A Report on the Summer ABA Board of Directors Meeting

The American Booksellers Association's Board of Directors and senior staff met from Thursday, July 8, through Sunday, July 11. The first day of meetings was held in New York City and was preceded by an orientation for the new members of the Board, Linda Ramsdell of Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, Vermont, and Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, on Wednesday, July 7, also in New York City. The remaining meetings were held at ABA's headquarters in Tarrytown, New York.

During the July meeting, the Board:

• Attended a news conference at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, where the National Endowment for the Arts released the report Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America and where ABA President Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida, participated in a discussion of the report. (For more on the report, click here.)
• Met with William King of Merrill Lynch and fund managers from Lord Abbett and Cohen Klingenstein & Marks to review ABA's investment portfolio.
• Met with Susan Novotny of The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York, and Willard Williams of The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, New Hampshire, as the Strategic Planning Committee. The committee reviewed ABA's strategic plan, currently in its second year, to see if modifications are necessary moving forward. The meeting was facilitated by Ivan Barkhorn, a consultant to ABA on strategic matters and the managing director of Redstone Strategy Group, LLC.
• Considered future trends in the overall book business, including E-Ink and print-on-demand technology, as part of a conversation on environmental scanning facilitated by Barkhorn.
• Heard from former ABA President Ann Christophersen of Women & Children First in Chicago, who provided her perspective on ABA governance issues and reviewed the process for nominating booksellers to serve on the ABA Board.
• Received an in-depth report from ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz on the association's implementation of the strategic plan by strategies and goals.
• Discussed ABA's real estate needs and resolved that the association would seek to remain within a 15-mile radius of its current location.
• Met with Sam Tanenhaus, the new editor of the New York Times Book Review, to hear his plans and to discuss ways that ABA and Book Sense could work with the review.
• Received a full report on the Booksellers Advisory Council meeting held in June at the conclusion of BookExpo America.
• Discussed the current state of ABA membership based on an analysis provided by staff.
• Heard staff reports on various ABA programs, including Book Sense, BookSense.com, the electronic gift card, ABACUS, and LIBRIS.
• Reviewed ABA's financial statements with year-end projections, which reflected better-than-expected results due to the improved investment climate, and discussed a pre-budget for the 2004 - 2005 fiscal year.

For a complete list of ABA Board directors, click here.