After three years in business, Sinclair Inlet Book Co. in Port Orchard is turning a new page.
The downtown bookstore is beginning the process of transitioning into a 501 (c)(3)nonprofit organization, a move owner and founder Terry Heath said has been under consideration for some time.
“I noticed not long after we opened three years ago that there were bookstores going that route or some hybrid model of that route,” Heath said. “So I considered it over the last few years and kind of saw what other stores are doing and just finally thought that’s really probably the best way for a bookstore in a small town to make more of an impact.”
The transition, Heath said, is about creating more opportunities for community involvement beyond simply selling books. He hopes the nonprofit status will allow the bookstore to enhance its outreach, especially in promoting literacy and providing greater access to literature for underserved populations.
“We hit our three-year mark and I thought, OK, now the store is established enough and I think it’s time to make the switch,” he said.
Despite the change in structure, the store’s day-to-day atmosphere will remain largely the same.
“Walking in from the street, you won’t really notice much difference at all,” Heath said. “But we are expanding the other things like the book clubs…and book swaps and trying to get more advanced and maybe bigger events that we might be able to do because of the nonprofit (status).”
Plans are underway for a fall children’s book drive, where he hopes to partner with local organizations to place a book in every holiday stocking and distribute gift cards to families that may not otherwise be able to afford books.
“Part of the mission statement is to increase accessibility to literature,” he said. “We’re not a library, but we’re still a bookstore. And now we’ll be able to have programs to get books to maybe underprivileged families or kids where we didn’t have that before.”
Funding for the nonprofit will come from a mix of sources, including book sales, community donations, grants and member support. As part of the transition, the bookstore has already established a membership program with 30 founding members and is actively recruiting board members.
“We have our nonprofit filed with the state so we had to have a minimal board for that,” Heath said. “But I’m trying to recruit to build that board, and then there’ll be a membership meeting I’m rescheduling for late September. I hope to have at least 100 founding members by then.”
From that meeting, two board members will be selected by the membership, with additional members appointed to fill out the board.
“I’m trying to get people for the board who are already kind of tied to the community, other organizations and different types of experience,” he said.
In the meantime, the store continues to grow its programming and book clubs. It has hosted a silent reading book club on Sunday mornings for about a year, and recently launched several new initiatives.
“We started a Jane Austen book club because this year is her 250th birthday,” he said. “We had our first meeting in May. We had like eight people, which was pretty good I thought, and so we’re building on that.”
New book clubs include a young adult genre club, which is kicking off with American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang in June, and a club focused on underrepresented voices. The book for that club this month is Maurice by E.M. Forster.
“I would love to have something that may draw people regionally if it’s a bigger author,” Heath said. “I mean, we have Debbie Macomber here, so you know, why can’t we? Why can’t we get somebody like her?”
For now, Heath is focused on meeting the goals for the nonprofit’s first phase.
“Success would be getting that group of founding members established, then from there, getting involved in committees. That’s the next stage.”
Sinclair Inlet Book Co. remains open to the public and continues to sell books and host events while the transition progresses.