When a Week of Meetings Can Be Something Special …

By ABA President Ann Christophersen

The weather outside was lovely (Santa Monica at 70 degrees and sunny trumps Chicago at five degrees and dropping), but what was going on inside was lovelier still. Since what was going on inside was meeting after meeting after meeting, I need you to suspend disbelief just for a moment and give me a chance to explain.

ABA meetings are usually interesting and enjoyable for me -- there's always the good idea (or 20), things always seem to be coming along, I always learn a lot, and it's always great to spend time with colleagues and friends working on issues of shared concern. This is not to say I don't get tired by the time the seventh day rolls around after having talked, listened, and concentrated almost beyond my capacity to do so, and not that problems and frustrations don't show themselves around some corners. Still, on balance, I generally take my leave feeling like much good work has been done and am optimistic that what's ahead will be intelligently and creatively managed.

But the meetings this time (the subjects of which were reported on in detail on January 23 in BTW and can be read at http://news.bookweb.org/read/1099) were something special. The Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) meeting was energetic and very useful, as usual, but there was also a heightened level of enthusiasm, dialogue, and resolution this time. The newly constituted BookSense.com Users Council (BUC) added an element to our ABA program assessment and development process that was -- and promises to continue to be -- extremely helpful. The meeting between ABA and regional senior staff provided mutually supportive, creative discussion and new ideas and plans, as did the meeting with regional heads and ABA board members.

The ABA board meeting itself was full of information from ABA staff that confirmed the board's full confidence that staff continues full steam ahead to enhance our programs, to deal with budget issues during this difficult time in the national economy, and to organize booksellers to leverage the credibility and power we have, both in the industry and in public affairs. Right now I believe we can see that power at work, convincing state governments to collect taxes on Internet sales where collection is their obligation and continuing to demonstrate to publishers that Book Sense is a program that is in their best interests to support. (We, of course, need to resolve to use that power in order to get the results we want, but we need to remember that it means nothing unless we exercise it.)

The other meetings I attended were similarly productive, but the point I want to make is that what was special was not only that each meeting was a cut above other similar ones I've attended in the past but that, taken as a whole, there seemed to be a qualitative difference in the operations of our organization. What first registered with me as a dramatic change, I would describe now as a coming-of-age, the reaching of a level of maturity that we've been heading toward for some time now.

About 10 years ago, we started evaluating and then restructuring our association in order to more effectively determine and achieve our goals. We've spent five years using the new direction and tools afforded by strategic planning and program development to simultaneously initiate and accomplish goals while leaning how to oil this new machine and to get our squeaky parts moving together optimally. We know how to do that now, and I'm excited about what that bodes for the future in terms of what we can accomplish.

That's excellent news, I think, but, as we all know, the devil is in the details. One detail that was a centerpiece for the coalescence of spirit and focus I tried to describe above was the report on the initial findings of the ABACUS survey. Over 130 stores have now reported, and at the meetings we saw several graphs and interpretations of what the data suggests.

To say that the results were electrifying to many of those receiving it at the BAC, BUC, and Booksellers Forum meetings is to understate the case. This really was an "now I get it" experience for many of the booksellers on hand who had participated in the survey out of a sense of responsibility to ABA and in hopes that doing so really would serve them. Kelly Justice, a new BAC member from Fountain Bookstore in Richmond Virginia, said of the ABACUS presentation, "…it was most enlightening. It may be the most valuable tool I have seen in indexing the health of our bookstore." I don't think anyone left with any remaining questions in their minds as to the value of this vehicle for guiding many of their business decisions in the future. (And, in several regions, booksellers who have already submitted their financial data to the ABACUS survey, and those who bring their financial information to the meeting, will have an opportunity to preview this ABACUS data. The ABACUS meetings will be held in conjunction with ABA Booksellers Forums.

By the way, it is clear to me that ABACUS will provide direction for what educational programs ABA needs to focus on going forward. The more data we get, the more precise we can be in providing booksellers with the exact skills training we need to enhance our stores' success. It may take some time to sort your numbers in the way required, but the time will seem well worth it when you get the results and can share in the interpretations of those results.

Priscilla Ulene of Traveler's Bookcase in Los Angeles praised the ease of submitting to the new ABACUS program. She said she had tried to submit to ABACUS years ago, "but I got bogged down -- but this time it was very easy." [Instructions and an online form for submitting data are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5786. Questions about ABACUS should be addressed to Avin at [email protected].]

I know some of you have reservations about providing the requisite data to Avin. I ask you to consider these things: ABA does not have the resources right now to outsource this extremely important project. So, if we want the data, in-house is the way we can get it. Moreover, even if we could afford to do it out-of-house, I don't believe we could get the data accuracy we can from Avin's unique qualifications to look at it and ask the right questions of it, so the results we get, ultimately, are more refined. Finally, it's important that you know that no one else on the ABA staff knows anything about your data: It is strictly confidential with Avin. All use of it after his examining it for possible inaccuracies and necessary follow-ups with the store submitting it, is totally hidden, with great pains taken to protect the identity of any participating store. I should add that I am someone who has never exactly understood why a business would feel terribly protective about sharing financial information with a trade organization working on its behalf, especially when that information is so diligently protected. But, then, there are lots of things I don't exactly understand. I urge you to examine your reluctance carefully and decide if there is more to lose than gain by being part of this.

That's it for now. There are plenty of things I'd like to write about, foremost among them some important new documents online at BookWeb.org relating to Main Street Alliances and related advocacy issues. Soon.

Ann