a social media group (such as a Facebook group page) might be your best option. Survey the members of your group to find out what technology is available to them, what they’re comfortable using, and what format they would prefer. If you’re starting a new book club, you have a lot of flexibility in choosing your format. But make sure it’s easily accessible for your members. As with starting an in-person book club, you’ll want to consider your audience, but you also want to take technology into account and examine how the size of your book club might determine your format. If you
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want to videoconference, many videoconferencing platforms limit the number of participants based on whether you pay for access and the level at which you subscribe. If the sky’s the limit, discussions via social media groups may be the best way to go — but keep in mind you’ll need to moderate the conversation! Don’t be afraid to get creative with your format! If you have a lot of people with different opinions and ways of expressing them, put together a newsletter compiling their contributions and send it to the full group. If you or a member of the group is skilled at video editing, ask everyone to submit a short clip for a video that can be shared on platforms like YouTube.
Does It Cost Anything? Technology and access aren’t always free, and your book club members may not be able to handle these expenses. Take cost into consideration when planning your remote book club. Social media groups don’t cost anything, but they can eat up data for people who access them via smartphones. Participants may need to use their precious minutes for a teleconference, and group chats via text can tear through text message quotas or data. Try to keep the expense for your members as low as possible. Videoconferencing can be one of the more expensive ways to conduct your remote meeting. It is possible to find free videoconferencing services, but they often limit the number or participants and/or the length of a videoconference. Services that offer unlimited free videoconferencing may not be trustworthy, so do your research!
Common Videoconferencing Platforms ➤ Zoom, https://www.zoom.us/ ➤ Google Hangouts, https://hangouts.google.com/ ➤ Skype, https://www.skype.com/en/ ➤ Slack, https://slack.com/ ➤ Facebook Live, https://www.facebook .com/facebookmedia/solutions /facebook-live ➤ YouTube Live, https://www.youtube.com /live_dashboard
How Do You Moderate a Remote Conversation? The basics of managing a remote book club aren’t all that different from leading a discussion during an in-person book club. But you will want to prepare for the challenges presented by technology, such as lag time, lack of visual cues and body language, contextual misinterpretation, and miscommunication.
Set Some Ground Rules. Come up with a set of rules and guidelines before you start. For existing book clubs, you can start with the ground rules you use for your in-person meetings and modify them to account for technology. You may want to address civility — people may say things online that they would never say in person. Or what they say may be misunderstood because it lacks the visual cues of face-to-face
conversation. You also may want to ask participants to avoid off-topic comments, or ask them to avoid saying anything personal about themselves or someone else. And don’t forget a rule about spoiler alerts for people who may be reading at a slower pace! Whatever your guidelines are, be clear and precise. Be sure the group agrees to the rules, and post or share them so everyone knows what they are. Don’t be afraid to put people on notice if they break the rules! Remove them from the group for repeat violations. If you’re using social media, such as a Facebook group, pin the rules to the top of your page. Make sure everyone who asks to be added to the page agrees to the rules before approving the request. You may also want to enlist some help moderating the comments on the page. Facebook provides recommendations for setting group rules at https://www .facebook.com/community/establishing-membershipand-rules/how-to-write-great-group-rules/
Tips for Meeting Via Videoconference or Teleconference ➤ Decide who will lead/host the meeting. Without a leader, large conferences can become chaotic. ➤ Set an agenda, and send it out before the meeting so members are prepared to talk about the same topics. ➤ At the beginning of the meeting, go over the ground rules you’ve all agreed upon. ➤ For smaller meetings, allow a few moments of small talk at the beginning, and ask participants to introduce themselves so people can get used to the platform. ➤ For larger meetings, introductions would take too long. The host and any additional facilitators should introduce themselves along with a brief rundown of how they plan to handle discussion. ➤ Background noise can be a problem during videoconferences and teleconferences. Ask people to mute their mics when they aren’t speaking. ➤ Often “yes” should be spoken, and “no” should be silent. Ask that people remain silent if they don’t want to comment. That way, anyone who wants to share can be heard. ➤ As you get to know the members of your group, consider calling on specific people to comment, especially those whose insights inspire conversation. Or, if you notice that someone was interrupted by another participant, call on that member directly. ➤ Videoconferencing platforms may offer options like screen sharing and chat boxes. You can use these functions to share relevant information and to allow participants to make queries and share their thoughts. ➤ After each conference, invite feedback about ways to improve format and flow.
Art by Duncan Fegredo
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Coordinate Communication. No matter the size of the book club or the format you choose for your remote meetings, you’ll probably want to make either a message board or an online group using sites like Goodreads and Facebook. The difference between message boards and online groups comes down to the ways in which conversations take place. Message boards are often more organized, with different areas containing subtopics and threads. Online groups have a natural flow to them that is less organized but more comfortable for some people to use. Because a smaller group is more manageable, you have a few more options to communicate: ➤ Use a group text or chat. ➤ Use email threads to talk about each selection. Each time you change the selected comic, start a new email thread. People who want to discuss the new comic can change conversations, while others can choose to remain on the previous thread. ➤ Set up a microblogging group, such as a Twitter List, or a specific hashtag to track posts. This is great if you want your members to comment as they read. Just keep everyone away from spoilers until an agreed-upon time.
Respect Your Participants’ Privacy and Security. Whatever you choose to do with your remote book club, remember that your participants’ privacy and online security is important. Consider keeping your social media group private, and don’t use a platform that doesn’t guarantee your members’ information is secure. Do not ask members to share personal information during a meeting or in a public forum, nor should they volunteer that information for themselves or others. If your comic book club is for or includes members under the age of 18, make sure you have parental permission for their participation. Parents should be informed of the rules and format for the remote book club. Be aware that some platforms, such as Facebook and other social media sites, have age restrictions for users.
Looking for more info about comic book clubs? Learn how to start and make the most of book clubs for comics and manga with CBLDF’s Comic Book Club Handbook and Manga Book Club Handbook! These handbooks provide proven strategies for getting started, selecting books, engaging your community, managing discussions, and much more, including a helpful table of books to get you started! Check them out online at http://cbldf.org/book-clubs/
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Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, educators, and readers. CBLDF provides legal referrals, representation, advice, assistance, and education in furtherance of these goals. Our work is made possible by our members! We have membership plans for donors in every budget, and all of them are tax-deductible. Join today by visiting http://cbldf.org/member Visit cbldf.org for the latest censorship news and more resources supporting the comics community! Call CBLDF at the first sign of a First Amendment Emergency! 1-888-88-CBLDF • info@cbldf.org ©2020 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
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