Now Accepting Nominations for ABA’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee (DEIC)

A huge thanks to DEIC members Candice Huber of Tubby & Coo’s Book Shop, Carolann Jane Duro of Quiet Quail Books, and Valeria Cerda of La Revo Books. We appreciate their many contributions during their tenure.

The ABA’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee (DEIC) serves as a sounding board and advisory council on issues related to antiracism, equity, access, and representation facing the bookselling community and ABA.

At this time, to ensure the council is as representative of membership as possible in terms of members’ racial identity, neurodiversity, disability, gender identity, and sexual identity and their stores’ format, size, and region, we are specifically looking for new members who identify in one or more of the following ways:

• Midwest bookseller or bookstore owner

• Bookseller or bookstore owner in California 

• Pop-up store bookseller or bookstore owner

• Bookseller or bookstore owner who identify as Latinx/Hispanic/Chicano/x

Booksellers are invited to nominate themselves or another bookseller!

Nominations are due by 11:59 pm ET on Friday, October 25, 2024 and will then be reviewed by current DEIC members and ABA staff who together will select the new members to fill the empty seats. 

The DEIC serves an important role in ABA’s DEI work and members have had a significant impact on that work. The DEIC has also proven to be a pipeline to the ABA Board in the past.

DEIC 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 diverse 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.

A candidate for the DEIC committee:

• Is a part-time or full-time bookseller or bookstore owner at an ABA member bookstore (any format or model)

• Identifies with a diverse identity as defined above

• Has not served on the DEIC before

• Does not currently serve on the ABA Bookseller Advisory Council (BAC) or Children’s Group Council

• Wants to help ABA support equity, inclusion, access, and representation for members and within the industry

• Is able to meet the time obligation (see below) and serve for two years

Nominees will be informed of final decisions by the end of November 2024. The first DEIC meeting with new members will take place in January 2025. Meetings are usually the first Monday of the month.

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, CFO PK Sindwani, CCO Ray Daniels, or Meetings and Planning Coordinator María Rodríguez.

The DEIC time commitment is generally 60 minutes a week on average, including:

• A 75- or 90-minute Zoom meeting beginning at 2:00 pm ET the first Monday of every month (Some months the schedule changes due to holidays and regional shows.)

• Occasional emails asking for feedback

• Occasional assistance hosting ABA’s BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, Disability, and Neurodiverse affinity groups on Zoom

• Occasional attendance at prep or preview sessions for ABA programming with external speakers

• Input and/or participation in ABA’s Winter Institute and Children’s Institute (offering feedback on programming, participating in a panel, etc.)

• Generally serving as a resource, contact, and ABA liaison in support of diverse communities within ABA

DEIC members are comped hotel, registration and airfare for Winter Institute each year they serve on the council, as well as for Children’s Institute if ABA’s budget supports it.

NOMINATE NOW.