Booksellers have until the end of the day today, Wednesday, October 31, to nominate a qualified candidate [7] to stand for election to the American Booksellers Association’s Board of Directors in 2019; self-nominations are also welcome.

In a letter to members [8] earlier this month, ABA President Robert Sindelar wrote, “If you know a smart, engaged, passionate bookseller, please, by all means, nominate them. But if you are that bookseller, don’t wait for an invitation. Nominate yourself.”

A nominee for the Board of Directors [9] must:

• Be the owner or employee of an ABA member independent bookstore with a storefront location that is operated according to sound business principles
• Have at least three years of recent experience as the owner or employee of a member company

It is also desirable that nominees have at least two years’ experience as an active volunteer in ABA and/or in a regional association or other constituency organization. Qualifications are outlined in the “ABA Nomination and Election Guidelines [10]” from the ABA Governance Policy Manual [11].

The committee requests that nominations be submitted as soon as possible but no later than October 31, 2018, via the online nomination form available here [7]. Nominations should include as much information as possible about a prospective candidate. All information will be kept strictly confidential.

The nominating committee is chaired by Annie Philbrick of Bank Square Books [12] in Mystic, Connecticut, and Savoy Bookshop & Café [13] in Westerly, Rhode Island. Serving with Philbrick on this year’s nominating committee are ABA Board member Christine Onorati of WORD Bookstores [14] in Brooklyn, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey; Nicole Sullivan of BookBar [15] in Denver, Colorado; Elisa Thomas of Cellar Door Books [16] in Riverside, California; and Christie Olson Day of Gallery Bookshop and Bookwinkle’s Children’s Books [17] in Mendocino, California.

The slate for the 2019 Board of Directors elections will be announced approximately 120 days prior to the next ABA Annual Membership Meeting, which will be held in conjunction with BookExpo [18] in New York City, scheduled for May 29–31, 2019.