Group 1: The Great Book Giveaway

For our group project “The Great Book Giveaway” (#GreatBookGiveaway), we are required to use our knowledge of group and team working skills to successfully distribute over 30 books to an organization of our choosing in our ACOM304 Group Conference and Leadership course at the University at Albany. The members in our group are Jenna Dobin, Brianne Dolan, YoonKyung Cho, Alexander Moeller, Jessica Henkel, and Jane Kim. Together we used a Consensus approach to distribute these books in an organized manner. This means that any conflict that we faced or goals that we had in mind throughout our journey, we approached through sharing ideas with each other in a fishbowl discussion style, and then deciding which course of action would bring us the best outcome. We worked together to all gather the amount of required books. These books included childrens books, textbooks, and books just for leisure reading. We then agreed on an organization that would benefit the most from our books by thinking of places where all types of people go due to our broad spectrum of donated book genres. The organization we chose was the New Hope Reformed Church in Yonkers, NY to receive the books during Easter Break 2015 (early April). This is a Korean-American church with attendees primarily of Korean background. We chose a church because one of the main purposes of the existence of churches is for people to come together. We believe that books hold the very same power in bringing people together, and we can help so many people with different interests by donating many types of books. The website of New Hope Reformed Church in Yonkers is http://www.nydongsan.com/, however, it is written entirely in Korean. From here, we had to figure out how we actually wanted to ship those books to their destination, and now we are awaiting a receipt that will prove that we have accomplished the assignment successfully. If anyone is interested in getting involved with donating books, contact the Communication Department at the University at Albany, SUNY. There are many other places to donate to and clubs to donate with! Some examples include ROTC, library programs, school book drives, and overseas donation programs.

By following our hashtags listed in our posts, you can follow all of our progress, and get involved as well! Our hashtags are mostly aimed toward a Twitter audience, but we look ahead to possible expansion into Instagram or Facebook, too. We look forward to seeing your participation on social networks, and through the participation of others, we may influence many others. The Great Book Donation has the power to influence people just like books, and we hope to share our vision with as many other people as we can.

Image Source: http://www.nydongsan.com/files/attach/images/351/351/43f5e2b91339eab217eb6df70d0251f1.jpg

Bookmark Your Life!

Date: April 14
COM 304: Conference and Group Leadership 
Group 7

        Bookmark your Life is a fundraiser by Jessica Delaney, Spencer Thibault, Carol Kassas, Courtney Henderson and Caitlyn Coburn. Our goal is to collect donations for books for students that are between the 7th and 12th grade level. Donations are being accepted from all around Albany, from the library, students homes, classrooms and so on. Books can be of any genre as long as they are appropriate reading material. We hope to acquire a broad selection of genres in order to accommodate a variety of preferences. 
       Our goal is to provide these books for students in order to help them learn better habits. If a student can find an interesting book to read, something to help them learn a life lesson or entertain them, then our goal is complete. Sometimes all it takes is one chapter, or one quote to change your life. We want to provide those life changing books. 
       We are striving to help students pick up a book instead of learning bad habits. A book is better then a spray can or some type of crime or illegal drug. Our group has decided to donate books collected to the Lake George High School Library. This school is particularly small and can always use extra books. Located in a small town, this school focuses on reading as a past time so this book drive would benefit the community's needs. 
       The Lake George High School prides itself on community service and donates a lot of time and effort to making a difference. Every year, alumnus Rachel Ray visits the school to talk to the students about bullying. This is to encourage the students to respect other students. We hope to follow this example and lend a hand. This school truly cares about the well-being of their students which is why we want to help their cause by donating reading materials to kids who need an outlet. 
       Once we finish our fundraiser at the end of April and collected the book donations we will deliver them to the High School Library, which is about an hour away from Albany. We are accepting books from all students, campuses or any of those who wish to lend a hand to this great cause. These books are for them to do as they please, whether they'd like to give them out to students to take home or keep in the library for everyone to use. We are just looking to help encourage kids and teenagers to pursue a brighter future.         
       If you would like to contribute to this donation or have any questions or comments, please send an email to, bookmarkyourlifedonations@gmail.com and we can arrange a pickup. Please feel free to share this post in order to spread the word!


#donate #books #library #communityservice #lakegeorge #highschool #rachelray 

Lake George HS Library

Group 3's Great Book Giveaway

Hello! Our names are Joseph Vorbeck, Alicia Smith, Dorian Polk, Pete Schweitzer, and Annelise Campbell and we are Group 3 in Virginia Yonker's 8:45 Conference and Group Leadership class. We are participating in a service learning project called "The Great Book Giveaway" which requires us to donate 26 books to a location of our choice. We are choosing to send them to the Northern Onondaga Public Library in Cicero because we have access to a large variety of books and we feel that we can contribute to the library's current collection. We  personally delivered the books to the library on April 17th. 

http://www.nopl.org/

The Northern Onondaga Public Library seeks to enhance the lives of their members giving them access to a wide variety of books and information. They are committed to maintaining the educational development of the community. They offer many activities for members of the community to participate in including dance classes, Boy and Girl Scouts programs, science programs, and musical performances.