ABA Board Meets in Washington, D.C.

The American Booksellers Association Board of Directors held its fall meeting in Washington, D.C., from October 8-10. In addition to discussing a range of association-related issues, the Board also presented a gift of books for the White House Library to First Lady Laura Bush on October 9. (For full story, click here.) While in Washington, some members of the Board also helped staff the ABA exhibit at the second annual National Book Festival, which was held on October 12.

ABA President Ann Christophersen

At the meeting last week, the Board of Directors approved a $6.7 million budget for 2002 - 2003. In line with a resolution passed last year, the new budget moves the organization towards a balanced budget. "Given our heavy reliance on investment income, this has been a tough year," said ABA President Ann Christophersen, "and, while we're not going to be able to implement a lot of new initiatives, we are firmly committed to maintaining our current programs, including Book Sense."

As part of its effort to monitor all ABA expenses and income, the Board reviewed ABA's investment policy. It also passed a resolution authorizing the staff to analyze whether selling the property in Tarrytown would be a good business decision to consider. "Our association has changed a lot since 1991 when we acquired the property in Tarrytown, and we think it prudent to take a close look at our options," Christophersen continued.

In other actions at the meeting, the Board:

• Met with attorneys from Arent Fox, ABA's general counsel, and with David Walker, ABA's industry relations consultant, to discuss current issues.

• Held a session with Atul Dighe, senior futurist for the Institute for Alternative Futures and co-author of the book Exploring the Future -- Seven Strategic Conversations That Could Transform Your Association. At the session, the Board and Dighe discussed how the association might better respond to future trends.

• Met with William King of Merrill Lynch to review ABA's investment portfolio.

• Reviewed with ABA senior staff various association programs.

• Met with David Cole, professor of law at Georgetown University and co-author of Terrorism and the Constitution, who presented an update on the state of civil liberties after September 11, including the effects of the USA Patriot Act.

• Met with Tracy Mullin, president of the National Retail Federation, who offered a view of how recent actions of Congress have affected retail.

At Saturday's National Book Festival, ABA joined several other organizations in the "Let's Read America" pavilion, where association staff and board members passed out copies of the most recent children's and adult Book Sense 76 lists and talked with attendees about the national marketing program and independent bookselling. The daylong event, held on the western lawn of the Capitol, was organized by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush, who was joined by her Russian counterpart, Lyudmila Putin.

ABA Board Member Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana, told BTW, "There were swarms of people all day -- I was very impressed with the attendance." Also impressive, said Lawrence, was "the overall awareness of the Book Sense program, the awareness of the 76 list, and of independent booksellers in general," adding that "these are exactly the people you want to reach; these are your core customers."