From the President

Julie Fauble, who had previously been on the IOBA board and served as Treasurer of IOBA, was elected as president. Anne Poe Lehr in the new Vice President. Christine Volk, the current Secretary and acting Treasurer, was re-elected as Treasurer.

Jerry Blaz was re-elected as a Member at Large, and in addition, three new Members at Large were also elected: David Burdette, Maria Bustillos and Alyce Cresap.

The board will officially assume their duties on February 15th, but in the meantime, Sally Hollingsworth, the acting President, has been assisting the board with the transition.

I would like to express my thanks, and that of all IOBA members, to the outgoing officers and members, Jim Hart, Sally Hollingsworth and Patricia Ahearn, all of whom have served the IOBA since its start, with an incredible amount of energy and dedication and persistence, and who have been such an important part of getting the organization to the point it has reached.

Christine Volk, IOBA Secretary

President: Julie Fauble

IOBA’s official tagline is Promoting Excellence in Online Bookselling. I would like to see that tagline become much more visible over the next year because I think it encompasses the heart of IOBA. It means to me that IOBA is a symbol of trust, integrity and professionalism.

Consumers should know that when they see the IOBA mark, they can buy with confidence.

For dealers, IOBA membership should be a point of pride, a way to demonstrate that they are professionals committed to excellence and a code of ethics.

IOBA should be a place where dealers can turn for information and continuing education, a place to share with fellow dealers and pose questions and find reliable answers. In short, IOBA must be a place where dealers can find the tools for excellence.

As I go forward this year, I plan to use the tagline as a touchstone. As issues arise and ideas come forth, I will go back to that tagline and measure my response against the goal of excellence.

I look forward to the year ahead, look forward to new ideas, to getting things done, to getting to know more of our members, and to learning more about this world of books that I love. Most of all, I look forward to Promoting Excellence in Online Bookselling.

Julie Fauble

Vice President: Anne Poe Lehr

My introduction to IOBA came while I was perusing the Ahearns’ website. They had an icon for the Independent Online Booksellers Association. Since I had been perturbed by the lack of knowledge and teaching among “instant” booksellers on the web, I called and talked to Pat.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered a group dedicated to teaching and ethics. I immediately joined and Julie Fauble, our new president, who was then treasurer, said I could put the IOBA Book Standards on my http://www.poescousin.com site immediately. There they have remained, and I hope customers and booksellers read them. We used to see Standards every week in AB Bookman’s Weekly and I think it helped neophyte and old timers stick to the rules.

I want to see IOBA grow into a huge umbrella where booksellers can come home or start out with professional standards. I also want customers to know that buying from a member of IOBA means they will receive a book often better than described. Let’s coalesce around our Standards and Ethics this next year.

I am proud to be chosen as your new vice president and humbled by the trust placed in me.

Thank you.

Anne Poe Lehr

Treasurer: Chris Volk

My thanks to all those who voted for me as IOBA Treasurer. While I originally agreed to act as an interim treasurer last year, this year I decided to run for the position of Treasurer because I felt that I could make a greater contribution to IOBA in that capacity, since I have a background in finance and accounting. One of the problems with IOBA as a relatively new organization is that the procedures for running the association are still being established, and perhaps the greatest problem last year was the transition from one board to another,a transition made more difficult and less effective because of the unexpected resignations of some board members, and the turnover in committee chair positions. I hope – and expect – that this year will be one of much greater stability; I am really looking forward to working with the new board. Some of the changes and projects started last year will be very beneficial to IOBA: the only real problem is that so many of them were delayed for many months.

Specifically as treasurer, one of the things which I did last year was to obtain a debit/visa card for the bank account: this enabled me to simplify and automate payments for many of the regular expenses the association has (website, advertising, insurance.) I would like to continue working on establishing better procedures this year, and also begin work on a manual for the use of the treasurer so that transition to a new treasurer in the future will be a smooth and easy process.

Member At Large: David Burdette

It is a pleasure to have been elected as Member-at-Large for IOBA. I intend to be one of the voices of the general membership and present to the Board of Directors the desires and concerns of the membership.

My interest in IOBA became acute after having made several disappointing book purchases from individual “dealers” on the internet. The books were wrapped poorly, if at all, were not described accurately, or were shipped in an unprofessional manner. I believe that experiences like I had will discourage others from purchasing books from online dealers altogether. Thus, I decided to throw my hat into nomination for the IOBA Board as member-at-large, representing the IOBA membership. It will be one of my goals to encourage professionalism among the membership so that potential buyers will not hesitate to purchase a book listed by an IOBA member. I look forward to the challenge and to working with the membership and the Board of Directors.

David Burdette

Member At Large: Alyce Cresap

It was a pleasure to learn that I have been elected to serve on the IOBA board.

I look forward to being of service wherever and however I can, but especially in gaining greater recognition for our organization, recruiting new members, and helping to spread the word throughout the bookselling community about the importance of ethics in on-line bookselling.

Alyce Cresap

Member At Large: Maria Bustillos

I am honored to serve on the new IOBA board with a group of talented, brilliant and progressive colleagues. I believe that next year will find IOBA a strong organization with a unified voice, creating meaningful benefits for its members, and developing and helping to maintain professional standards throughout the online bookselling world.

Maria Bustillos

Member At Large: Jerry Blaz

This is my second term on the board. I helped in an area where I have little talent, on the financial committee, for the most part, but I have to believe that my contribution was a positive one. IOBA is one of the most important developments on the internet for online used and o.p. booksellers. Establishing its merit to both dealers and to consumers is my ultimate goal in accepting this second term on the IOBA board. I hope this goal is shared by my fellow board members, officers and members.

We, my wife Rose and I, have been had an open shop since 1975, and I have been on the internet since 1995. Now, in 2002, we find ourselves selling our books in a dynamic environment on the internet. We can see the trends which will increase our costs of doing business while the numbers of dealers finding their way to the internet have turned our pricing system into a Dutch auction.

In such an environment, people are tempted to take shortcuts. Inflating condition is one of the easiest, and this will be an area of concern. We will be hard pressed to know which database website is the best, and so I believe that one of the key duties IOBA should set for itself in the coming year is the ascertainment of what is going on in the various database sites by calling on them to present their figures periodically, so we can tell which is the place to display our books. Our ultimate goal in this area should be getting the figures audited.

Jerry Blaz

Report from the President

Jim Hart
Sep 6, 2001
3 min read

Seven months ago the current board and officers took office, filled with enthusiasm, energy, and big ideas. How have we done so far?

If this were a college course, our grade would probably be incomplete. Things have not gone as smoothly or as quickly as we planned, but progress has been made and continues.

Summers are historically the slow season in our business. Sales drop off, booksellers plan and take vacations, buying trips, etc. This summer the normal slowdown was exacerbated by a simultaneous slowdown in the general economy. IOBA’s board, like many of our members, were involved in many planned summer activities. Things slowed to a crawl around here also.

Summer is over! (I know, the calendar says there are three weeks left, but I have five grown children and seven grandchildren. For almost thirty years I’ve marked the seasons by listening to school bells.) It is time to get on with business.

Several lingering IOBA projects need resolution. The ABE powered search engine was to have been activated by now. Our board member handling this, Len Lanfranco, has had a few health problems that have slowed him down some this summer, and this has slowed our completion of the search engine project. I am hopeful that we will be able to move forward with this project within days.

The web site overhaul has run way past its estimated completion date. This is my responsibility. Shortly after I undertook this I had personal and business emergencies arise that required dedicated attention. I have continued to work on the site project, but have not made as much progress as I had planned.

While the other issues have not been completely resolved, I have been able to adjust my schedule and will be devoting significant time to complete this undertaking. While the new features have not been implemented, we have updated the members sections of the site, and your business data should be correct.

We have also had several open or interim committee chairs on our board. I have requested board approval of nominees for two of these positions and plan to nominate one more new member within the next week. As soon as the board acts on my request we will make a public announcement of the new board members.

There are still many items I would like to see accomplished before this year is over. I have proposed a set of revisions to our Bylaws Committee. If the committee acts on these they will be presented to the board for further action. I will post a separate note to the members list within the next few days with more details on these proposals and the reasoning behind them.

You have seen the notices on the member’s list regarding the seminar being organized by Bob Erwin and hosted by Vic Zoschak. Our hope is to make this the first of a series of training seminars. We have also begun exploring making these seminars the basis for a series of on-line courses on bookselling. If you have the opportunity to attend this first seminar, please do so. It promises to be rewarding and fun.

This note is running long, and I’m two days past the date I promised Shirley I would turn it in, so I’ll wrap up now.

More than ever, I believe IOBA is needed in this market. Our members are not a homogenous group. We are different in age, experience, business plans, and goals. Often we voice our disagreements publicly. Still, if I order a book from you, or Pat Ahearn, or Julie Fauble, or Alyce Cresap, or Rae Benedetto, or Michael Slosberg, or any of the other members of IOBA, I have confidence that my order will be handled professionally, that the books will be just as they were described, and that if a mistake was made on the order, any one of these booksellers will efficiently and politely take the actions need to correct the problem.

Let’s let the rest of the book buying public know about us.

Until next time, I wish you only the best.

Jim (Hart)