MLA Finances 101: Understanding the MLA-MCI Partnership
Submitted by: Tony Nguyen
Before he handed over the Treasurer role to Kate Flewelling, Tony Nguyen wrote a piece explaining the fees that MLA pays to its management firm.
In 2018, the MLA Board of Directors voted and selected MCI USA to serve as its association management company. MCI’s strategic guidance and professional support are critical components in MLA’s ability to achieve essential growth in key areas of education, community interactions, meeting attendance, membership, and advocacy.
You may wonder what this partnership provides with MLA paying MCI management fees. These fees cover employee salaries, fringe benefits, technology, training, insurance, and other core services.
This can be broken down into four major categories:
- Human Resources, including employee salaries, fringe benefits, etc.
- Staffing, including expert support from other areas of the company as needed (such as HR, conference management, marketing, and vendor relations).
- Technology Support for staff and the association
- Administrative Support, including accounting and financial services
By partnering with a large association management firm with 2,500+ staff members, MLA also benefits from MCI’s negotiating power, which saves us money on meeting locations and other contracts.
This partnership proved immediately beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic and allowed the association to pivot quickly with the support of MCI.
Considering inflation, our fees to MCI are less than it would cost us to run MLA independently. The other benefits we gain by having an international company’s wealth of expertise and negotiating power at our disposal contribute to additional cost-savings.
This chart highlights the adjusted fees declined over 11.5% over the last two years despite a 7.5% cost of living inflation in salaries. They are significantly below what MLA paid prior to joining MCI. This 12% decrease highlights the financial savings MCI provided.
For more information on MLA’s finances, we recommend referring to previous MLAConnect posts under the MLA Finance 101 Series:
Do you have a question about MLA’s finances? Current treasurer Kate Flewelling wants to hear them!