ABA Announces 2022 Board Candidates

The petition process is now open, which means members may write in candidates to stand for election. Find more information below. 

The ABA Board of Directors met last week and approved the ABA Nominating Committee’s recommendation of two candidates to stand for election to three-year terms as directors on the ABA Board. The election will fill two vacancies: Current board member Kris Kleindienst’s second term is ending and current board member Michelle Malonzo will be leaving the board as she is reducing her hours at Changing Hands to a part-time role so she can work as Head of Operations at The Word, a Storytelling Sanctuary. 

Recommended to stand for election to three-year terms (2021-2024) are:

• Raquel Roque, Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL
• Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-op, Chicago, IL

Other directors on the current board are up for re-election:

• Jenny Cohen, Waucoma Books, Hood River, OR, is running for a second term.
• Cynthia Compton, 4 Kids Books & Toys, Zionsville, IN, who was appointed last year to take Bradley Graham’s seat when he became president and will run for the one year remaining in Bradley’s term.
• Michael Herrmann, Gibson’s Bookstore, Concord, NH, who was appointed last month after Kenny Brechner resigned and will run for the one year remaining in Kenny’s term.

Raquel Roque and Jeff Deutsch have not previously served on the ABA Board.

A ballot for the 2022 board elections will be sent to ABA members via email the week of March 11, 60 days prior to the Annual Membership Meeting; the deadline for return of the ballots will be April 10. The ballot will include space for write-in candidates. The new board of directors will be announced in BTW on April 13th. The virtual ABA Membership Meeting will be held on May 26, 2022, from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET. 

Under ABA Bylaws, any bookstore member may submit petitions to have the names of additional candidates for board officers and/or directors added to the ballot. Should bookstore members wish to submit a petition, the following apply:

• A candidate must be an employee or owner of an ABA member bookstore. The member bookstore must be in good standing, and the individual candidate must have at least three years’ experience in a bookstore-member company.
• Each petition can present only one candidate and, to be valid, must name a candidate who meets the qualifications for office established under the Bylaws.
• Booksellers who wish to petition to be put on the ballot should ask their supporters to email [email protected] with their endorsement of the petitioner; the supporters will then be asked to send their original signature to ABA by mail. Given recent delays with the U.S. Postal Service, petitioners are also asked to email Nominating Committee Chair Tegan Tigani to let her know that their petition is on the way.
• All original signatures must be postmarked by February 18, 2022, and mailed to the Chair, ABA Nominating Committee, c/o ABA, 333 Westchester Avenue, Suite S202, White Plains, New York 10604. 
• The names on the petition in support of the candidate must reflect at least two percent of ABA Bookstore Members as of January 1, 2022; that is a minimum of 38 signatures. The petition must contain original signatures and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of bookstore members in at least five states, with representatives of no one state constituting more than 50 percent of the total number of petition signatures.
• Upon receipt of a valid petition, the candidate’s name will be added to the ballot sent to ABA membership.

The ABA Board would like to thank this year’s Nominating Committee:

• Tegan Tigani, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, WA (chair)
• Jake Cumsky-Whitlock, Solid State Books, Washington, DC (vice-chair)
• Tina Ferguson, Face in a Book, El Dorado Hills, CA
• Kelsy April, Bank Square Books, Savoy Bookshop, and Title IX Books of Mystic, CT, Westerly, RI, and New London, CT
• VaLinda Miller, Turning Page Bookshop, Goose Creek, SC