By Ken Harris
World Future Society Secretary, former president of the Washington futurist group
Discussing books about the future is a great activity for any World Future Society futurist group. Here's why:
It costs little or nothing.
It involves futurist group members in actively thinking about and discussing the future
It develops personal bonds among futurist group members.
It makes people aware of the World Future Society and the idea that study of the future is possible.
The Society’s Washington futurist book group as met every month except August since 2004. The futurist group runs book group meetings at no cost because a local independent bookstore which hosts many book discussion groups, donates the space, and meetings are announced on the futurist group website and in these weekly online and monthly print newsletters. The group discusses a different non-fiction book having something to do with the future at each meeting, so attendees get to think and talk about as great a breadth of subjects as in The Futurist—everything from alternative energy to world politics. The regular attendees get to know each other personally, and people learn about the Society and the Washington futurist group through the bookstore’s newsletters. You can see our past and future book selections on the futurist group website. The URLs are http://www.natcapwfs.org/events_archives.htm (past selections) and http://www.natcapwfs.org/events.htm (scheduled selections).
You too can have a local futurist book group. Here are some tips on how to do it:
Find a leader: A moderate time commitment is necessary. The leader has to read the book fairly closely in order to have a few questions to ask to start the discussion and keep it moving, answer questions from the public, and see that readings are scheduled in advance and publicized and that the books are available.
Find a meeting place and schedule a regular meeting time: The meeting place can be a local bookstore or someone’s home. Independent bookstores sponsor book groups to get people into their stores to compete with the large chains. The Washington futurist group formerly had book group meetings in people’s homes on Saturday mornings (The meetings now are on Wednesday evenings!). This is a viable option if you can find people willing to serve as hosts.
Choose readings by group consensus: The leader should suggest selections himself or herself and welcome suggestions from the members. This achieves member "buy-in" and consensus on what books are appropriate. To help decide on selections, you can find book reviews in major newspapers, online and in news magazines and email them to members or pass them out at meetings. We take a few minutes at the beginning or end of the meeting to choose future selections.
Schedule readings in advance: Try to schedule readings at least 2, preferably 3 months in advance to allow time for publicity, the bookstore to order extra copies, and time for members to read the book.
Invite authors of the books to be discussed rarely or not at all: Remember that the object of book discussion meetings is to actively involve the members in discussion about the future. If you invite authors, expect the meeting to be a book talk by the author like those on Book TV, not a book discussion.
Strongly encourage, but don’t insist, that people read the book: The most successful meetings are, of course, those in which a majority of participants have read the book in detail. However, people who haven’t read the book can contribute to the discussion by asking questions about what the author says. This stimulates those who have read the book to chime in with their views.
Allow wide-ranging discussion but return often to the author’s themes: This is preferable to the method used in the more formal Great Books discussion groups in which the leader questions the participants about the content of the book because attendees can at least relate a life experience to the broad themes of the book, even if they can’t remember the details.