Winter 2004 ABA Board Meeting Report

The American Booksellers Association Board of Directors, senior staff, and representatives from the regional booksellers associations held meetings at the DoubleTree Grand Biscayne Bay in Miami, from Thursday, February 5, to Sunday, February 8.

During the meetings, the ABA Board:

• Heard reports from ABA President Ann Christophersen and ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz.
  
• Heard and approved the report of the ABA Nominating Committee, chaired by ABA Board member Neal Coonerty of Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, California. The committee presented the Board with the names of three candidates for three-year terms as directors on the Board (2004-2007). (Under the current ABA Bylaws, each year three members of the nine-member Board come to the end of their terms.) The booksellers nominated as candidates for the upcoming elections are: Carla Jimenez of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida; Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver; and Linda Ramsdell of Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, Vermont. Jimenez is currently a member of the ABA Board and is eligible to seek one additional three-year term. [Under the ABA Bylaws, in addition to candidates put forth by the Nominating Committee and approved by the Board, any bookstore member may submit a petition for a director candidate. Look for more details on the petition process in next week's BTW.]
  
• Selected Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books in Coral Gables and Miami Beach, Florida, as ABA President and Suzanne Staubach of UConn Co-op in Storrs, Connecticut, as ABA Vice President/Secretary for one-year terms beginning in June 2004. (Their names will appear on the Board ballot, which will be mailed in early March, for approval by ABA membership.)
  
• Met with the presidents and executive directors of the regional booksellers associations to review and plan ways in which ABA and the regionals can work together on behalf of their mutual memberships.
  
• Met with the association's auditors from KPMG Peat Marwick and received the audited financial statement for the year ending September 30, 2003. The auditors provided a clean report, which stated that "the consolidated financial statements referred to … present fairly, in all materials respects, the financial position of ABA, Inc. and subsidiaries [as of September 30, 2003] … and the changes in their net assets and their cash flows for the years then ended in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. And the opinion to the consolidating and other supplement information and the consolidated financial statements -- are fairly stated in all material respects in relation to the consolidated financial statement taken as a whole."
  
• Met with William King of Merrill Lynch to review ABA's investment portfolio.
  
• Received the first quarter financial report for fiscal 2004 from ABA CFO Eleanor Chang.
  
• Received a report on ABA membership, including 2003 renewal/retention rate figures and membership recruitment plans for 2004. Information was presented on the special joint membership promotion being offered to members of the regional associations who are not members of ABA. (For more about this promotion, click here.)
  
• Heard a report from ABA Marketing Director Jill Perlstein who presented information on bookstores' success with the Book Sense Gift Card Program during the holiday season and plans for the future. (For more about gift card sales, click here.)
  
• Heard reports on ABA's legislative efforts regarding sales tax equity and Section 215 of the Patriot Act, including ABA's Campaign for Reader Privacy, the initiative to gather more than one million customer signatures on a petition calling for an amendment of Section 215. (For more about this effort, click here.)
  
• Reviewed ABA's educational programming and special events planned for BookExpo America 2004, including the celebration of Book Sense at Five. (For more about ABA's 2004 BEA programming, click here.)
  
• Heard a report about the meeting of ABA's Booksellers Advisory Council, which met from January 11 - 12 with representatives of the ABA Board and senior staff in Miami, to offer the association guidance on a number of issues important to independent booksellers. (For more about the council's discussions, click here.)
  
• Reviewed ABA's continuing strategic planning efforts, including the process of envisioning future scenarios affecting the entire book industry.
  
• Received a report from ABA's Governance Review Committee and accepted its recommendations.
  
• Had a full discussion about proposed changes to the Book Sense 76 lists, including reducing the number of titles and converting to a monthly list, and resolved to continue to listen to booksellers' input about how to make the lists more usable.
  

In addition, at a reception and dinner with the regional association representatives, held on February 7 at Books & Books in Coral Gables, the Board honored Michael Hoynes, ABA's former marketing officer, who left the association at the end of December. Hoynes, who was in attendance with his wife, Dolores, was presented with a Levenger globe in recognition of his service to the association, especially his efforts to build Book Sense into a vibrant national marketing program.

On Monday, February 8, ABA staff and Vice President Mitchell Kaplan met with Steve Leveen, president of Levenger, and members of his staff at Levenger's offices in Delray Beach to discuss ways to grow the marketing partnership between Levenger and ABA.