Friday Deadline for ABA Board Candidate Petitions

Tomorrow, March 20, is the deadline for petitions in support of additional candidates for Board officers and/or directors to be submitted to the American Booksellers Association’s Nominating Committee.

Under ABA’s Bylaws, any bookstore member may submit petitions to have the names of additional candidates added to the ballot for the 2015–16 Board of Directors elections. Upon receipt of valid petitions, the candidates’ names will be added to the ballot alongside the director and board officer candidates announced by the Board in February.

The following applies to petitions in support of additional candidates:

• 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.
• All petitions must be submitted by March 20, 2015, 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, 2015; that is a minimum of 25 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.

The ballot for the 2015 Board elections will be sent to ABA members via e-mail by the end of March, 60 days prior to the Annual Membership Meeting, to be held at the Javits Convention Center during BookExpo America. The ballot will include space for write-in candidates.