Forums

When booksellers from Kansas to Louisiana and all points in between travel hundreds of miles in the middle of the week to meet for three hours in Dallas, they want to accomplish a lot. And they did on April 10 in Dallas -- according to a number of booksellers who attended both an ABA Booksellers Forum and bookseller programming, which was sponsored by the Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association (MSIBA). Both events were hosted by The Enchanted Forest Bookstore.

On April 9, there was an ABA Booksellers Forum held in conjunction with a day of educational panels organized and sponsored by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) in Philadelphia. Attending the forum from ABA was association CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, who was joined by ABA Board member John Bennett, co-owner of Bennett Books in Wyckoff, New Jersey, and ABA Bookseller Advisory Council member Beth Puffer of Bank Street Books in New York City.

Over 20 booksellers attended an ABA Booksellers Forum on April 11 from 10:00 a.m. to noon in the Writers and Readers Room at Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Massachusetts. Held in conjunction with the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA), the forum covered a wide range of issues, including ABA’s future goals, the recent Tattered Cover court victory, and questions regarding music royalties.

The Upper Midwest Booksellers Association's (UMBA) Spring Meeting and Seminar was held from April 13 to 14 at the Edgewater Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin. The well-attended event included an ABA Booksellers Forum, a booksellers’ roundtable on co-op advertising, and an author/publisher cocktail party on Saturday; it finished on Sunday with a financial seminar led by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz from 9:00 a.m to noon.

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Club in the Presidio was the site of the April 7, ABA Booksellers Forum, which was organized in conjunction with the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) Spring Workshops. According to Hut Landon, NCIBA executive director, the confluence of workshops with the forum drew a particularly large audience for both.

On Saturday, April 6, approximately 30 booksellers attended an ABA Booksellers Forum, in conjunction with the Southern California Booksellers Association’s Spring Workshop, held at the U.S. Grant Hotel -- a Wyndham Historic Hotel in San Diego, California, from noon to 2:00 p.m.

From Saturday, April 6, to Saturday, April 13, ABA will be hosting six Booksellers Forums in conjunction with regional booksellers association meetings around the country. The forums provide ABA members an opportunity to meet with representatives of the ABA Board and senior staff to discuss issues relating to ABA and bookselling in general. It’s a chance to ask questions, express opinions, and hear from bookseller-colleagues.

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Last weekend was a busy one for the ABA. On Friday, March 22, booksellers gathered for a Booksellers Forum and financial seminar, held in conjunction with the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) Spring Meeting, at the Marriott Downtown in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and on Saturday, March 23, over 35 booksellers attended a forum and Book Sense seminar, held in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Spring Trade Show, at the Coeur D’Alene Resort in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.

There will be a number of ABA Booksellers Forums in the upcoming weeks. The forums are open meetings where ABA members can meet and talk with representatives of the ABA Board and association senior staff to discuss pertinent ABA- or industry-related issues. At press time, forums were scheduled for: