Petition Process Underway for Additional Board Candidates

Under the American Booksellers Association’s Bylaws, any bookstore member may submit petitions to have the names of additional candidates for Board officers and/or directors added to the ballot for the upcoming Board of Directors election. Upon receipt of valid petitions, additional director candidates will be added to the ballot alongside the three candidates put forth by the ABA Nominating Committee and approved by the Board at its January meeting. Those candidates are:

• Kenny Brechner of Devaney, Doak and Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine
• Christine Onorati of WORD in Brooklyn, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey
• Tegan Tigani of Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle, Washington

Brechner and Onorati are coming to the end of their first three-year terms on the Board and are eligible for a second three-year term. Tigani was serving the unexpired period of what would have been ABA President Jamie Fiocco’s term as a Board member and is now eligible for a full term. All three are standing for election to three-year terms (2020–2023).

A ballot for the 2020 Board elections will be sent to ABA members via email at the beginning of April, 60 days prior to the Annual Membership Meeting. The ABA Membership Meeting will be held on May 28, 2020, at the Javits Convention Center during BookExpo. The ballot will include space for write-in candidates.

Under ABA Bylaws, any bookstore member may submit petitions to have the names of additional candidates for Board officers and/or directors added to the ballot. Should bookstore members wish to submit a petition, the following apply:

• 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 16, 2020, 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, 2020; that is a minimum of 37 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.
• Upon receipt of a valid petition, the candidate’s name will be added to the ballot sent to ABA membership.

Bookstore members who are working to circulate a petition are asked to contact Bookselling This Week for future coverage in the newsletter.

The members of this year’s Nominating Committee were Kelly Estep of Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky; Jenny Cohen of Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, Oregon; Michael Herrmann of Gibson’s Bookstore, in Concord, New Hampshire; Annie Jones of The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia; and Linda McLoughlin Figel, of {pages} a bookstore in Manhattan Beach, California.