ABA Welcomes Winter Institute Sponsors, Awards First Scholarship

BookExpo America and wholesalers Baker & Taylor and Ingram Book Company have become the first sponsors of ABA's inaugural Winter Education Institute, to be held on Thursday, January 26, and Friday, January 27, 2006, in Long Beach, California. Their sponsorship is helping to defray the cost of the Institute's special event functions and is underwriting the special hotel room rate at the Long Beach Hilton that is available to Institute participants.

"ABA is delighted that BEA, Baker & Taylor, and Ingram have offered to be sponsors of our Winter Institute," said ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz. "With their support, we're ensuring that booksellers can come to Long Beach next January at a minimal cost."

The Institute is open to all ABA member booksellers -- owners and staff -- and is free of charge. For booksellers who are traveling to Long Beach, a room rate of $89 per night has been arranged at the Hilton and is available for both Thursday and Friday nights.

As part of its presence at this year's fall regional trade shows, ABA is awarding a scholarship to the Winter Institute to one bookseller from each region who drops off a business card at the ABA booth. The winner is being chosen at random at each show. The scholarship includes airfare and hotel accommodations to attend the Institute. The first scholarship was awarded at this past week's Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association trade show to Mandi Peterson Richmond of Inkling's Bookshop inYakima, Washington.

The Winter Institute's comprehensive program includes all of ABA's education sessions from this past June's BookExpo America, as well as two new sessions developed in response to bookseller input gathered through ABA's 2006 Education Survey. The extensive two-day program is designed to serve new and seasoned booksellers alike, and will cover everything from budgeting and monitoring to reevaluating payroll expenses, from understanding best co-op practices to buying and selling non-book product.

To receive the Winter Institute hotel rate, booksellers must make reservations by November 15. Reservations may be made by calling (800) 445-8667 and asking for the "ABA Education Institute" block of rooms or through Hilton's online reservation form, available through the Winter Institute registration page at www.bookweb.org/institute. The three-letter group/convention code -- "ABA" -- must be used to receive the $89 room rate.

For more information about the Institute and to register, go to www.bookweb.org/education/ institute. Questions and comments should be addressed to ABA's associate director of programming, Kristen Gilligan, at (800) 637-0037, ext. 6613 or at Kristen@bookweb.org. --Rosemary Hawkins