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Wednesday, March 23, 2022  
 
Children's Institute (Ci10) Hotel Block Opens Tuesday, March 29 at 1:00 pm ET.
 

We cannot wait to see you at Children’s Institute 2022 (Ci10), which will take place June 20–22, 2022 at the luxurious Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona.

Reservations for the ABA Ci10 hotel block will open Tuesday, March 29 at 1:00 pm ET. A booking link and code will be made available to logged in members at that time. Registered attendees will receive a reminder email early next week with additional hotel reservation information. The nightly group rate is $145 plus tax and is available three days pre and post Ci10 upon availability. This discounted price is for conference registrants only. If additional rooms are booked without accompanying registration, those rooms will be canceled. Visit the Children’s Institute page on BookWeb for more hotel and travel information.

The Ci10 programming email will be sent on Friday and will be shared in next week’s BTW.
Announcing ABA’s Director of Education

ABA is excited to announce our new Director of Education, Kim Hooyboer. Kim spent the last five years as the store manager of Third Place Books Seward Park in Seattle, Washington. Before coming to Third Place Books, they worked at the Elliott Bay Book Company, WORD Bookstore in Jersey City, and Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. Hooyboer served on the ABA Booksellers Advisory Council, is a co-founder of Indies Forward, and co-hosted the industry podcast Drunk Booksellers. Kim will start at ABA on April 18.
Action Items

Your voice is a powerful tool in the fight against Amazon – tell us your story! We're asking booksellers to tell us how Amazon affects their bookstores. ABA's Advocacy Team will use the bookseller stories to update ABA's Amazon white paper and drive conversations with lawmakers. Stop by ABA's Advocacy page at any time to tell us your story.

FINAL CALL: The deadline for membership renewals has passed. If things have been busy and you haven’t had a chance to renew your membership yet, here’s your last chance! Review membership benefits on BookWeb and renew by March 31, 2022. Avoid interruption in members-only resources and renew today! Questions about dues renewal can be emailed to the Membership Team.

Registration for the Independent Bookstore Day Exclusives on IndieCommerce and IndieLite webinar on Wednesday, March 30 is now open. The IndieCommerce team will discuss the Independent Bookstore Day feature for IBD 2022 on IndieCommerce and IndieLite websites.

Meet ABA’s eCommerce Customer Support Specialist, Daron Mueller!
Changes to ShopTalk Series

**NEW** Beginning in April, the following changes will be made to ABA’s ShopTalks: 

  • All ShopTalks, including the ShopTalk for Subset Groups, will no longer be recorded.
  • The ShopTalk for Subset Groups will be held once a quarter on a Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 pm ET. 
    • The format will dedicate 45 minutes to small group discussions in breakout rooms and 15 minutes to large group conversation. ABA staff will move through the breakout rooms to ensure things are running smoothly, but the conversation will be up to those in attendance.
  • The monthly evening ShopTalk will move from the last Thursday of the month to the last Tuesday of the month at 8:00 pm ET.
Membership Dashboard Updates

**NEW** BookWeb.org’s Member Dashboard has been updated! 

Newly added features:

  • A To-Do List, which highlights key actionable items, such as event registration and voting in the ABA Board of Directors Election. 
  • If you’ve signed up for any of our recurring events (ShopTalks, Marketing Meetups, Technology Meetups, New Member Series, Board Office Hours), you can now always find your Zoom meeting link under the Events tab.

Updates:

  • Store profiles are now available for branch locations. Visit the Company Locations tab and update the bookstore location for the appropriate branch.
  • IndieCommerce Commission Invoices are now available under Billing > Invoices.
  • Event Registrations can now be filtered by employees (limited to permitted employees).
Save the Date

Save the date for these upcoming events:
What to Know

On March 15, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced an additional 6-month deferment for COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), increasing the total deferment period from 24 months to 30 months. The deferment extension is effective for all COVID EIDLs approved in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Interest will continue to accrue on the loans during the deferment. Partial or full payments may be made during the deferment period but are not required. Learn how to manage your EIDL, including monitor the status of your COVID EIDL, make payments, and request a loan increase.

Did you know that IndieCommerce  and POS systems work together? Drive new customers from your website into your bookstore and process online orders faster and more efficiently with these six POS systems that can be integrated with IndieCommerce. 

On March 16, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representative Mondaire Jones (D-NY-17) introduced the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act of 2022. The legislation would prohibit mega-mergers in the U.S. and allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to review and undo past mergers if they do not meet the new standard. This could potentially put some of Amazon's mergers under greater scrutiny. Contact your elected officials to support this measure.

The U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) Office of Women's Business Ownership is hosting a virtual Women's Business Summit in honor of Women's History Month. The Summit will run from March 29 at 11:30 am ET to March 30 at 5:00 pm ET. Panels and discussion topics include innovation and investment and building an equitable recovery framework for women entrepreneurs. 

Applications for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Dream Big Awards 2022 are due by Friday, July 8! The program honors the achievements of small businesses and highlights their contributions to America’s economic growth. The 2022 Small Business of the Year award winner will receive national recognition and a $25,000 cash prize. Additional award categories include Woman-Owned Business, Emerging Business, Veteran-Owned Business, and more.

ABA sent a memo in support of New York's Twenty-First Century Antitrust Act. The bill, which passed the Senate but not the Assembly late last session, has been reintroduced and would set the standard for how states combat concentrated market dominance in an increasingly digital world where current antitrust laws are inadequate. Contact your elected officials to support this measure.

Blair Fell is the author of the novel The Sign for Home, a Winter/Spring 2022 Indies Introduce adult selection. Here, Fell and Katrina Bright-Yerges of Books & Company discuss The Sign for Home.
 
 
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