Meet Your Board Candidate: Courtney Ulrich Smith
COURTNEY ULRICH SMITH
Courtney Ulrich Smith is an Arkansas-based small-business owner and non-profit founder. Her bookstore, Underbrush Books, is a genre-focused, queer-centric bookstore in the heart of historic downtown Rogers, AR. She's passionate about building communities and building relationships with readers and writers.
Interview:
Why do you want to serve on the SIBA Board?
There are so many lived experiences across our membership. I am fairly new to the industry, having only been a bookstore owner for 5 years, and am passionate about helping other new/first-time owners solve the same problems I faced. I'm particularly passionate about representing my state, Arkansas, which has an incredible number of bookstores, and faces a vast number of challenges within the industry and without.
What do you think are the most important challenges facing independent bookstores in the SIBA region?
Our world, and the technology with it, are changing at an unprecedented rate. It can be hard to navigate those changes, stay competitive with rapidly growing giants, and stay true to our morals and beliefs as book folks. This is not something we can just ignore, as the gaps will only grow wider. I believe my background in both software development and venture capital provides me with a unique lens to our industry and the way that new and legacy bookstores can be thinking about changes in customer behavior and industry innovation.
What do you think are the most important priorities for the SIBA organization?
To support our bookstores and booksellers in whatever ways they need. As mentioned earlier, no bookstore journey is the same, and therefore it is nearly impossible to highlight one single issue that is more important than another. It is SIBA's job to listen to our stores, understand their problems, and meet them where they are at to build solutions that make our region stronger.