Now Accepting Nominations for ABA’s Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC)

We are now opening nominations for four open spots on ABA’s Booksellers Advisory Council, which serves as a sounding board and advisory council on issues facing the bookselling community and ABA.

Booksellers are invited to nominate themselves.

Nominations are due by 11:59 pm ET on May 30, 2022 and will be reviewed that week by current BAC members and ABA staff who together will select four new members (one each from MIBA, NAIBA, MPIBA and SIBA) to fill the empty seats. The BAC serves an important role in ABA’s work. The BAC has also proven to be a pipeline to the ABA Board: Eight current ABA Board members served on the BAC — Kelly Estep from Carmichael’s Books, Tegan Tigani from Queen Anne Book Company, Jenny Cohen from Waucoma Bookstore, Michael Herrmann from Gibson’s Bookstore, Cynthia Compton from 4 Kids Books & Toys, Danny Caine from Raven Bookstore, Jake Cumsky-Whitlock from Solid State Books, and Kris Kleindeinst from Left Bank Books. Incoming Board member Jeff Deutsch from The Seminary Co-op & 57th Street Books also served on the BAC.

BAC members provide feedback about ABA programs and services as they are being developed; offer suggestions to help ABA improve programs and services to better serve the bookselling communities; help identify and respond to emerging threats and opportunities related to antiracism, equity, representation, and access in the industry; bring concerns of booksellers and bookstore owners to the ABA staff and Board; and generally assist ABA.

According to the ABA Governance Policy Manual:

“The overall mission of the ABA Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) is: (1) To provide feedback about ABA programs and services. To share the experiences and needs of their businesses; (2) To review existing ABA programs and services and to make recommendations to the ABA staff and Board of Directors as to how these programs and services can be made more effective; (3) To serve as a sounding board on issues facing the bookselling community; (4) To help ensure that the ABA staff and Board of Directors are receiving maximum input from a wide range of diverse stores; (5) To actively participate in the Association’s ongoing planning process; (6) To help identify and respond to emerging threats and opportunities; and (7) To bring information and concerns of booksellers to the ABA staff and Board.”

The BAC is looking for individuals who represent different diverse identities. ABA is looking to create a committee as a whole that is representative of different types of individual diversity, as well as diversity of region, store size, and format.

A candidate for the BAC committee:

• Is a full-time bookseller or bookstore owner at an ABA member bookstore (any format or model)
• Has not served on the BAC before
• Does not currently serve on the Diversity, Equity Inclusion Committee (DEIC) or the ABC Advisory Council
• Is able to meet the time obligation (see below) and serve for two years
   

Nominees will be informed of final decisions by June 17, 2022. The first BAC meeting with new members will take place Wednesday, August 24, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET.

The BAC time commitment varies as outlined below:

• Input and/or participation in ABA’s Winter Institute and Children’s Institute (offering feedback on programming, and/or participating in a panel)
• Occasional attendance at prep or preview sessions for ABA programming with external speakers
• Occasional emails asking for feedback
• Four quarterly 90-minute Zoom meetings
• Potential in-person meeting once a year, in conjunction with a designated ABA event and paid for by ABA (when this occurs, it replaces one of the quarterly Zoom calls)
   

For more information about the committee, please reach out to bookseller committee members collectively or individually, or contact ABA staff committee members CEO Allison Hill or COO Joy Dallanegra-Sanger.