Petition Process Opens for Additional Candidates

The American Booksellers Association’s Board of Directors [5], which met in January, just prior to Winter Institute 12, approved the ABA Nominating Committee’s recommendation of the following three candidates to stand for election to three-year terms (2017 – 2020) as directors on the ABA Board:

• Kenny Brechner of Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers [6] in Farmington, Maine
• Jamie Fiocco of Flyleaf Books [7] in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Christine Onorati of WORD [8] in Brooklyn, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey

Fiocco is coming to the end of her first three-year term on the Board and is eligible for a second three-year term. Brechner and Onorati have not previously served on the ABA Board.

In a related action, the Board selected current ABA Vice President Robert Sindelar of Third Place Books [9] in Lake Forest Park, Washington, for a two-year term as ABA president, and Fiocco of Flyleaf Books to serve as ABA vice president/secretary. Their selection by the Board must be ratified by ABA membership.

Leaving the Board will be ABA President Betsy Burton of The King’s English Bookshop [10] in Salt Lake City, Utah; John Evans of DIESEL, A Bookstore [11] in Oakland, Larkspur, and Brentwood, California; and Matthew Norcross of McLean and Eakin Booksellers [12] in Petoskey, Michigan. Burton is coming to the end of her two-year term as president; Evans and Norcross are completing their second three-year terms as directors.

A ballot for the 2017 Board elections will be sent to ABA members via e-mail at the beginning of April, 60 days prior to the Annual Membership Meeting; the deadline for return of the ballots will be May 2. The ABA Membership Meeting will be held on June 1, 2017, at the Javits Convention Center during BookExpo [13]. The ballot will include space for write-in candidates.

Under ABA Bylaws [14], any bookstore member may submit petitions to have the names of additional candidates for Board officers and/or directors added to the ballot. Should bookstore members wish to submit a petition, the following apply:

• A candidate must be an employee or owner of an ABA member bookstore. The member bookstore must be in good standing, and the individual candidate must have at least three years’ experience in a bookstore-member company.
• Each petition can present only one candidate and, to be valid, must name a candidate who meets the qualifications for office established under the Bylaws [14].
• All petitions must be submitted by March 17, 2017, to the Chair, ABA Nominating Committee, c/o ABA, 333 Westchester Avenue, Suite S202, White Plains, New York 10604.
• The names on the petition in support of the candidate must reflect at least two percent of ABA Bookstore Members as of January 1, 2017; that is a minimum of 25 signatures. The petition must contain original signatures and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of bookstore members in at least five states, with representatives of no one state constituting more than 50 percent of the total number of petition signatures.

Upon receipt of a valid petition, the candidate’s name will be added to the ballot sent to ABA membership.

The members of the 2016 – 2017 Nominating Committee were ABA Board member Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books [15] in San Francisco (chair); ABA Board member Jonathon Welch of Talking Leaves … Books [16] in Buffalo, New York; former Board member Sarah Bagby of Watermark Books & Café [17] in Wichita, Kansas; Cynthia Compton of 4 Kids Books & Toys [18] in Zionsville, Indiana; and Erica Luttrell of Chevalier’s Books [19] in Los Angeles, California.