ABA Invites Booksellers to Tampa and Chicago Forums

This week, ABA sent e-mail invitations to booksellers in the Southeast and Great Lakes regions (including booksellers in Wisconsin) to attend the first two ABA Booksellers Forums of 2004. In conjunction with the Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA), ABA will hold the first forum of the winter season on Friday, January 9, at the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa, Florida. And five days later, on Thursday, January 15, in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA), ABA Board members and staff will meet with area booksellers at the Allerton Crowne Plaza in Chicago, the "Hotel ABA/Chicago" for next year's BookExpo America in June.

Both forums will be attended by ABA's CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher. In addition, ABA Board member Carla Jimenez of Inkwood Books in Tampa will be present at the Southeast forum, and in Chicago ABA President Ann Christophersen of Women & Children First in Chicago and Board member Karl Pohrt of Shaman Drum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will attend.

The forums provide booksellers with an opportunity to share their ideas and concerns with ABA Board members and staff, as well as get an update on the association's programs and plans for the future. Over the years, these forums have provided very constructive input from members and have been indispensable in shaping future programs and initiatives of the association.

The roughly half-day of programming (from 11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.) at each forum will encompass a number of issues. Special this year will be a discussion of Book Sense at Five, ABA's plans to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Book Sense in 2004.

The programs in Tampa and Chicago will begin with a Book Sense gift card demonstration, which will explain how the gift card works and how easy it is to get started, and will include some specific case studies of bookstores' experiences this past holiday season when the stores converted from paper to plastic.

The gift card demonstration will be followed by an open forum to discuss whatever issues are on booksellers' minds relating to ABA, Book Sense, bookselling in general, the state of the book business, and more. Attendees will have a chance to ask questions, express opinions, and hear from their fellow booksellers. Lunch will be provided.

Immediately following the forums, Domnitz will be available for one-on-one meetings with booksellers to demonstrate how easy it is to submit financial information to the ABACUS study. Participants in the study have found that the data they get from the study is extraordinarily useful in improving their store's operations. (For more information about ABACUS, click here. Booksellers wishing to schedule a meeting with Domnitz in Tampa or Chicago, should send an e-mail to avin@bookweb.org.)

Booksellers planning to attend the forums are asked to RSVP to Kristen Gilligan at ABA at (800) 637-0037, ext. 1286 or at kristen@bookweb.org.

As part of the Book Sense at Five celebrations, ABA will be holding a bookseller contest, and the winner of the Grand Prize will have his or her hotel expenses and admission to BookExpo America paid by ABA for the next five years. The contest is open to all owners and employees of any ABA bookstore member. Individuals may enter the contest by either voting for the "Best Book Sense Books of the First Five Years" and/or by attending one of the 2004 Booksellers Forums. More details about the contest will be provided in future issues of Bookselling This Week.

Here's a recap of the Tampa forum schedule:

Friday, January 9, 2004
11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
John F. Germany Public Library (in the Auditorium)
900 North Ashley Drive
Tampa, Florida 33602-3788
Tel.: (813) 273-3652
Web: http://www.hcplc.org/hcplc/liblocales/jfg/

11:00 - 11:45 a.m. -- Book Sense Gift Card Demonstration
Noon - 1:45 p.m. -- ABA/SEBA Open Forum
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. -- One-to-One ABACUS Tutorials

A second ABA Booksellers Forum will be held in conjunction with SEBA on Wednesday, January 28, at McIntyre's Books in Fearrington Village in Pittsboro, North Carolina (near Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill). Details will be forthcoming shortly in an e-mail from ABA to SEBA members and in an upcoming issue of Bookselling This Week.

Here's a recap of the Chicago forum schedule:

Thursday, January 15, 2004
11: 00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Allerton Crowne Plaza
701 North Michigan Avenue (corner of Michigan & Huron)
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel.: (312) 440-1500
Fax: (312) 440-1819
Web: http://www.allerton-chi.crowneplaza.com/

11:00 - 11:45 a.m. -- Book Sense Gift Card Demonstration
Noon - 1:45 p.m. -- ABA/SEBA Open Forum
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. -- One-to-One ABACUS Tutorials

An invitation to the Chicago forum was extended to booksellers in Wisconsin as some may be closer to Chicago than the Twin Cities, where ABA plans to hold a forum in conjunction with the Upper Midwest Booksellers Association on the weekend of March 6 - 7.

A second GLBA forum is scheduled for Tuesday, March 30, in Cincinnati.

ABA will be sending an e-mail to booksellers with the details of these forums in the coming weeks, and information will also be published in BTW. For the complete schedule of this season's ABA Booksellers Forums, click here.