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Hello Mary, thanks for chatting with BookBrowse. Firstly, tell us about your
book club’s name – most book clubs that have a name tend to choose something
whimsical related to books. The ELCAN club doesn’t quite fit the mold – why are
you so called?
Our book club is a corporate organization with ELCAN being the name of a
division of the Raytheon Corporation. ELCAN is an acronym for Ernst Leitz Canada
which refers to one of the founders, Ernst Leitz of Germany. ELCAN’s offices are
currently located in Midland, Ontario, Canada, Richardson, Texas, and Malaga,
Spain. The home of the ELCAN Book Club is in Richardson, Texas where the U. S.
division of ELCAN is located.
How was the club formed?
Through the years, as employees interacted, it became apparent that there
was a common interest in books and reading. A lending library had been
established on the honor system for the sharing of books. The Employee Council,
which sponsors all company organizations, was approached with a request for
there to be an employee book club and the request was granted. The ELCAN Book
Club was formed in 2003.
Back Row (l. to r.): Mike Bledsoe, Marsha Lierly, Janet Baker, Bill Lambert. Front Row (l. to r.): Gerald Riley, Mary Bass, Mike Gori.
Can you tell us a little about your members?
We currently have eight members, five men and three women. All are employees
with the exception of one who is the spouse of an employee. Departments
represented within the group are Finance, Contracts, Engineering, Program
Management, Administration, and Maintenance.
How would you describe your group's personality?
We're an eclectic group, aged in the 50s and 60s, drawn together by a love of
reading that enjoys "brown bag" lunch meetings with stimulating discussions.
Meetings are spurred on by our administrator, revolving moderators, and even a
"ghost" member who is a person with special needs who attends our meetings by
speaker phone and fully participates.
How do you run your meetings?
We usually meet every three weeks but if a book is of great length or is
conceptually intricate, we allow four weeks. Although we meet during business
hours, we meet on our own time in the lunch hour. Everyone brings their lunch
and nibbles while we talk. Since we are a sanctioned organization within the
company, we are able to reserve a conference room for each meeting. We've
been able to enhance our meetings by using company equipment: overhead
projectors, speaker phones, blackboards, etc. At the conclusion of each meeting,
our members, with the exception of our "ghost", return to their work areas and
go back to doing ELCAN business.
Your club is relatively unusual in that you are roughly balanced between men
and women, whereas many groups are single sex, usually women. How do you think
the mix of sexes effects the conversation?
At times the male perspective has been parallel to the thinking of the women in
our group and at others it's been diverse. Male opinions tend to be deliberate
and straight to the point while those of the females are flush with details.
Both of these avenues enhance our discussions in that they create a more
complete analysis. This was especially evident in our recent examination of the
Amish community in our reading The Plain Truth by
Jodi Picoult.
How flexible are you on people coming to meetings?
Flexibility is a must in our club as there are times when members cannot
attend because business has to take precedence. Client meetings, project
deadlines, and general business must come first. However, we collaborate on
scheduling at each meeting and are able to skirt most roadblocks. We communicate
to those absent by email and make changes as necessary.
Do you get together as a group outside of your book club meetings?
Outside of the book club meetings we get together at various company
functions such as the corporate olympics, the annual picnic, various sports
teams, ice cream socials, birthday celebrations, popcorn gatherings,
commemorations of service anniversaries, and the annual holiday party.
What would you say is an ideal number of members for a book club to have?
Our conference room tables have seating for 10 - 12 people and there’s space
in the rooms for extra chairs to be brought in if needed. In order to have the
most comprehensive discussions at each meeting, with everyone participating, it
would likely be best to limit the club size to no more than 15. We are always
open to adding new members and recently grew from 7 to 8. "Now reading" posters
are posted each time we start a new book to let everyone in the building know
the title and author of the current book being read.
How many work at your location?
The ELCAN division of Raytheon Corporation is made up of more than 1200
employees with 200 working at our location.
Have you been tempted to read "business" titles, or do you always kept the
selections away from work?
We read fiction selections only as it was decided that ours should be a
leisure time club. There are certain genres which we agreed not to read: romance
and science fiction. We have made a couple of exceptions in reading non-fiction
but the books we chose have content and pace that read like that in novels. One
of these non-fiction selections which we all deemed to be excellent was
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil by John Berendt.
How do you select your books?
We develop our lists of selections by each member presenting a title,
author, and synopsis to our club’s Administrator. This data is then shared
club-wide and each of us ranks the books in the order in which we would like to
read them. After the voting is done, our Administrator uses a spreadsheet to
calculate the final order and we start to read.
Which are some of the group’s favorites/least favorites?
Favorites: Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook,
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, A Prayer For Owen Meany
by
John Irving,
Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson,
The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom, and Animal
Farm by George Orwell.
Least Favorites: My Dark Places by
James Ellroy, The Disapparition Of James by Anne Ursu,
Mirror, Mirror by
Gregory Maguire, and The Pilgrimage by
Paulo Coelho.
Have there been books that the group have enjoyed reading but have not made
for good discussion? Or vice versa?
While Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens was found enjoyable, the
discussion was somewhat flat. This was possibly due to so many elements of the
book being alien to our readers in that we couldn’t equate with the life styles
and difficulties of the characters. We had an intricate discussion of The
Last Of The Honky Tonk Angels by Marsha Moyers even though the content
of this book was akin to a soap opera. Perhaps the heightened emotions within
the major players may have struck a chord in some of our own emotions.
We've often discussed the many ways in which the books we’ve read have caused us
to grow, individually and collectively, whether they have been those we have
termed our "best", "worst", or "surprise" choices.
Are there any challenges your group has faced and resolved?
Our group has run very smoothly. Perhaps this is due to the fact that we are
very open with each other as well as respectful of all opinions. One of the best
facets of our club is that we inject a lot of humor in all that we do. We kid
and poke fun at each other as well as finding as much humor in what we read and
the ways in which we read as possible. Laughter is definitely a predominate
feature at all of our meetings.
Any last words of wisdom to share?
General Advice: Elect a club Administrator who can send meeting reminders
and keep a list of all books read. Moderators should be prepared to write
discussion questions that are ‘meaty’ enough to engender good discussion points
when there is no readers guides available for a chosen book. Make sure that the
time allotted for reading each book is sufficient for all members.
Corporate Book Club Advice: Request that your book club be listed among all
organizations existing within your workplace. Continually spread the word about
the club and its activities. Always seek new members. Make the club known to new
employees. Agree that all club-related matters will be decided by majority vote.
Always reserve meeting rooms and company-owned equipment ahead of time. Adhere
to start and stop times. Laugh as much as possible.
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They say that in the end truth will triumph, but it's a lie.
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