This is part two of a three-part series. You can read Part 1 here.
Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, who bought Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C., nearly two years ago, have arguably made the most changes in the staff, creating several new positions at the director level and doing away with the general manager's position.
Muscatine praised the store's staff for being "very open minded and trying new things. They work so hard and are so good." Graham echoed her, adding, "We are fortunate at the depths of talent on staff."
The first major staff change occurred around the time of the store's sale, when the chief accounting person left. This gave the new owners a chance to "modernize and professionalize" the store's accounting, Muscatine said. "We're a big business, not a mom and pop, and our accounting requires a level of sophistication that wasn't needed when the store was founded." Ron Tucker, who is the store's longest-serving staff member and "knows everything about the store," Muscatine said, now heads the finance department. "He's the glue of the place."
Graham and Muscatine also eliminated the general manager's position because "we wanted to be hands-on ourselves and did not want another layer of management between us and the staff," Graham said. They appointed Adam Waterreus, who joined the store as a bookseller five years ago, to be director of operations, since the staff finds it helpful to have a single senior manager (a position fulfilled earlier by a "three-headed group," as Graham put it). Waterreus is responsible for day-to-day floor management as well as the remainders, children's and receiving departments.
Graham and Muscatine hired the store's first marketing director, Lacey Dunham. (In the past, Carla Cohen had been "the marketing force" for the store, Graham noted.) Dunham had worked at Politics and Prose under Cohen and Meade, then worked for a publisher in the Midwest. She had been planning to come back to the Washington area anyway--and wound up returning early for the new job at the store. "It was serendipity to get someone who has such energy and worked at a press and a bookstore," Muscatine said. "It's a huge, new job that she has had to define as she goes."
Among Dunham's responsibilities are putting together an ad budget and determining its effectiveness, something that had not been done in such a way before.
 |
|
| Trivia Night at Politics and Prose. | |
Another hire was author Susan Coll, who joined the staff as director of programs and events, with the goal of expanding classes and developing a program of trips. Politics and Prose is noted for its events, so many that "virtually every night there's something," Graham said. "And several on weekends, with the record being five." The events program had "maxed out," Graham said, "and we were turning away as many or more proposals than we accepted. It was frustrating."
So the owners and Coll have been working on finding additional venues for author talks as well as doing more with authors who come to the area for other events. (In a move that should make the author program even more attractive to some readers, Politics and Prose has obtained a liquor license allowing it to serve beer and wine at some author events, but not in its café.)
Coll has also expanded the amount of classes Politics and Prose puts on, up to 40-50 in the last 18 months. The classes range from bookstore standbys like classes on writing and on books to classes on Washington's "arboreal history," how to make photo books, conversational French and knitting. "The appetite for classes is pretty much insatiable," Muscatine said. "People want to have a place to talk about these things. There's a desire for engagement, community and interactions."
The store has revamped and expanded its program of international travel this year, sponsoring a trip to Italy as well as two visits to Paris that are "less literary, less structured and less pricey" than previous ones to the French capital, Muscatine said. The store also continues to add day trips. Destinations include Fallingwater, the home in Mill Run, Pa., designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; the Philadelphia Flower Show; and Washington Nationals baseball games.
Politics and Prose's lead IT person, "creative, hardworking and supertalented" Leeza Luncheon, came from the receiving staff, Muscatine said. Graham called her "phenomenal in technology and design." Her move occurred because before the change in ownership, Muscatine met individually with the staff and asked what else besides current work they were good at and interested in. Luncheon, the only woman in receiving at the time, had "a dream of moving into IT," Graham said.
With the sale, Sarah Baline continued as events coordinator, "hardly missing a beat." Other crucial people stayed on, too, including chief buyer Mark LaFramboise, "a genius at knowing what and how many to buy." He has also developed other buyers among staff members who are continuing in other jobs. Heidi Powell, who is "so good," stayed as children's manager. --John Mutter