Ask the Treasurer: August 2026 

Submitted by: Kate Flewelling, AHIP, MLA Treasurer 

I have had a few great questions come through the “Ask the Treasurer” queue.  

Question: Has the association considered hosting our conferences at lower-cost venues, such as a university building, to save costs on conferences? 

Answer: Yes! For 2028, we are looking to move into a hotel that can accommodate both lodging and all conference activities. This would help accomplish two major goals for future conferences. First, the association would negotiate with one location – the hotel- rather than multiple hotels and a conference center. Second, it will facilitate a more intimate, community feel that members want from a conference. 

Question: Would MLA ever consider the option for members, many of whom have limits on their yearly professional development funds, to purchase credits (or something like gift cards) that they could stock up across multiple years and use for things like conference attendance or CE opportunities? Are there limits on MLA’s ability to do this? 

Answer: MLA is always looking for ways to improve access to educational programming, so that is definitely something we could consider. In the meantime, I have used end of fiscal year funds to bulk buy MLA CE passports for librarians at my library. The MLA CE Passport is good for a year, so you could prepay in one fiscal year your whole next year’s professional development! 

Question: Can we get a breakdown of how MCI spends the money they receive from us? As part of this, can we also receive information that clearly demonstrates how paying for MCI is saving us money? 

Answer: Sure thing! My predecessor, former Treasurer Tony Nguyen, provided a nice overview of the MLA-MCI partnership in a previous article, which includes a graph demonstrating savings. While MCI is a publicly traded company that needs to make money, MLA is in a much stronger financial position than we would be as an independent entity. For example, we don’t need to have full-time communications, technology, human resources, financial, vendor relations, conference planning and other staff because we can utilize expertise amongst MCI’s workforce at levels that work for an association our size. 

Do you have a question about MLA’s finances? I may answer your question next!