Mission Statement

The Mission of the New England Independent Booksellers Association is to further the success of professional independent booksellers in New England and to foster a vital and supportive bookselling community.

Strategic Directions

Strategic Direction #1

NEIBA will help increase member competitiveness, profitability, and success by building on the collective strengths of its membership.

Strategic Direction #2

NEIBA will adapt its activities and services continuously to meet the changing needs of its members by intensively working with industry partners to monitor and anticipate trends affecting the book industry.

Strategic Direction #3

NEIBA will assist booksellers' efforts in their own communities to shift consumer culture toward supporting locally-owned businesses.

Strategic Direction #1

NEIBA will help increase member competitiveness, profitability, and success by building on the collective strengths of its membership.

Objective 1A

Use the strengths of NEIBA members to bring business assistance directly into individual stores in order to help stores identify and attain the services, systems, and tools they need to operate profitable bookstores.

Strategy 1A-1: Develop expanded member profiles, thereby enabling stores to indicate areas in which they need, would like, or could offer assistance.

Strategy 1A-2: Establish a NEIBA program for in-store peer review, utilizing the experience and expertise of fellow booksellers. Encourage members to use the program to improve operations in their own stores and to join in helping others to do the same - stressing that this program can and will help all types of stores.

Develop a model for effective reciprocal store visits and train booksellers in its use. Develop post-visit evaluations, data tracking/monitoring, and other appropriate program oversight.

Use the feedback from peer reviews to recommend specific follow-up action to be taken by the bookseller with NEIBA staff, the appropriate "Book Doctor," or other booksellers or consultants with expertise in the problem area(s) identified.

Strategy 1A-3: Find new opportunities for booksellers to share expertise, experiences, and strategies for success; for example, investigate a program for stores to swap an employee for a day.

Objective 1B

Make education more accessible to members by supporting existing educational programs, creating new ones, and developing innovative delivery methods.

Strategy 1B-1: Assess the needs of the membership in the area of education.

Use the expanded member profiles to identify needed programs.

- Survey the members to gain further information for designing future programming.

Strategy 1B-2: Evaluate educational programs developed by other organizations, and make the best of these programs available to NEIBA members.

Identify and review programming developed by ABA, other regional and national associations, and others in the industry, using booksellers as well as NEIBA staff.

Evaluate programs of NEIBA specialty groups, primarily NECBA, for their usefulness to the general membership, and make them available when appropriate.

Strategy 1B-3: Revitalize educational formats at the Trade Show, and develop other more focused formats.

- Investigate Trade Show seminars geared to store size, booksellers' level of knowledge, or length of time in the business.

Develop stand-alone formats such as spring meetings, seminars, and workshops.

- Investigate possibilities for scholarships to attend stand-alone educational offerings.

Strategy 1B-4: Bring more education and information to member regions and stores.

Develop the Shop Talk model with an education component.

Send educational material to stores for their use internally.

Design half-day programs for front-line booksellers, owners, and managers that can be presented around the region.

Promote the gathering of affinity groups within the book retailing industry (i.e., emerging leaders, used stores, college stores, small stores, etc.).

Strategy 1B-5: Reinvigorate the "Book Doctors" program so that it is more useful and more widely used. Create new ways to disseminate the knowledge of the "Book Doctors" to members beyond one-to-one consultation.

Objective 1C

Identify services and service providers that will aid booksellers in the day-to-day operation of their businesses.

Strategy 1C-1: Institute NEIBA staff visits to stores.

Strategy 1C-2: Identify common needs among booksellers and determine means to address them, including finding, recommending, or hiring appropriate consultants.

Strategy 1C-3: Investigate possibilities for sharing the costs of services that many members might use.

Strategy 1C-4: Make the core membership more aware of the availability and willingness of NEIBA staff to help direct them in their problem solving. Make the NEIBA office every bookseller's first line of defense.

Strategy 1C-5: Continue to communicate regularly with other regional organizations and ABA, with an eye toward finding tools and services that may be beneficial to NEIBA members.

Objective 1D

Make Internet use an integral part of the NEIBA community, utilizing the technology to increase and enhance communication and networking among members.

Strategy 1D-1: Provide more frequent e-communication to members by creating a monthly electronic newsletter in addition to the existing listserv.

Strategy 1D-2: Explore new ways to expand booksellers' networking opportunities.

Create customized listservs for specific interest groups, i.e. buyers, marketers, bloggers, college stores, etc.

Develop an on-line bulletin/message board for member use.

Strategy 1D-3: Continuously refresh, enhance, and update the NEIBA website, and re-launch the enhanced site with fanfare.

Encourage members to visit often and/or use the NEIBA website as their Internet homepage, by including frequently changed news items, timely industry information, and interesting links to other sites.

Create a "Frequently Asked Questions" section on the website, and archive queries and responses about industry issues so that they are searchable.

Increase the number of links to industry resources on the site.

Make templates for a variety of uses available to be downloaded.

Make various forms that stores use available to be downloaded.

Strategy 1D-4: Encourage members to use the Internet to improve communication, education, and their businesses.

Strategy 1D-5: Make information readily accessible for prospective booksellers on the NEIBA website and continue to consult with people interested in becoming independent booksellers.

Strategic Direction #2

NEIBA will continuously adapt its activities and services to meet the changing needs of its members by intensively working with industry partners to monitor and anticipate trends affecting the book industry.

Objectives & Strategies

Objective 2A

Renew and refresh the Trade Show to insure that it meets the current needs of all stakeholders - booksellers, vendors, publishers, sales reps, and authors - by launching immediate, continuous, intensive, and extensive consultation processes.

Strategy 2A-1: Take strong, creative action to assess the effectiveness of the current Trade Show (2006), and create an effective plan for the next Trade Show (2007). See below for Trade Show Action Plan for 2006.

Strategy 2A-2: Develop a mechanism for ongoing assessment of the NEIBA Trade Show to continuously improve and strengthen it in the coming years.

Trade Show Action Plan for 2006

• Solicit ideas from NECBA members about improvements in children's programming and activities. (2/06 and ongoing)
  
• Form three task forces of booksellers, publishers, and sales reps at the Advisory Council to brainstorm changes in the trade show (2/06).
  
• Review NECBA ideas and Advisory Council task force suggestions at next Board meeting, adopt those to be implemented in 2006, and identify others to implement in future years (3/06).
  

Specific actions taken for 2006 include:

• Shorten Sunday exhibit hours by one-half hour.
  
• Permit and promote autographings at booths on Sunday.
  
• Maintain educational programming at same levels as past years on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.
  
• Institute opportunity on floor for alternating half-hour sales rep presentations with half-hour slots for combination readings and signings.
  
• Announce raffle winners on floor and require that winners be present.
  
• Hold Grand Prize raffle for $1,000 on Sunday for winner who is present.
  
• Charge an Advisory Council committee of booksellers, reps, and publishers with reviewing trade show operations for 2006 (4/06).
  
• Survey attendees, non-attendees, and exhibitors to obtain their suggestions for improving the show, including questions about programming, time and location, floor activities and layout, hours, and services and ambience (5/06).
  
• Devote Advisory Council to discussion of survey results (6/06).
  
• Review survey results and Advisory Council notes at next Board meeting to adopt those that should be implemented in 2006 and identify others to be implemented in future years (7/06).
  
• Ask exhibitors and attendees to evaluate 2006 trade show and ask members who did not attend why they did not (9/06).
  
• Convene an on-going multi-constituency task force of all stakeholders to recommend further changes in the trade show and to formulate additional strategies for continuously taking a fresh view of the show (10/06).

Objective 2B

Revamp and reposition the Holiday Catalog to enhance its value to booksellers and publishers.

Strategy 2B-1: Form a task force at the Advisory Council to brainstorm changes in the catalog.

Strategy 2B-2: Review Advisory Council task force suggestions for the catalog at next Board meeting, and adopt those that can and should be implemented in 2006 and identify others that should be implemented in future years.

See below for Holiday Catalog Action Plan for 2006.

Strategy 2B-3: Convene an ongoing multi-constituency task force of all stakeholders to recommend further changes in the catalog in future years and to formulate additional strategies for continuously taking a fresh view of the catalog.

Holiday Catalog Action Plan for 2006

• Eliminate title jackets on cover of catalog to encourage store participation and to concentrate on a cover message that books are great gifts and independent bookstore are where to find them.
  
• Eliminate store charges for imprinting on front and/or back of catalog.
  
• Replace half-page on back of catalog in media versions (now devoted to New England Book Awards) with half-page message promoting independent bookstores.
  
• Provide stores with greater quantity of free catalogs upon request.
  
• Phase in a new distribution system in which stores and NEIBA share equally in costs of media placement in media selected by stores rather than by NEIBA.
  
• Issue RFPs for designer of catalog (3/06).
  
• Form holiday catalog bookseller advisory committee (4/06).
  
• Ask advertisers and booksellers to evaluate the 2006 holiday catalog and ask publishers and bookstores that did not participate in catalog promotion why not (12/06).
  
• Issue RFPs for catalog printer (1/07).

Objective 2C

Engage comprehensively with industry partners to monitor and anticipate book industry trends and assess their change implications for NEIBA's programs and services

Strategy 2C-1: Consult and partner with Book Publishers Representatives of New England (BPRNE) throughout the strategic planning process and thereafter. Establish a task force with members from both organizations to identify ways to strengthen the relationships and to develop collaborative programs to accomplish the shared objectives of each organization.

Strategy 2C-2: Work with national and other regional bookseller associations:

• Closely collaborate with ABA and other regionals (ongoing).
  
• Build a relationship with Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC).
  
• Establish a relationship with National Association of College Stores (NACS).

Strategy 2C-3: Collect industry information from associations, industry partners, Book Industry Study Group (BISG), book industry publications, and general business media, and disseminate the latest information about technology and industry trends to the membership.

Strategy 2C-4: Continue to support the work of the New England Children's Booksellers Advisory Council (NECBA).

• Host NECBA meetings.
  
• Consult NECBA on children's programming at the trade show.
  
• Produce NECBA brochure to promote participating stores for author appearances.
  
• Facilitate annual Spring and Fall Review Projects of the season's best middle-grade and young-adult fiction.

Strategy 2C-5: Encourage and support bookseller visits to publishers.

Objective 2D

Create opportunities for information-sharing, environmental scanning, and alliance building within the independent business community.

Strategy 2D-1: Establish relationships with independent business federations in each New England state.

Objective 2E

Collaborate with publishers and wholesalers to raise consumer awareness of books, authors, and independent bookstores, using a variety of approaches.

Strategy 2E-1: Further "readaround.com" by assisting stores in data entry, engaging in a marketing and publicity campaign to media and the travel industry, and instituting regular communication of New England bookstore event lists to regional media and travel industry.

Strategy 2E-2: Strengthen New England Book Awards by such things as redesigning poster and mailing to member stores posters and a press release template.

Strategy 2E-3: Consider reviving and repositioning the Discovery Program.

Strategy 2E-4: Consider implementing a regional "advance access" program.

Strategy 2E-5: Promote reading and literacy by facilitating members' participation in programs such as Get Caught Reading and National Children's Book Week, and by continuing to tie award grants (New England Book Awards, Presidential Award, and Gilman Award) to literacy groups and collecting donations for literacy at autographings and from publishers at trade shows.

Strategic Direction #3

NEIBA will assist booksellers' efforts in their own communities to shift consumer culture toward supporting locally-owned businesses.

Objectives & Strategies

Objective 3A

Help booksellers raise consumer awareness of the benefits of supporting local independent businesses.

Strategy 3A-1: Become a member of the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) and the Business Alliance of Local, Living Economies (BALLE). Work with them, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), ABA and others to continue bookseller education on the value of local independent businesses and how to convey this value to consumers.

Strategy 3A-2: Create education sessions at the Trade Show and in specific communities and regionally with ABA, AIBA, BALLE, ILSR, and other groups that detail the benefits local independent business alliances can provide to member bookstores and their communities. Offer instruction on how to enlist the cooperation of local governmental and special-interest organizations.

Strategy 3A-3: Assist booksellers in forming local independent business alliances in their region, developing approaches and models that other booksellers can use in their own communities.

• Provide information, talking points, approaches, and materials that will educate booksellers and their communities--local business leaders, school administrators, other public officials and institutions, and consumers-- about the value of shopping locally.
• Develop templates (for press releases, posters, flyers, ad copy, etc.) to use in local media, e-mails, newsletters, websites, and other forms of communication.
• Provide member bookstores with information from other independent business alliances on their efforts to establish and maintain their organizations.
• Provide small grants (not to exceed $2,500) to developing or established local independent business alliances (that include member bookstores), strengthening their efforts in ways that can be replicated by other member stores.
• Recruit and encourage booksellers to make specific efforts in their locale using these strategies.
• Aid bookseller efforts to increase local, out-of-store-sales (business-to-business, working with schools, one-time collaborative events with other organizations, etc.).
• Create a program that facilitates and provides incentives for sharing ideas and materials among bookstores to use in building community partnerships and maintaining visibility in local affairs.

Strategic Planning Committee

Judy Crosby
Island Books
Middletown, RI
(401) 849-2665, judycrosby@islandbooksri.com

Mitch Gaslin
Food for Thought Books
Amherst, MA
(413) 253-5432, mitch@foodforthoughtbooks.com

Tom Holbrook
RiverRun Bookstore
Portsmouth, NH
(603) 431-2100, tomholbrook@earthlink.net

Carole Horne
Harvard Bookstore
Cambridge, MA
(617) 547-7405 ext. 3, chorne@harvard.com

Fran Keilty
Hickory Stick Bookshop
Washington Depot, CT
(860) 868-0525, books@hickorystickbookshop.com

Chris Morrow
Northshire Bookshop
Manchester Center, VT
(802) 362-3565 ext 120, cmorrow@northshire.com

Susan Novotny
Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza
Albany, NY
(518) 489-4761, susan@bhny.com

Allan Schmid
Books, Etc.
Portland, ME
(207) 774-0626, leaf@gwi.net

Terri Schmitz
Children's Book Shop
Brookline, MA
(617) 734-7323, childrensbookshop@erols.com

Ralph Woodward
Retired Independent Sales Representative
Framingham, MA
(508) 877-5328, NAIPR@aol.com

 

Consultant:

Elaine Kuttner
CambridgeConcord Associates
Cambridge, MA
(617) 864-9400, ekuttner@cambridgeconcord.com