Comments on: Conferences and revenue

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:15:20 +0000

Griffey, every member is entitled to ALA budget information. Why not ask for the real budget info? I find your argument interesting but because the numbers are speculative just not all that compelling.

ALA's conference fees are far too low, and they are just barely gaining revenue from the conferences. Don't forget the conferences are the only real revenue stream. Membership is a wash, and publishing is in the terlet.

That said, your conclusions are excellent. Conference material can be monetized and plowed back into the association.

In my book the real problem is that a lot of ALA policy revolves around keeping Midwinter alive. There's no reason for Midwinter to exist, but if it doesn't exist, that's a lot of money. And of course we have conference contracts for five or so years into the future predicated on doing things as we've always done them.

By: Aaron the Librarian » Cogitating about Conference Costs

Aaron the Librarian » Cogitating about Conference Costs — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:47:10 +0000

[...] ALA’s conference finances in a revenue-neutral way? Feel free to blog it somewhere (Jason did a long while back) or post your thoughts to the Improve ALA wiki at: [...]

By: Meredith

Meredith — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:03:49 +0000

Jason, you can find financials here http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/annualreport/financials/financials.htm#audited

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:37:00 +0000

Ahhhhh, I seem to be wrong that every member can get their hands on this info:

” 8.4 Council Receipt of ALA Budgets. Councilors will be provided with summary sheets of the ALA annual budget, with the understanding that any Councilor will receive the full budget upon request.”

So maybe you need a friendly councilor. It’s not classified information… but like any budget it isn’t easily interpreted, so I can understand the hesitation in not just putting it out there. I wonder what the BARC web page offers?

By: Changing ALA: a meeting is a meeting, except when it’s not

Changing ALA: a meeting is a meeting, except when it’s not — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:48:06 +0000

[...] Jason Griffey takes an interesting stab at reverse-engineering Midwinter costs and revenue; I think he needs better budget data, but it’s a good start at tackling the premise that ALA [...]

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:09:11 +0000

ALA’s conference fees are far too low, and they are just barely gaining revenue from the conferences. Don’t forget the conferences are the only real revenue stream. Membership is a wash, and publishing is in the terlet.

That said, your conclusions are excellent. Conference material can be monetized and plowed back into the association.

In my book the real problem is that a lot of ALA policy revolves around keeping Midwinter alive. There’s no reason for Midwinter to exist, but if it doesn’t exist, that’s a lot of money. And of course we have conference contracts for five or so years into the future predicated on doing things as we’ve always done them.

By: My Personal Blog » Conferences and revenue

My Personal Blog » Conferences and revenue — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:16:28 +0000

[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptConferences and revenue Jason Griffey Library Issues ALA, bigwigshowcase07, conference, library2.0 [IMG bigwig logo.png]After thinking a bit more on the conference issue, and reflecting on discussions I had with Michelle Boule at Internet Librarian, there’s another piece to the revenue puzzle that is worth considering. Warning: more numbers ahead. Let’s assume, for a moment, that everyone going to ALA Annual preregisters. Not true, but we’re looking for rough numbers here. Pre-reg pricing [...]