I have to say that as long as Midwinter is still bringing in well over half a million dollars in revenue to support the activities of ALA (as reported by Susan Hildreth, ALA Treasurer), many of which are, by nature, not able to be self-sustaining, I can't understand any move to eliminate the conference altogether. I do understand that if there is an ongoing trend toward smaller attendance, fewer exhibitors, etc., then this trend needs to be addressed before the conference slides into non-profitability. But it seems like tweaking things to address these specific problems, rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater, would be the more sensible approach. As to complaints about meeting in New Orleans in June (not to mention Orlando, or other previous hot summer locations), I've always assumed that ALA deliberately chooses "off season" locations in order to save money. Sure it's less pleasant for attendees, but my guess is it's also much less expensive for the organization. I do really appreciate efforts in recent years to consolidate meeting locations in the convention center, as opposed to scattering them amongst remote hotel locations as was often done in years past. Given the size of the New Orleans convention center, for instance, sometimes 30 minutes was barely enough time to walk from one end to the other, with a bathroom break thrown in, if your next meeting location required it. For my personal planning, if a meeting was in a remote hotel location, chances are I skipped it. For me, ALA Annual remains an essential conference. In my specialized line of work (in a Library Development Program at a State Library) only ALA Annual is comprehensive enough to provide multiple opportunities for CE programs that directly relate to my actual job duties. But I will freely admit that I only attend Midwinter rarely. Unless I had a committee assignment or were speaking at a program, it would be difficult to justify the expense.
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Will Stuivenga
Cooperative Projects Manager
Washington State Library
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Original Message:
Sent: Jul 13, 2018 01:01 PM
From: Susan Hildreth
Subject: Information on MidWinter Revenues
I posted this information to ALA Council list on 7/12/18. I wanted to share this information on Connect as well.
Over the past 10 years, the Midwinter Meeting has contributed on average just over $650,000 every year to ALA's Offices and ALA's Support Services (IT, HR, Accounting, Facilities) that support our mission but don't generate revenue. Midwinter 2016 and 2017 in Boston and Chicago respectively contributed just over $720,000 in overhead support, which is charged automatically to revenues, before the net bottom line.
The $720,000 contribution covers over 80% of the full year FY18 budgets of the Offices of Diversity, Research & Evaluation, and International Relations combined.
This information does not mean that we should not consider modifications to the MidWinter conference. Declining total revenue which we have seen in recent MidWinter conferences results in declining overhead to support units. We have to analyze options carefully and plan for potential revenue impacts.
Susan Hildreth, Treasurer
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Susan Hildreth
Professor of Practice 9/16 - 6/18
University of Washington Information School
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