The American Booksellers Association is now accepting nominations for spots on ABA's Children's Advisory Council, which serves as a sounding board and advisory council on issues facing the children's bookselling community and ABA.
Booksellers are invited to nominate themselves or another bookseller. Nominations are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on August 20, and will be reviewed that week by current Children's Council members. Five new members--one each from NEIBA, NAIBA, GLIBA, MIBA, and CALIBA--will be selected to fill the empty seats. Nominees will be informed of final decisions by August 25. The first Children's Council meeting with new members will take place on November 11, at 4 p.m. Eastern.
Children's Council 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 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," Bookselling This Week noted.
The Children's Council is looking to create a committee that is representative of different types of individual diversity, as well as diversity of region, store size, and format. A candidate for the committee:
- Is a full-time bookseller or bookstore owner at an ABA member bookstore (any format or model); ideally at least three members will be from children's-only stores
- Has not served on the Children's Council before
- Does not currently serve on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council or the Booksellers Advisory Council
- Is able to meet the time obligation and serve for two years
For more information about the committee, contact please reach out to the bookseller committee members collectively or individually; or ABA COO Joy Dallanegra-Sanger.