ABA to Host Forums/Education Program in California

ABA will be holding a Booksellers Forum and Education Program in both northern and southern California during the week of February 13. The first forum will be on Tuesday, February 15, in conjunction with the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) at its offices in the Presidio in San Francisco. The following day the program will be held in conjunction with the Southern California Booksellers Association (SCBA) at the Long Beach Hilton in Long Beach. The programs will run from 10:15 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., and lunch is included. All NCIBA, SCBA, and ABA member booksellers are invited to attend. ABA encourages bookstore owners to bring staff members, as the program provides much valuable information and offers a broad perspective on how individual stores fit into the larger industry. The same program, including a substantive educational component, is being offered at both events.

The book business has euphemistically been referred to as a "two percent business" -- bookstores that operated at a two percent profit (net before tax) were thought to be doing okay. Unfortunately, profits have slipped dramatically over the years, and today the average bookstore shows a pre-tax net loss. ABA's educational programming has been designed to help booksellers reverse that trend.

Programming starts at 10:15 a.m. with the session "It's in the Payroll." The focus of this session -- which emanates from ABA's extremely successful seminar, "The Two Percent Solution" -- is payroll control. Payroll, the single largest component on the expense side of the ledger, is arguably the most difficult issue for booksellers to handle successfully. Starting with an examination of what is included in the payroll line (total compensation) and providing practical, usable tools for budgeting, scheduling, and controlling payroll, this seminar will provide invaluable tools and information for booksellers, regardless of the size of their store. When booksellers puzzle over what to do to make things better and to begin a move toward profitability, the answer is most often … "It's in the payroll." This program will be presented by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz.

Following lunch, which will be served from noon to 12:30 p.m., ABA will host the Booksellers Forum. Booksellers will be given an update on ABA programs and initiatives and will have the opportunity to ask questions and express opinions. In addition to Domnitz, representing ABA will be COO Oren Teicher and BookSense.com Director Len Vlahos. They will be joined at the NCIBA forum by ABA Board member Neal Coonerty of Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz and Bookseller Advisory Committee members Gwen Marcum of Capitola Book Cafe in Capitola and Kevin Ryan of Green Apple Books in San Francisco.

From 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., Domnitz will lead an ABACUS Workshop. Booksellers who bring their fiscal 2004 financial statements will receive one-on-one assistance in completing the 2005 ABACUS study, as well as a coupon for $50 off their next ABA dues renewal. The ABACUS study is helping all independent booksellers by establishing a standard against which each store's financial results can be measured. It is an invaluable tool. To learn more about ABACUS, click here.

To help ABA plan for these events, booksellers are asked to RSVP to ABA's Kristen Gilligan at [email protected]. For more information about NCIBA, visit www.nciba.com, or contact Hut Landon at (415) 561-7686 or [email protected]. For more information about SCBA, visit www.scbabooks.org, or contact Jennifer Bigelow at (626) 793-8435 or [email protected].

The meetings in conjunction with NCIBA will be held at:

NCIBA's Offices
The Presidio
37 Graham Street
San Francisco, CA 94129
Tel: (415) 561-7686
Fax: (415) 561-7685

The meetings in conjunction with SCBA will be held at:

Hilton Long Beach Hotel
701 West Ocean Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90831
Tel: (562) 983-3400