Meet the Logistics Team Behind ABA Events

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In this installment of Bookselling This Week’s series of staff profiles, Jill Perlstein, ABA’s meetings and planning officer, and Maria Rodriguez, office administrative assistant, discuss their roles overseeing the logistics of travel, planning, accommodations, and room set-up for ABA events, ranging from the Winter Institute, Children’s Institute, and spring Booksellers Forums to ABA Board meetings and ABA’s presence at BookExpo America and the fall regional trade shows.


Office Administrative Assistant Maria Rodriguez and Meetings and Planning Officer Jill Perlstein

“I’m responsible for all the logistics that go on behind the scenes at our conferences and meetings,” including hotel accommodations, technology needs at the hotel, and transportation arrangements, said Perlstein. “I arrange anything that is needed with the hotel: beverages, food, and the meeting rooms. For bigger events such as the Winter and Children’s institutes, I also manage the hotel room block.

“While other ABA staff handle the education and content presented at the conferences, I am the one who communicates with the hotel on how to logistically pull off the event,” she added. “It’s basically coordinating all the details that go into making the meetings.”

Perlstein’s other major role is sourcing cities for ABA’s Winter and Children’s institutes and sending requests for proposals (RFPs) to ABA’s national hotel sales reps and appropriate convention and visitors bureaus.

“We have not decided yet where Children’s Institute 4 or Winter Institute 12 are going to be, so we’re in the process of looking at different cities,” Perlstein said. “I do the research and then share my findings with the other members of the ABA senior staff.”

Perlstein, who also has some office administrative responsibilities, started at ABA in 1994 in the Marketing Department working for Booksellers Order Service. During her 21 years with the association, she has also managed ABA’s gift card program and has been involved with various marketing campaigns to promote literacy and independent bookstores.

Perlstein, who has a business management degree, previously worked in radio syndication for DIR Broadcasting doing research and affiliate relations and in marketing and PR for Children’s Circle Home Video, which adapts children’s books such as Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.

“I’ve been on both sides of BEA,” Perlstein explained. “I’ve been an exhibitor [with Children’s Circle], and I’ve overseen ABA’s physical presence at the show. That includes coordinating with the Javits Convention Center on ABA’s Member Lounge and any meeting room space we need, as well as all the food.”

When it comes to her feelings about her job, Perlstein said she loves working for ABA and its member booksellers. “I feel so fortunate that I could go to any state in the U.S. and pick up the phone and call a bookseller, and they would be welcoming and willing to help. That is pretty special. You don’t usually get that with other companies. The booksellers are the reason I stay.”

Perlstein can be reached at (800) 637-0037, ext. 7542, or [email protected].

Maria Rodriguez, who joined the association in 2014, is ABA’s office administrative assistant, providing general support to ABA staff and the Membership and Marketing Department, as well as working on projects for the association’s meetings and events.

“What I do with Jill is completely new and is completely separate from my Membership Department duties,” said Rodriguez. “I basically assist Jill with all lodging, transportation, and catering that we put together for the events. Whatever she needs me to do, I do,”

Since joining ABA, Rodriguez has taken over all logistics and paperwork for the association’s spring Booksellers Forums and for ABA’s participation in the fall regional trade shows.

She also handles the shipment of all supplies and materials from the ABA office to events, including the regional trade shows, the ABA Member Lounge at BEA, and the Winter and Children’s institutes. For this aspect of her position at ABA, she draws on her previous experience as a production and logistics coordinator for Reader’s Digest, where she arranged freight shipments from printers to the publishing company’s warehouses.

“My job title doesn’t really explain what I do,” Rodriguez said, “but at Winter Institute last year, someone made the comparison to a Swiss Army Knife.”

“My favorite part of the job is meeting booksellers when I’m at the events,” she added. “I’m a people person.”

Learn more about Rodriquez’ role in ABA’s Membership and Marketing Department here.

Rodriguez can be reached at (800) 637-0037, ext. 7536, or [email protected].

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