2011 Board Candidates Named: Petition Process for Additional Candidates Opens

The American Booksellers Association’s Board of Directors, which met in conjunction with last month’s Winter Institute, has nominated three director candidates to serve three-year terms (2011 - 2014) on the Board.

Booksellers nominated as candidates for the upcoming elections are John Evans of DIESEL Bookstores in Malibu, Brentwood, and Oakland, California; Matt Norcross of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan; and Ken White of San Francisco State University Bookstore in San Francisco, California. White currently serves on the Board and is eligible for a second three-year term. Leaving the ABA Board in June 2012 will be ABA President Michael Tucker of California’s Books Inc. and Dan Chartrand of Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, New Hampshire.

The Board selected Becky Anderson of Anderson’s Bookshops to serve as ABA President and Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, to serve as Vice President/Secretary. Their names and those of director candidates will appear on the Board ballot that will be sent to ABA members via e-mail by the end of March, 60 days prior to the Annual Membership Meeting, to be held on Tuesday, May 24, at the Javits Convention Center during BookExpo America.

Under ABA’s 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; there is a timeframe of approximately one month to circulate petitions to place names on the ballot. Upon receipt of a valid petition, the Nominating Committee will add the petitioned candidate’s name to the Director 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.
• All petitions must be submitted by March 11, 2011, to the Chair, ABA Nominating Committee, c/o ABA, 200 White Plains Rd., Tarrytown, NY 10591.
• The names on the petition in support of the candidate must reflect at least two percent of ABA Bookstore Members as of January 1, 2011; that is a minimum of 28 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 Nominating Committee will add the candidate’s name to the ballot sent to ABA membership.

The Nominating Committee is chaired by ABA Board member Betsy Burton of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah. Other members are ABA Board member Sarah Bagby of Watermark Books and Café in Wichita, Kansas; former ABA president Richard Howorth of Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi; Robert Sindelar of Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington; and Paul Yamazaki of City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco, California.

If any bookstore member is working to circulate a petition, BTW would like to know.