For the last four years, I have happily served on the Board under the leadership of three presidents, and alongside Board members who inspire me daily — both in their commitment to the professional practice of bookselling and to the mutual success of our membership. Our ABA staff and leadership team are capable and caring, and I am constantly amazed at the sheer workload that this small and mighty staff is responsible for — and yet, as a member, I fully take advantage of every offering. In ABA, I have found education, support, and community. In that spirit of community, I invite you to help me support our Board and our work over the next two years. We’ve been busy since we saw many of you on Zoom for our Annual Meeting and Community Forum in May. That event, while distant and somewhat impersonal as we meet on a screen, is our only official gathering for the entire membership, and we appreciate how many of you made time to attend. It’s also the beginning of the new Board term, and our opportunity to thank outgoing members for their service. We greatly appreciate the work of Jenny Cohen from Waucoma Books, who served as a Board Member and Co-Vice President before concluding her six-year term in May, and two Board Members who left earlier in the year: Danny Caine from Raven Book Store (now at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and continuing to write great books) and Kathy Burnette from Brain Lair Books. Our immediate past president, Tegan Tigani of Queen Anne Book Company, will remain on the Board for her final year of service, and Jake Cumsky-Whitlock of Solid State Books and Diane Capriola from the Little Shop of Stories have stepped into the Co-Vice President roles. We also welcome new Board Member Paul Hanson from Village Books, who joins returning Board Members Christina Pascucci-Ciampa of All She Wrote Books, Brein Lopez of Children’s Book World, Raquel Roque of Books & Books, Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstores, Lisa Swayze of Buffalo Street Books, Holly Weinkauf of Red Balloon Bookshop, and Talia Whyte of Rozzie Bound Co-op. I mention all of their names for two reasons: to thank them for being such great volunteers, but also to remind you of how many of them you might recognize or know well. These are fellow booksellers, who have been active in regional associations and the wider bookselling community. We are your friends, your representatives, and your colleagues. We are jointly committed to the success of our industry, and we invite you to join us in conversation and community. Our June Board meeting was held in Portland on the two days prior to Children’s Institute. This is one of only two in-person Board meetings we hold each year, as the rest of our meetings and committee work is accomplished remotely. It’s also a very important meeting in the annual Board calendar, as we review and revise the Ends Policies for the organization during this time. These policies, which guide the “ship” of ABA, are then interpreted through the work of our professional leadership and staff. Each word and phrase in the “ends” is carefully considered in order to direct the “means” — the actual priorities, programming, and allocation of resources that are necessary to accomplish these goals. The Ends Policies are not a mission statement. They reflect the measurable outcomes that we wish to see in our association’s work. The Board then evaluates each individual section on a rolling annual schedule, reviewing the work of the ABA CEO and her team against these policies. Each Board meeting agenda includes a monitoring report from our CEO focused on one or two areas of the document, and we discuss how the work of the ABA staff has supported that goal. Because of this annualized, section-by-section review process, part of our work in drafting Ends Policies is to look several years down the road for our association. Each change in Ends Policies must then be supported by budgeting, staffing, and implementation — all of this taking time and careful attention. Staff resources are limited, and our membership continues to grow, so each new addition must be balanced by shifting staff priorities in order to support the needs of the membership within our budget. Reflecting upon the work of Allison and the ABA staff in the last several years, the Board chose to maintain the priorities listed in the first half of the document. Specifically, these policies highlight ABA’s continued emphasis on supporting the successful operation of independent bookstores, while carefully managing the financial resources of the association for sustainability. Our commitment to antiracism, equity, access, and representation remains absolute and unchanged, and the association will prioritize education, promotion, advocacy, partnership, and operational support for our membership. The second half of the Ends Policies envisions outcomes that are achieved through partnership — this is the part that I find the most inspiring, because it emphasizes the power of collective action. These achievements require more than just the work of the association staff or the Board of Directors. To attain these goals, we need engagement and initiative from our members, our publisher partners and vendors, and from the public and our elected officials. We invite each of these constituencies into community with us through these words, and take responsibility for communicating the needs of our bookselling channel in order to achieve them. This section of the Ends Policies guides not only our staff and our leadership, but invites everyone who values our work to participate. We added an important phrase in recognizing the importance of reading, a critical issue of our decade and our world. The Board invites you to read and reflect on these updated policies, and engage in this work with us throughout the years to come. Usually, the Board President ends these letters with ways for you to reach out to the ABA Board of Directors (email us [email protected]), to speak with a Board member at upcoming regional fall shows, or to submit a name or two (including your own) for committee work or Board nomination. We would be happy, of course, to respond to any of those, and encourage your interaction. But I also ask for a larger commitment today: to community and engagement, and to the goals our policies outline. I am grateful to have you all as colleagues, and look forward to working together. Take good care and read something wonderful. Cynthia Compton
President, ABA Board of Directors
4 Kids Books & Toys
MacArthur Books |
