ABA Announces 2002 Board Election Results

ABA has announced the results of the 2002 elections for Board officers and directors.

The candidates chosen to serve as ABA Board directors were: Neal Coonerty, owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, California; Russ Lawrence, co-owner of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana; and Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Board members serve three-year terms. Coonerty and Pohrt are currently Board members.

Ann Christophersen, president	Mitchell Kaplan, vice president/ secretary

The association membership also ratified the Board’s earlier selection of ABA Board director Ann Christophersen of Women & Children First, Chicago, for a one-year term as president, and Board director Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida, for a one-year term as vice president/secretary.

Christophersen, a bookseller since 1979, served last year as ABA vice president/secretary. Her bookstore, Women & Children First, recently celebrated its 23rd anniversary in its present location. Kaplan, a current Board member, is a founder of the Miami Book Fair International and is presently its chairperson.

Neal Coonerty	Russ Lawrence	Karl Pohrt

This will be the second three-year term as Board directors for both Coonerty and Pohrt. Coonerty, who served two terms as president of ABA from 2000-2002, has served as chair of the Bylaws Committee and the Strategic Planning Committee, and has served on the board of ABFFE and LIBRIS. Pohrt, who recently celebrated the 21st anniversary of Shaman Drum Bookshop, has been on the boards of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, and the State Street Area Association in Ann Arbor. Lawrence, a former president and board member of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA), is also a former member of the ABA Booksellers Advisory Council. He was a PNBA board member from 1997 to 2001 and was president from 2000 to 2001.

Under ABA’s bylaws, the officers of the Board are selected by the Board from among current Board members (to provide continuity) and are then ratified by the membership. Christophersen and Kaplan were selected at the Board’s January meeting in Atlanta, Georgia (click here).

The election results were certified by ABA election inspector at KPMG, Peat Marwick.