A Report on ABA's Summer Board Meeting

The American Booksellers Association's Board of Directors held its summer meeting in Tarrytown, New York, from Thursday, July 12, through Monday, July 16. The meeting began in the late afternoon on Thursday with an orientation to introduce new Board members Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, and Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina, to the association's policies and procedures. The orientation was led by ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana; Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona; and ABA senior staff.

Over the course of the following four days, the Board:

• Received a detailed report on the association's implementation of the 2007 Strategic Plan from ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz.

• Heard a report from ABA President Lawrence about his activities on behalf of the association.
• Convened with booksellers Tova Beiser of Brown University Bookstore in Providence, Rhode Island; Joe Drabyak of Chester County Book & Music Company in West Chester, Pennsylvania; and Bill Reilly of The River's End Bookstore in Oswego, New York, as the Strategic Planning Committee, to continue work on a new five-year Strategic Plan focusing on broad "ends" policies, rather than goals and objectives as in past plans. The meeting was facilitated by Ivan Barkhorn of the Redstone Strategy Group.
• Reviewed its policy governance model during a full-day meeting with Miriam Carver, a consultant and co-author of Reinventing Your Board: A Step by Step Guide to Implementing Policy Governance and the Board Member's Playbook: Using Policy Governance to Solve Problems, Make Decisions, and Build a Stronger Board (both Jossey-Bass), among other titles.
• Received an update from Brains on Fire, the identity company working on the rebranding of the Book Sense marketing program. Heard a report on Thursday's Digital Task Force meeting (see related story).
• Met with representatives from Random House as part of a continuing series of meetings with publishers to discuss issues of importance to independent booksellers.
• Heard a report from ABA COO Oren Teicher about this year's BookExpo America and reviewed plans for ABA's participation in the fall regional trade shows; for the Third Annual Winter Institute, to be held in Louisville, Kentucky, from January 24 - 26, 2008; and for BookExpo America 2008, to be held from May 28 - June 1 in Los Angeles.
• Reviewed the association's June 2007 Financial Report and its investment portfolio, both reflecting the continued positive investment climate, with William King of Merrill Lynch. Also reviewed a preliminary budget for the 2007 - 2008 fiscal year.
• Discussed issues surrounding laydown dates as a follow-up to comments made by members at ABA's Town Hall meeting at BookExpo America.
• Received updates on issues surrounding ISBN-13 and booksellers' use of Pubnet's Instant Response, an electronic ordering option.
• Acknowledged reports prepared in advance by association staff regarding Book Sense and other ABA programs.

ABA Board members and senior staff gathered at a Sunday evening reception: (from left to right) COO Oren Teicher; CFO Eleanor Chang; Becky Anderson of Anderson's Bookshops; Beth Puffer of Bank Street Bookstore; Collette Morgan of Wild Rumpus; Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop; Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover Book Store; CEO Avin Mark Domnitz; Vice President Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore; ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store; Michael Tucker of Books Inc. in San Francisco; and Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, who jokingly donned a tie for the event.