A Report on ABA's 2008 Spring Board Meeting

The American Booksellers Association Board of Directors and senior staff met at the 2008 Hotel ABA, the Renaissance Hollywood, on Tuesday, May 27, and Wednesday, May 28, prior to the start of BookExpo America.

Over the course of the two days, the Board and staff:

• Heard a report from outgoing ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, about his activities on behalf of the association;
  
  
• Received a report on ABA programs and initiatives from ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz;
  
  
• Reviewed the ABA Board election results, certified by the association's auditors, Marks Paneth & Shron LLP: Candidates chosen by ABA members to serve as directors, with terms ending in 2011, are Dan Chartrand of Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, New Hampshire; Ken White of SFSU Bookstore in San Francisco; and Michael Tucker of Books Inc. (who begins a second three-year term). Membership also ratified the Board's choices of Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, to serve a one-year term as ABA president and Books Inc.'s Tucker to serve a one-year term as vice president/secretary;
  
  
• Received a report from the chair of the 2007 - 2008 Nominating Committee, Beth Puffer of Bank Street Bookstore in New York City, detailing the committee's guidelines and procedures, which will be considered for adoption by the Board at its July meeting;
  
  
• Received a comprehensive report from Chief Marketing Officer Meg Smith on the implementation of ABA's new IndieBound initiative and resources now available to members via BookWeb.org;
  
  
• Spent a considerable amount of time reviewing ABA's investment portfolio with William King of Merrill Lynch and found that the association's investment policy is serving ABA well despite the general downturn in the investment environment;
• Heard a report from ABA legal counsel Deanne Ottaviano of Arent Fox LLP regarding the successful resolution of the civil action brought by the Rev. Herman Douglas, Sr., against a number of ABA member stores in connection with a copyright infringement case involving the Rev. Joel Osteen, his publisher, distributors, and retailers;
  
  
• Adopted the following policy regarding ABA's efforts to ensure the equitable collection of sales tax on online purchases:
  
  Whereas the American Booksellers Association strongly prefers a federal solution to the equitable collection of sales tax for online purchases, and, toward that end, continues to support, and, asks ABA members to support, the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, the Board agrees that, in lieu of a national solution, it also supports a sales tax solution similar to the one adopted in New York State, where an out-of-state retailer is required to collect and remit sales tax for purchases made by in-state residents when said out-of-state retailer has a warehouse, office, or sales agent in the state; or when the out-of-state retailer has affiliate relationships in the state and has more than $10,000 in annual aggregate sales in that state.
  
  
• Reviewed ABA's Ends Policies for their continuing appropriateness and accuracy, and concluded that is still the case;
  
  
• Heard a report on the imminent BookExpo America trade show from ABA COO Oren Teicher, who noted that, despite slightly lower registration figures overall, ABA member attendance remained strong;
  
  
• Expressed thanks and appreciation for the work of its two outgoing members: President Russ Lawrence and Collette Morgan of Minneapolis' Wild Rumpus;
  
  
• Convened the 2008 - 2009 ABA Board, with Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore as president, and approved Steve Bercu of Austin's BookPeople as chair of the 2008 - 2009 Nominating Committee;
  
  
• Received copies of the ABA Conflict of Interest Statement and Board Evaluation Form