A Report on This Month’s ABA Board Meeting

The American Booksellers Association’s Board of Directors met on March 2 - 5, 2012, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Over the course of the meeting, the Board:

• Heard a report from ABA CEO Oren Teicher on his activities since the last full Board meeting in January, including:
  • his presentation on the independent bookstore landscape at Digital Book World in January in New York City.  The conference also featured a panel of independent booksellers, including Bradley Graham of Politics and Prose Bookstore; Roxanne Coady of R.J. Julia Booksellers; Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books; and  Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books & Music;
  • his participation, at the invitation of the British Columbia Booksellers Association, in the group’s Winter Education Day in February in Victoria, B.C. As the keynote speaker, he  presented two talks — one addressed to booksellers and another to booksellers, publishers, and librarians — focusing on book industry trends and the opportunities and challenges facing independent booksellers across North America;
  • his attendance at a second meeting of association groups, including the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, the American Library Association, the Book Industry Study Group, the Children’s Book Council, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, the Independent Book Publishers Association, the International Digital Publishing Forum, the National Association of College Stores, and the National Information Standards Organization, which was held in New York City in February;
  • his participation, with Senior Program Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger, Content Officer Dan Cullen, Development Officer Mark Nichols, Education Manager Lisa Winn, and  Industry Relations Assistant Carolyn Bennett, in a Winter Institute 7 debrief for publishers in New York City;
  • his participation in the HarperCollins Speakers Bureau at the publisher’s offices in New York City, where he spoke to employees from numerous departments.

• Received a report from ABA President Becky Anderson on her activities on behalf of the association since the January Board meeting, including:
  • her participation in the Children’s Book Council February forum, “From the Buyers’ Perspective,”in New York City;
  • her meetings with numerous publishers about a range of e-book promotions.
• Heard a report from Content Officer Cullen on the results of a post-Winter Institute survey, which found that, overall, Wi7 was a success and that 98.4 percent of respondents would recommend the Winter Institute to others.
   
• Received and approved a report from ABA’s auditors, Marks Paneth & Shron, on the association’s 2011 Audited Financial Statement and Form 990 Tax Return, which are required under new IRS regulations. The Audited Consolidated Financial Statement provided an unqualified (“clean”) opinion of the association’s finances. (The report, unanimously accepted by the Board, is available to members on BookWeb.org);
   
• Discussed the report of ABA’s Governance Review Committee;
   
• Received and approved the report of the Nominating Committee, chaired by Board member Sarah Bagby of Watermark Booksin Wichita, Kansas. For three-year terms as Directors, beginning June 2012, the Board nominated Betsy Burton of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah; Valerie Koehler of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas; and Jonathon Welch of Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, New York. Burton and Koehler currently serve on the Board;
   
• Met with staff of the National Association of College Stores, visited the CAMEX trade show in Salt Lake City, and discussed ideas in connection with next year’s visit to CAMEX by booksellers participating in Winter Institute 8 in Kansas City, Missouri;
   
• Discussed a range of issues facing IndieCommerce;
   
• Received a report from William King of Merrill Lynch on the performance of the association’s investment portfolio since the last Board meeting in January;
   
• Heard a presentation by Scott Dynan of Neuberger Berman, ABA’s large cap growth manager, about the fund’s approach to investing and future forecasts.