A Report on the ABA Board's 2009 Summer Meeting

The American Booksellers Association's Board of Directors held its summer meeting in San Jose, California, from Thursday, July 9, through Saturday, July 11. The meeting was preceded, on Thursday, with an orientation for new Board member Betsy Burton of The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, which was led by ABA President Michael Tucker of Books Inc. in San Francisco; Vice President Becky Anderson of Anderson's Bookshops in Naperville, Illinois; and ABA senior staff.

The full Board then convened with ABA senior staff for meetings from Thursday afternoon through Sunday. Over the course of the two and a half days, the Board:

• Reviewed ABA's Governance Policy Manual to ensure that it accurately reflects the activities of the association. The Board asked staff to undertake a further review of the manual and to present an updated version at a future Board meeting;

• Heard a report from ABA President Michael Tucker on his activities, which have centered on ensuring a smooth transition for both the Board and staff since he and ABA's new CEO, Oren Teicher, assumed their positions at the end of May;

• Heard a report from ABA CEO Teicher on his wide range of activities, including the institution of a staff task force process aimed at evaluating and improving ABA programs and services; a series of meetings with publishers to discuss matters of mutual interest; a meeting with the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship to represent the interests of independent booksellers regarding health care reform; a presentation at the National Association of Recording Merchandisers convention to introduce indie record stores to IndieBound and to share examples of how they can work collaboratively with ABA members; and a visit to Ingram Book Group in La Vergne, Tennessee, with ABA President Tucker;

• Approved the following appointments to the 2009 ABA Nominating Committee to be chaired by Board member Ken White of San Francisco's SFSU Bookstore: Board member Betsy Burton of The King's English; immediate past ABA President Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona; Judy Crosby of Island Books in Middletown, Rhode Island; and Matthew Norcross of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petosky, Michigan.

• Approved the following appointments to the Booksellers Advisory Council: Joe Drabyak of Chester County Book & Music Company in West Chester, Pennsylvania; Leslie Reiner of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida; and Andrea Vuleta of Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop in La Verne, California;

• Approved the following appointments to the Governance Review Committee, to be chaired by Suzy Staubach of UConn Co-op in Storrs, Connecticut: Catherine Weller of Sam Weller's Zion Books in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Mark LaFramboise of Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C. The Board also approved the appointment of Board member Steve Bercu of Austin's BookPeople to replace Michael Tucker on the Audit Committee, to be chaired by Board member Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina;

• Heard a report from ABA President Tucker and ABA COO Len Vlahos on the Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) meeting, held in May, immediately following BookExpo America. The BAC provided input on the just completed ABA Day of Education and other convention activities with a view towards improving future programs;

• Heard a report on the joint Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC)/ABA task force, held in San Jose just prior to the ABA Board meeting. The task force, composed of three members each from the ABC and ABA Boards as well as senior staff members, began a preliminary dialogue in response to ABC's request to explore a possible merger with ABA;

• Reviewed ABA's investment portfolio, via conference call, with William King of Merrill Lynch, who reported that, though the association endowment was down for the year, investments were up for the third quarter (ending June 30) of ABA's fiscal year. In addition, King reported that ABA's investments were performing better than the industry as a whole.

• Received a report on ABA's finances from CFO Eleanor Chang, who noted that the association continues to operate under a spending freeze, including a staff wage and hiring freeze;

• Reviewed ABA's Ends Policies and staff compliance reports and approved changes to the Ends Policies to refine and adjust the association's focus in order to keep ABA in sync with member needs and the rapidly changing business landscape (see related letter from ABA President Tucker);

• Heard a report, via conference call, from Mark Nichols, senior director of publisher initiatives, on the efforts of ABA's E-Catalogs Task Force, which is charged with educating booksellers and publishers about the advent and inevitability of electronic catalogs in general, and about the need for, and efficacy of, a common platform to be used across all publishers, specifically the Edelweiss program, developed by John Rubin and the team at Above the Treeline;

• Received an update from ABA COO Vlahos on the 2010 Winter Institute, to be held from Wednesday, February 3, through Friday, February 5, at the Doubletree San Jose, where the Board was currently meeting; the Board expressed its pleasure in the accommodations;

• Heard a report from Jill Perlstein, director of member services, on the status of the ABA Gift Card Program and discussed future gift card options;

• Discussed the growing importance of digital publishing and e-content, and the steps ABA is taking to ensure the place of independent booksellers in the digital world, including the soon-to-launch sale of e-content on IndieCommerce websites, discussions with manufacturers of e-book readers regarding hardware sales in indie bookstores, and other efforts;

• Received an update on the Google Settlement and ABA's conversations with Google, the Association of American Publishers, and the Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland to better understand the ramifications of the proposed settlement on ABA members and their book industry partners;

• Received an update on pending national health care legislation via conference call with Dan Cullen, ABA senior director of editorial content, and, following a vigorous discussion about the ramifications of the proposed bills on ABA members, concluded that ABA should conduct a poll to gather more information about the issue from member bookstores so that any actions the Board might take in articulating association goals would be in sync with membership (see related letter from ABA President Tucker);

• Received a report on BookExpo America 2009 and an update on plans for the first mid-week show, to be held from Tuesday, May 25, through Thursday, May 27, 2010 at New York's Javits Convention Center. ABA CEO Teicher reported that the 2009 trade show had exceeded industry expectations, according to BEA Show Director Lance Fensterman;

• Reviewed the association's plans for participation in the nine fall regional trade shows, where ABA will be providing an education component and staff will be available to meet with members;

• Had a working dinner with Andrew Pate, senior vice president for business development for On Demand Books, who briefed the Board on the company's experiences with its retail-level POD product, the Espresso Book Machine.