Email from Brad Graham to ABA Board, January 30

Email from Brad Graham to ABA Board
Sunday, January 30

It has been a privilege to serve on the ABA Board. Seeing up close the effort that Board directors and ABA staff consistently put into supporting our bookselling community has made me appreciate even more how fortunate we are to have such a great trade association. 

Particularly gratifying over the past year has been working together with all of you to accomplish a number of things, including authorizing more funds for a major upgrade of IndieCommerce, setting new social responsibility criteria for the ABA’s investment portfolio, reconciling the Association’s traditional support for freedom of expression with our new commitment to antiracism, equity, access, and representation, and adopting policy language that recognizes the role bookstore staff play in ensuring the sustainability of their stores. Additionally, the steps we have taken to revise the Board’s rules and procedures will provide a strengthened foundation for more effective governance. 

Now, with inaugural collective bargaining talks about to begin at Politics and Prose, I must turn my full attention to achieving productive contract negotiations. Other upcoming store projects also will require a good deal of my time. 

With regret, I therefore resign from the ABA Board. 

 Brad