Petition Process Open for Additional Board Candidates

The ballot for the American Booksellers Association’s 2012 Board of Directors elections, which will be sent via e-mail to main store members on April 6, will feature the names of three director candidates: Betsy Burton of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah; Valerie Koehler of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas; and Jonathon Welch of Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, New York.

Under ABA’s Bylaws, in addition to the candidates put forth by the association’s Nominating Committee and approved by the Board, any bookstore member may submit a petition for a director candidate.

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 April 2, 2012, 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, 2012; that is a minimum of 27 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.

In keeping with last year’s Bylaws amendment, which established two-year terms for ABA’s president and vice president, this year’s ballot will not include the names of officer candidates. In June, ABA President Becky Anderson of Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville, Illinois, and Vice President Steve Bercu of Austin’s BookPeople will begin the second year of their two-year terms.

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