At the recent ABA Board meeting (click here [6] for related story), the Board approved the report of the ABA Nominating Committee, chaired this year by Lilla Weinberger (Readers' Books, Sonoma, California). The committee presented the Board with the names of three candidates for three-year terms as directors on the Board. (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: Neal Coonerty of Book Shop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California; Karl Pohrt of Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana. Coonerty and Pohrt are current members of the Board who are eligible to seek one additional three-year term as Board members. Lawrence, a former president of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, is also a former member of the ABA Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC).

Importantly, 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. Upon receipt of a valid petition, the Nominating Committee will add the petitioned candidate's name to the Director ballot. For full details regarding the petition process, click here [7].)

Ballots for the Board elections will be mailed to bookstore members by March 3 (60 days prior to the ABA annual meeting -- scheduled this year for Friday, May 3 at BookExpo America in New York City), and must be returned 30 days prior to the meeting.

In addition to Weinberger, the members of this year's Nominating Committee were Brad Eft, Micro Center, Hillard, Ohio; Rusty Drugan, NEBA, Boston; Miriam Sontz, Powell's, Portland, Oregon; and Carla Jimenez, Inkwood Books, Tampa, Florida.