The Store & Operations Management Module of the Professional Bookseller Certification Program of the Professional Bookseller School, Inc., which starts on January 13, 2022, is now open for registration.
The course will be hosted on Thursdays, 6-7:30 p.m. Eastern, from January 13 through May 26. The fee for the course is $250, due with registration. Some regional associations have pledged scholarships to their members who complete the course successfully. This class is limited to 40 booksellers. Once this class begins, there are no fee refunds.
The module is designed to cover all of the day-to-day and long term operational and other business-related needs of an independent bookstore, considering both the high level management topics and the daily tasks assigned to individual booksellers. Store examples and company tutorials will provide opportunities for learning, comparison and implementation within each student’s store. A mix of webinars, trainings, handouts and assignments will be used to create store resources and systems for real-time applications. See the syllabus here.
Instructors for this module are Glenda Childs, owner of the Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown Pa., and the Lahaska Bookshop in Peddler's Village; Anna Thorn, a bookstore consultant located in Washington, D.C.; Candice Huber, owner of Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Book Shop, New Orleans, La.; Tim Smith, operations manager for Schuler Books, with three stores in Michigan, and Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor; Nick Buzanski, general manager and book buyer at Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, N.Y.; and DeAndra Beard, owner/chief book curator/lead creative at Beyond Barcodes Bookstore, Kokomo, Ind.
Participants must have a current membership with the American Booksellers Association and/or their regional booksellers association. Preference is given to participants who are employed by or who own a retail bookstore (this includes a mobile or pop-up shop) that has been in existence for at least one year. Others may apply and will be considered on an individual basis.