How can community bookstores self-organize to help themselves?

Host:  Paul Wright

Participants: Betsy Weitzman, Jasmine Valandani, Kelly Stromberg, Malcolm Margolin, Nialle Sylvan, Paul Wright

Notes:

Is there an owner version of unionizing?

What about ABA and BinC? Why re-invent the wheel when wheels already exist? On the other hand, do these organizations really serve the kind of business needs booksellers at this event are talking about (e.g., real estate issues and more realistic access to capital)?

Bookstores can help one another with educational outreach to their communities (ideas for getting involved with ways to reach out to their communities) to demonstrate to communities what bookstores do for them, including how communities could benefit from community spaces in bookstores.

See bookstores as cultural institutions – organize non-profit entities (need help to do that)

Talk more about common issues – such as real estate – and share ideas for how to address them (by setting up community land trusts, for example)