Highlights of This Month's ABA Board Meeting

The American Booksellers Association's Board of Directors and senior staff met from Monday, September 18, through Wednesday, September 20, in Denver.

During the meeting, among other business, the ABA Board:

• Heard a report from ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, about his activities on behalf of the association, including his participation in interviews of prospective auditors so that he could advise the Board, as well as his institution of weekly e-mail communications with Board members following his conversations with ABA senior staff each week.
  
  
• Received a report from ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, which reviewed among other things, his participation with other members of ABA's executive staff in the recent meeting of the American Society of Association Executives to stay abreast of current trends in association management; meetings with Baker & Taylor CEO Richard Willis and Senior Vice President William Preston about potential areas where ABA and B&T might work together; and a series of meetings arranged by ABA that provided U.S. publishers and wholesalers with the opportunity to learn about batch.co.uk, a service of the Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland, designed to help reduce overhead in the supply chain by providing a single, consolidated payment solution.
  
  
• Heard a report from the chair of the ABA Nominating Committee, Collette Morgan of Minneapolis' Wild Rumpus, which noted that the Board nomination process was on pace; however, the committee is hoping to receive more nominations from ABA members prior to the October 27 deadline.
  
  
• Reviewed ABA's current investment portfolio with William King of Merrill Lynch and approved two fund management changes.
  
  
• Reviewed ABA's 2006 Financial Statement With Year-End Projections, which showed better-than-budgeted results.
  
  
• Adopted policies to be added to the ABA Policy Manual regarding the Audit Committee and the posting of ABA documents to the Internet, as well as a new "whistleblower policy," per the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
  
  
• At the recommendation of the Audit Committee, which interviewed a number of firms, met with Michael L. McNee of Marks Paneth & Shron LLP and approved the firm's retention as the association's new auditor, beginning with the upcoming September 2006 - 2005 Audit.
  
  
• Participated in an environmental scanning discussion led by Len Valhos, ABA education director and BookSense.com director, and Dan Cullen, ABA information director, about Web 2.0 technology and digital media and recommended that a staff-led task force formulate recommendations for possible future action.
  
  
• Also, as part of environmental scanning, heard a presentation by Srikant Vasan, president and CEO of StorePerform, on the use of technology by large corporate retailers.
  
  
• Met with LIBRIS manager, Richard Poling, to review the current operations of ABA's wholly owned insurance company.
  
  
• Discussed possible long-term scenarios in the book business and how they would affect ABA operations in the future.
  
  
• Heard staff reports on ABA participation in the fall regional trade shows, work underway for the 2007 Winter Institute, and plans for BookExpo America 2007 and Hotel ABA in Brooklyn.
  
  
• Received written departmental reports.

Board members and ABA staff were also given a tour of Tattered Cover's new Lowenstein Theater location by the store's owner, Joyce Meskis, and had the opportunity to visit David Bolduc's Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colorado.

Prior to the Board meeting, on Sunday, September 17, the BookSense.com Users Council, a diverse group of volunteer booksellers from participating stores, met to discuss the future of BookSense.com and to offer advice and direction to staff. The council also provided feedback on the initial stages of a redesign of ABA's trade website, BookWeb.org.

On Monday, the Education Task Force, a second group of volunteer booksellers from ABA member stores, met to offer guidance on the development of the association's education program and to review results of the recently concluded 2006 Education Survey.