Ever been curious about the other BDS book groups in your area? After 50 years of operation, BDS now serve 1,330 book clubs across New Zealand. While we'd love to celebrate with every one of them in person, the next best thing is to help bring our members together, to meet, chat, and raise a toast to BDS for our golden anniversary!
Your book group can:
- register to organise a Winter Mixer
- RSVP to a Winter Mixer in your area
How it works:
- Decide on a day, time and general location for your Mixer. You can hold your mixer anytime between now and 31 August. You can choose a venue at this stage, or you may like to wait and see what your numbers are like before committing to a particular space.
- Register your event with BDS.
- BDS will notify all the groups in your surrounding area of your event, and list it on our website.
- Groups (and individuals) will RSVP to attend your event using the contact details you provide in your registration.
- Hold your event and (this next bit is important) record a video or snap a photo of everyone wishing BDS a Happy Birthday so we can share it on the big screen at our official 50th anniversary event in Christchurch in September (this event will also be livestreamed around NZ, so all our BDS groups will have the opportunity to see your message).
Your event could be a morning tea at your local community centre with each group bringing a plate to share, or grabbing coffee at a local café. You might combine it with another outing, to a local attraction, gallery, show, library or bookstore. We encourage you to think outside the box! But ideally your event would be free or low-cost to attend (e.g. the price of a coffee) so as many people as possible can participate.
This is chance to meet fellow book lovers, and hear about their book clubs. It's also your chance to celebrate with us by capturing a moment from your event to share with BDS in honour of our 50th anniversary!
Register your event with us now, or keep an eye out on your inbox — we'll let you know if and when a mixer is taking place near you. All events will also appear here on our website.
Questions? email