Note to Members

The Plaza PDF Reading Group hums along. Thank you to everyone who came out on Sunday; and for those unable to make it, we look forward to seeing you next time, or the time after that, or… [repeat as necessary].

Based on the discussion Sunday, we’ve settled on a few details:

First Session

The first session of the reading group will take place in the second half of February. In the fused spirit of technocracy and democracy, your voice matters. We’ve set up a doodle here; if you’re interested in attending please let us know what days work for you.

Online Discussion

In the same spirit, we’re also going to set up a Slack™ group for handling discussion and administration. If you’re not familiar with Slack, it’s basically a private group chat service. Invitations to that group will be sent out separately. We’re also going to try a little experiment, there; as a nod to Plaza’s non-hierarchical ideals, we encourage you to sign up anonymously. To that end we’ve set up the Plaza Name Generator, which will randomly generate an 820Plaza-like name you can use.

Discussion Structure

  • Each session will focus on a single text, or optionally a small number of shorter, related texts.

  • Texts will be nominated by members, and chosen from the nominees by the Selection Committee; see guidelines and details on this below.

  • The text for each discussion will be announced at the end of the discussion preceding.

  • In the weeks leading up to each session, we’ll use Slack to come up with a list of discussion points/prompts for that session’s text.

  • Each session will begin with a brief introduction from the person who nominated that session’s text, with the goal of providing a little bit of context and relevant auxiliary information.

  • Things will proceed from there.

Text Selection Minutiae

The Plaza PDF Reading Group values diversity (of perspective, subject and form), originality of thought, and technical quality.

If you would like to nominate a text, send an email with a link and an optional rationale/blurb to read@820plaza.com.

To help us set the focus and tone somewhat, texts will (for the time being) be chosen opaquely by the Selection Committee. At some future date, when the membership and form of the group has stabilized, we imagine this process being more inclusive & transparent.

Future texts will be available, printed, on a per-request basis, somehow. For the first session, members are responsible for printing or not printing the text themselves, as they see fit.

Finally

Please let us know when you are available, and sign up for the Slack. If you have any questions or problems with either of these things (or anything at all, really) we are happy to help. If you have any other questions or suggestions, let us know.

Fondly,

The Selection Committee