NACS Recognizes VSU Bookstore Director

Tommye Miller, Valdosta State University Bookstore director and general manager, will be honored with the Order of the National Association of College Stores (NACS) Eagle Award at the annual NACS meeting and Campus Market Exposition in New Orleans on Feb. 27.

The Eagle Award, the NACS's highest honor, will be presented by the president of NACS, Peggy Falgien, director of the University of Wyoming Bookstore in Laramie, Wyo. Miller is being honored for her 29-year contribution to collegiate retailing. Within a year of accepting her first bookstore job as an associate bookstore manager at Valdosta State University, her alma mater for degrees in history and education, she joined her first NACS committee.

Since the mid 1970s, Miller has served on the NACS Board of Directors and several association committees, including education, finance and budget, long-range planning, and booksellers/publishers relations. Currently she is a member of the NACS Nominating Committee, and is actively involved with the Georgia Association of College Stores. Most recently Miller helped write questions for the new Certified Collegiate Retailer (CCR) exam.

Miller has been director of Valdosta State University Bookstore since 1985. She served as national president of the NACS, 1995-96, which represents 3000 college store members and more than 1500 associate members. She is recognized as an industry expert in college store management and has taught college store management techniques in the NACS Professional management programs as well as conducted management programs for the National Association of College Auxiliary Services.

?Working closely with NACS has enabled me to have a career, not just a job, and that subtly makes a big difference,? said Miller. Miller will be honored only a few months before she retires, but insists that retirement is just another way for her to do more work on behalf of college stores.

?None of us probably grew up dreaming of jobs in college bookstores because there is no real career path to these jobs. This industry has come a long way. So now I want to do more to help collegiate retailers learn to do what they do even better,? said Miller.

Miller will be the third woman presented the award since its inception in 1991. The presentation will occur prior to the second general session where former President Jimmy Carter is the scheduled speaker.