CWG MEMBERS ONLY: This is the first of a series of activities the Guild does, and that it needs volunteers to help with. The CWG wants to be a force for promoting quality Catholic works–and quality works by Catholics. Won’t you give of your time and talent for this worthy endeavor? If the program below doesn’t appeal to you, but you want to help, check out the other programs here.

Seal of Approval:

This is a BIG project for the Guild. Not only are we providing a perk for marketing, but we are developing relationships between the Guild and bookstores. However, as this has increased in numbers applying, Sarah Reinhard, the hardworking coordinator, is getting overwhelmed as are the small core of readers. Here’s what Sarah needs:

A SECOND COORDINATOR TO SHARE THE LOAD: You two would decide how to split the load of applicants. Here’s the process Sarah follows:

1. Receive the application via email. (Though some applications come via hard-copy in the mail.)
2. Gather information into email, send to distribution list of possible reviewers.
3. Enter information into spreadsheet (which I can share with you if you’d like, it’s a Google Doc) as reviewers reply.
4. Send appropriate electronic copies OR contact submitter with addresses of those who get hard copies.
5. Track down reviewers to find out if they have finished reading the book (this is what leaves things lingering; some people take the full 60 days, or find out halfway through that they can’t do it. Also, there are the times that people raise questions/concerns about aspects of the book and I then contact Father Pat Toner, who’s my “is it okay theologically etc” expert.
6. Once I have the responses from reviewers, send letter to submitter confirming or denying.
7. Copy Margot Davidson on that email if it’s an award letter, because she takes care of sending them the actual seals.
8. Once a month, I send an email of all the SOA titles awarded to Maria and a few other folks (Ann, Ellen, Jennifer Gladen, Margot, you, Ann).
9. Rinse and repeat.
Sarah wants four volunteers who are well-versed in Catholic teachings to be a core go-to group for when a reader has concerns about a book. These people would read the book and make a final decision.

WE ALSO NEED READERS! This is your chance to get free books! You just need to read them for their Catholicity and minimum quality standards. (We are not a critique group, but if a book is so badly edited that it would embarrass the Guild to approve it, we will reject on those grounds.) Sarah sends out a call for readers. You pick what you’d like, send back a request (and whether you want it electronic or print.) You do not have to read all the books! Once you read it, you fill out the judging sheet, send it in–and that’s it! The book is yours to do with as you will. (except resell on eBay.)

To help with the Seal of Approval, contact Sarah Reinhard at sarah(at)snoringscholar.com