Group Dynamics
By Shelby Bennett
Reader's Rally
I am a member of Readers' Rally, a club for people who enjoy reading books. Every year we read a list of different books and then go to a competition to answer trivia questions about each title. People join our group primarily for two reasons; they want to compete in a competition about books and/or they want to find some other people who enjoy reading like they do. When someone joins our club they will not only have fun reading good books and competing in a competition, but they will also meet some really interesting people with the same interests as them.
Our Organization and Structure
Since we are a club, we have a panel of officers that lead each meeting and have the final say on decisions. Even though they are the official leaders we always have a group discussion to decide things and everyone has a say. We meet every other week the first semester, then once a week second semester, then finally everyday the week before competition. We have a Remind101 that our officers use to keep everyone informed with and then there is also a GroupMe that everyone can use to discuss books and other information. We have never had a serious conflict, but I feel like we would be able to work it out through a group discussion. I feel that the group is currently in the "norming phase". We are all very comfortable with each other and know each pretty well, but because competition is still a few months away we are not working at our maximum capacity.
Me in Readers' Rally
I personally feel that I am an information seeker role in the club as I am always trying to be on top of what's next and what's the most important thing currently happening. I add to the group by trying to keep on on topic and giving suggestions for what we can do in the future. I feel that this club makes me better as a person because I am surrounded by people with the same goal as me that I work with to reach that goal. Of course I love to read the books and practice for competition, but it is also important to be with people of all grade levels and different personalities and work with them.