ABA to Raise Dues

Effective January 1, 2001, the American Booksellers Association is increasing base membership dues 100% and raising other rates to a lesser degree. The increases, the first in six years, were announced by Avin Domnitz at the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association meeting in Denver last month. A letter and brochure from ABA president Neal Coonerty has also been sent to members and published in Bookselling This Week.

The issue is tricky because the association is one of the wealthiest in the country, with some $45 million in assets, including about $35 million in cash and securities. Much of the ABA's nest egg came from the sale of what is now called BookExpo America to Reed Elsevier. In the past, the leadership of the ABA has expressed a desire to protect the nest egg, although some have wondered about the policy.

The association took pains to make a case that members pay disproportionately low fees. The ABA collects only 12% of its revenues from membership dues compared to the average association's 41%, Domnitz said in Denver. With the increase, 20% of revenues will now come from dues. For the first time, the ABA will accept dues payments on an installment plan.

ABA membership dues are based on the store's volume of book sales. The base rate for stores making $50,000 and under had been $175. That base rate will increase 100% to $350. For stores with sales volume between $750,000 and $1.5 million, the rates will rise from a range of $479-$619 to $816- $1,097, or by 70.4%-77.3%.

In his letter to members, Coonerty wrote: "The ABA Board has evaluated current and future financial resources and feels strongly that ABA's ability to represent the interests of independent booksellers is in jeopardy." Noting that 42% of the organization's expenditures are in the area of advocacy, he pointed out that the expenses of such programs as legal battles and representing independent bookstores before governmental boards are not offset by any other income. (By contrast, the Book Sense program is on its way to becoming self-sufficient because of the support of booksellers and publishers.)

Among the advocacy issues the ABA has undertaken in the last five years are antitrust litigation against publishers and bookseller chains, opposition to B&N's purchase of Ingram and paying the majority of legal bills concerning First Amendment issues with bookstores (such as Kramerbook's legal battle over Ken Starr's subp na to get Monica Lewinsky's purchase records and Tattered Cover's current litigation with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency over customer records).

The reaction from ABA members with whom PW spoke was positive. As Lisa Knudsen, MPBA executive director, put it: "I understand that they need to increase dues because once our capital is gone, what will our source of income be?"

She added that she wished "more bookstores would join the ABA. People who don't get the ABA's newsletter don't know what they're missing. It's a catch-22. Because they don't know what the ABA is doing for all stores with their individual fights, they have no idea how their membership benefits everyone."