Book Club

Upcoming Book Club Term

April – May 2020

Registration Open Through April 5, 2020

Welcome to the WeCOACH Book Club. As a coach, you are constantly looking to find ways to impact your teams and make discoveries from within, we understand that you may not be reading the same books as your friends outside of the world of athletics.

  • Are you a passionate reader looking to connect with like-minded coaches and initiate interactive book discussions in a virtual setting?
  • Are you seeking more accountability to actually read an entire book and stay focused on the content that can help you make improvements?
  • Are you a casual reader, with great ideas, looking to make connections with other coaches?

If you answered “YES” to any of the questions and you are seeking a community to network and meet new coaches, then this Book Club is specifically for you!

Research states that those who participate in book clubs:

  • Are more likely to commit to reading the entire book and sharing thoughts about what they have read and learned with new peers
  • Stay more informed of relevant topics within their network
  • Meet new people
  • Have a platform to share ideas and voice opinions of the book with an invested audience

Program Description

Participants commit to reading the selected book and engaging in discussions during three scheduled Video Meet-Ups during the designated term. Participants will receive questions and discussion topics to explore and reflect prior to each video meet-up, which will help guide discussions.

Two books have been selected for the upcoming term. The two clubs will run concurrently. Registrants will be asked to select one book of their choice at registration for participation.

 

Book Club Eligibility and Requirements

  • Only current WeCOACH members may register and participate.  A current membership must be maintained throughout the Book Club term.
  • Book Clubs will be limited in size.  Registrants will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis.  Those registering after size limits are reached will be placed on a waiting list.
  • Participants must attend all scheduled Video Meet-Ups. Please have respect for your fellow book club members and those who were not accepted into the Book Club that would like to have the opportunity to participate.
  • Participants are willing to interact and engage in Book Club discussion at mandatory Video Meet-Ups.
  • Participants must complete a satisfaction survey at the completion of the program.

Video Meet-Up Schedule

Attendance is mandatory

Date Presence Untamed
Wed, April 8 1:00p ET 7:00p ET
Wed, April 15 1:00p ET 7:00p ET
Wed, April 22 1:00p ET 7:00p ET
Wed, May 6 1:00p ET 7:00p ET
Wed, May 13 n/a 7:00p ET

 

Register Now

“Presence” by Amy Cuddy

Have you ever left a nerve-racking challenge and immediately wished for a do over? Maybe after a job interview, a performance, or a difficult conversation? The very moments that require us to be genuine and commanding can instead cause us to feel phony and powerless. Too often we approach our lives’ biggest hurdles with dread, execute them with anxiety, and leave them with regret.

 

Book Review
By accessing our personal power, we can achieve “presence,” the state in which we stop worrying about the impression we’re making on others and instead adjust the impression we’ve been making on ourselves. As Harvard professor Amy Cuddy’s revolutionary book reveals, we don’t need to embark on a grand spiritual quest or complete an inner transformation to harness the power of presence. Instead, we need to nudge ourselves, moment by moment, by tweaking our body language, behavior, and mind-set in our day-to-day lives.
 
Amy Cuddy has galvanized tens of millions of viewers around the world with her TED talk about “power poses.” Now she presents the enthralling science underlying these and many other fascinating body-mind effects, and teaches us how to use simple techniques to liberate ourselves from fear in high-pressure moments, perform at our best, and connect with and empower others to do the same.
 
Brilliantly researched, impassioned, and accessible, Presence is filled with stories of individuals who learned how to flourish during the stressful moments that once terrified them. Every reader will learn how to approach their biggest challenges with confidence instead of dread, and to leave them with satisfaction instead of regret.
 
Moderator: Ashley Stone, Assoc. Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Experience & SWA at Oakland University

Ashley Stone was hired as Oakland University’s Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Experience and Senior Woman Administrator in May 2019 and serves as a member of the department’s senior leadership team where she supports and fosters student-athlete excellence, health, safety and well-being. Stone collaborates with internal and external individuals and organizations to build relationships that will allow student-athletes to better fulfill their athletic, academic, and personal potential.

 

“Untamed” by Glennon Doyle

There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent – even from ourselves.

 

Book Review
In her most revealing and powerful book yet, the beloved activist, speaker, and author of the bestselling sensations Love Warrior and Carry On, Warrior explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet the expectations of the world, and start trusting the voice deep within us.
 
For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There she is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within.
 
This was her own voice – the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living.
 
Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There she is.
 
Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.
 
Moderator: Elizabeth King, WeCOACH Board of Directors (President-elect)
Special Guest Moderator: Michele Pittman, Retired IBM Senior Program Manager

Elizabeth M. King is a retired vice president of human resources solutions and services for Starbucks Corporation. During her tenure, the company grew from 1,100 to 24,400 coffee shops with locations in four countries to now nearly 75. This significant growth provided exciting challenges and opportunities for Elizabeth during her more than 19 years with the company.

Since 2000, she has been a member of the various advisory boards in Penn State’s School of Hospitality Management and Information Sciences and Technology.  In 2017, Elizabeth opened a HR consultancy to address specific, important clients that requested her expertise. Currently, she is consulting with the Penn State HR organization and Brinker International. King shares her knowledge by presenting at various events, including the Food Service Technology Conferences, Human Resources Technology conferences, Pennsylvania Public School Forums, and numerous Penn State events and classroom activities.