About ABA

Reports presented to American Booksellers Association members at the ABA Annual Meeting on Friday, May 19, at BookExpo America are available to all members in a PDF document on the association's trade website, BookWeb.org.

American Booksellers Association affinity partner Bank of America Merchant Services will waive the $75 application fee for booksellers who sign up for its credit card processing program through the end of May.

• ABA's 10th Annual Celebration of Bookselling
• ABA Town Hall Meeting
• ABA Annual Membership Meeting
• Booksellers & Authors Share Festive Book Sense Lunch
• BookSense.com & Gift Card Users Groups Meet
• The 2006 Children's Book & Author Breakfast
• Q&A With BSBY Fiction Winner Elizabeth Kostova

The Spoken Word radio program is continuing its expansion from a weekly show focusing on literature, culture, and the arts in the Southeast to a nationally syndicated program featuring events in different regions of the country.

The results of the American Booksellers Association's 2006 Board of Directors elections, which concluded on April 24, were recently certified by the association's election inspector, KPMG.

On Wednesday, April 26, at the Westford Regency Hotel & Conference Center in Westford, Massachusetts, the American Booksellers Association held a Booksellers Forum and Education Program in conjunction with the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA).

The ABA/Book Sense Lounge, Room 151 at the Washington Convention Center, will be the place for American Booksellers Association members attending this month's BookExpo America to learn about ABA products and services, as well as to meet with colleagues and check e-mail (courtesy of Booklog). Continuing the success of past years, the Lounge will also feature Book Sense Autographing sessions with some of independent booksellers' favorite authors.

The "American Booksellers Association, Inc. and Subsidiaries Consolidated Financial Statements and Schedules -- September 30, 2005 and 2004 (With Independent Auditors' Report Thereon)" are available to ABA bookstore members in PDF format on the association's trade site, BookWeb.org.

On Thursday, April 20, about 20 booksellers attended an American Booksellers Association Booksellers Forum and Education Program, held at the Holiday Inn Carrier Circle in Syracuse, New York. The event was held in conjunction with the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association's NAIBAhood Gathering and Shoptalk.

American Booksellers Association bookstore members are currently casting ballots to elect 2006 - 2007 ABA Board directors and to ratify the ABA Nominating Committee's choice of Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, for a first term as ABA president, and of Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, for a one-year term as vice president.

Ballots for the 2006 ABA Board of Directors elections must be postmarked by Monday, April 17, 2006, and returned in the postage-paid envelope addressed to the association's accountant, KPMG. Ballots received by KPMG after April 24 will not be counted.

On April 3, a partnership of six nonprofit publishers, the nation's largest book wholesaler, and a group of independent and chain bookstores, announced a plan to provide book lovers with an on-demand choice in format, similar to those available to consumers of music, film, and television.

American Booksellers Association Board of Directors ballots must be postmarked by April 17 and returned in a special postage-paid envelope to accountant KPMG by April 24.

Ballots for the 2006 ABA Board of Directors elections must be postmarked by Monday, April 17, 2006, and returned in the postage-paid envelope sent to ABA member booksellers in a mailing on March 20. Ballots received by the association's accountant, KPMG, after April 24 will not be counted.

The American Booksellers Association will honor longtime South Carolina independent booksellers and community leaders Betty and Rhett Jackson with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Celebration of Bookselling at this year's BookExpo America. The award will be presented to the Jacksons by fellow South Carolinian, and longtime friend, author Pat Conroy. The Jacksons opened their bookstore, The Happy Bookseller, in 1975 in Columbia, South Carolina.