ABA Board Candidate Petition Deadline March 14

On Thursday, February 15, the American Booksellers Association announced the names of booksellers approved by the Board of Directors as candidates for the 2007 director elections. They are Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas; Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina; and Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver. Langer is currently a member of the ABA Board and is eligible for an additional three-year term.

Under ABA's bylaws in addition to candidates put forth by the Nominating Committee and approved by the Board, any ABA bookstore member may submit a petition for a director candidate. Upon receipt of a valid petition, the Nominating Committee will add the petitioned candidate's name to the Director ballot, which will be mailed to ABA membership in early April, 60 days prior to the ABA Annual Membership Meeting.

Should any bookstore member wish to submit a petition, the following apply:

• A candidate must be an employee or owner of an ABA member bookstore. The member bookstore must be in good standing, and the individual candidate must have at least three years' experience in a bookstore-member company.
• Each petition can present only one candidate.
• All petitions must be submitted by March 14, 2007, to Chair, ABA Nominating Committee, c/o ABA, 200 White Plains Rd., Tarrytown, NY 10591.
• The names on the petition in support of the candidate must reflect at least two percent of the Bookstore Members as of January 1, 2007; that is a minimum of 33 signatures. The petition must contain original signatures, the name of the ABA member bookstore, addresses, and telephone numbers.
• The names on the petition in support of the candidate must come from at least five states, with representatives of no one state constituting more than 50 percent of the total number of petition signatures.
• Upon receipt of a valid petition, the Nominating Committee will add the petitioned candidate's name to the ballot for Board of Directors' elections sent to the membership. (To help BTW's coverage of the election process, if any bookstore member is working to circulate a petition, please let us know by sending an e-mail to [email protected].)

At its February meeting, the Board also selected Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, as ABA President and Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, as Vice President/Secretary for additional one-year terms beginning June 2007. Their names will appear on the Board ballot, which will be mailed in early April, for approval by membership. (Read more about the Board candidates and the petition process and the recent ABA Board meeting.)