ABA Announces 2019 Board of Directors Election Results

The results of balloting by the bookstore members of the American Booksellers Association to elect four directors, plus a new president and vice president, to serve on the ABA Board are now official.

Elected to three-year terms (2019–2022) as directors are Jenny Cohen of Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, Oregon; Bradley Graham of Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.; Kris Kleindienst of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri; and Chris Morrow of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vermont, and Saratoga Springs, New York.

This will be the first three-year term on the Board for Cohen and the second three-year term for Kleindienst and Morrow. In addition, Graham, who had been serving the unexpired period of what would have been ABA President Robert Sindelar’s term as a Board director, will now begin his first full term.

Voting booksellers also elected current ABA Vice President Jamie Fiocco of Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for a two-year term as ABA president, and Graham of Politics and Prose to serve as ABA vice president/secretary. 

Continuing on the 11-member Board are Kenny Brechner of Devaney, Doak and Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine; Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books in San Francisco, California; Christine Onorati of WORD Bookstores in Brooklyn, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey; Kelly Estep of Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky; and Angela Maria Spring of Duende District Bookstore in Washington, D.C., and Albuquerque, New Mexico. A special election will be held later this year to elect a bookseller to fill in the remainder of Fiocco’s term as a Board director.

Leaving the Board will be ABA Board President Robert Sindelar of Third Place Books, with three locations in the Seattle area, and Annie Philbrick of Bank Square Books in Mystic, Connecticut, and Savoy Bookshop & Café in Westerly, Rhode Island. Sindelar is coming to the end of his two-year term as president, and Philbrick is completing her second three-year term as director.

The Board of Directors transition will take place at meetings in conjunction with BookExpo 2019 in New York City. All ABA members are encouraged to attend the Annual Membership Meeting, to be held from 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, May 30, in Room 1E12/13/14 at New York’s Javits Convention Center.

The meeting agenda will include the formal announcement of ABA’s election results, reports from the president and CEO, a membership and financial update, and the opportunity for members to bring old and/or new business to the attention of the Board of Directors. The Membership Meeting will be preceded by ABA’s Town Hall meeting from 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

To provide an opportunity for as many members as possible to speak during the Town Hall, a sign-up sheet will be prominently displayed starting Thursday morning, May 30, in the ABA Member Lounge, located on the trade show floor at Booth 2962. Booksellers will be called upon to speak at the Town Hall in the order in which they sign up.

During the meeting, the floor will be open to questions and comments from all booksellers in attendance; however, anyone who would like to send questions in advance can e-mail [email protected]. Booksellers who do not wish to speak can also add topics for discussion to the sign-up form in the lounge.

ABA’s Consolidated Financial Statements, Governance Review Report, and tax form 990 will be available to members in the Governance section of BookWeb this month.

Questions about the Town Hall and/or the Annual Membership meetings should be addressed to [email protected].

Information about all of ABA’s programming at BookExpo is available here.