What do members of the Jewish Book Festival committee do?

By Gayle Dorio, 2021-22 Jewish Book Festival chair

Someone recently asked me about the responsibilities of a Jewish Book Festival committee member. What exactly does one do?

In April and May, boxes of books arrive at Federation’s office. Inside, are hundreds of books that need to be sorted, arranged in the bookcases and cataloged. Then, sign-out sheets are prepared. The committee members and friends who love to read, stop by to select lots of books to read and review. Each committee member knows to look for interesting, entertaining, informative material that they feel our members wouldappreciate. Some love to read fiction, some nonfiction —we look for a little of everything except self-help books or children’s books.

Some read the entire book because it is so captivating; some, in the interest of time, read approximately 30 pages in the beginning, 30 pages in the middle and 30 pages at the end to get a general flavor of the book and determine if it is appropriate. They then send in a review that answers several important questions and provides a brief summary, rating and recommendation. In some cases, more than one committee member will read the same book, so we get more opinions.

It is absolutely critical to have as many books as possible read in advance of the 3-day all-day intense Jewish Book Council marathon, which takes place in late May. A small number of members are chosen to be on the Author Review Team. Federation pays to belong to the Jewish Book Council and additionally incurs a fee for each member of this team to receive appropriate materials, including the spiral notebook that lists all authors (over 250 last year).

In May, for 3 days, the Author Review Team spends all day each day watching the authors give 2-minute pitches (approximately 10 hours each day). They quickly evaluate and rank the authors, referring back to the book reviews committee members submitted.

For the next Jewish Book Festival, the review team members will, once again, listen to authors via Zoom, then meet with one another throughout the days via Zoom to discuss and review the authors they think should be invited to our book festival.

It is important to have as many Jewish Book Festival sponsors as possible. So, we ask committee members to talk with business leaders and organizations and invite them to participate. It’s easy, since there are handouts that detail all the advantages and the different cost levels. Renee Bialek, as superwoman extraordinaire, handles signing up the sponsors as well as any questions they might have. The committee members need only get the “ball rolling” and Reneé takes it from there.

We have several committee meetings where possible author choices and festival details are discussed. Tentative dates for events need to be scheduled; how many on Zoom, how many in person? Venues need to be planed for the in-person events. What music should accompany the openings and closings?

Each author needs a committee member to act as “author champion.” This is a term that encompasses a great deal. Ideally, for authors coming to Naples, the author champion acts as the liaison, making sure everything goes smoothly. This is a special treat, in my opinion, because it involves spending time with the author, when necessary — picking the author up at the airport, driving them and checking them into the Naples Hilton (they love staying there!), driving them to the event venue, taking and help sell books! They also jump in with questions, so there is never a lull resulting in uncomfortable “dead air.”

For those authors appearing via Zoom, the author champion’s responsibilities are naturally a bit streamlined. The author champion introduces the author and moderates the questions at the end. A preliminary meeting is set up with the Zoom authors the week before their event to go over logistics, run of show, etc., which is a great opportunity for the author champion to spend some time getting to know the author.

Committee members also are essential in the Preview Event. This year, Iris Shur was in charge of the event. Because Iris is so organized and outgoing, and because she read and reviewed so many books, I knew she was the perfect person to present the Preview Event. She asked a number of committee members to introduce the different authors and events. It was a very successful and informative start to our 7th Jewish Book Festival. The hard work and involvement of Iris and the committee