ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels summed up the state of Association finances at a general staff meeting in the Chicago headquarters the morning of April 7. “Overall revenues for 2010 are now projected to be 4% less, or just over $2 million,” Fiels said, “than ALA had projected a year ago” (on a total budget of $54 million). About half of that amount is in reduced revenue from ALA Publishing, and the other half is a projected loss in conference-related revenue, especially income from exhibit space and donations.
The good news, he added, is that the shortfall has been offset by $1.1 million in cost-cutting measures, reducing the gap to only $1.06 million.
However, closing that gap means the Association will need to dip into its reserve account as well as require all staff to take a one-week furlough prior to July 2. (ALA staff members had to take an unpaid week in 2009 to help bridge an even greater budget deficit of $1.6 million.) ALA units will schedule the furloughs to minimize as much as possible the impact on programs and member services.
Fiels said that a second week of staff furloughs in August was a possibility, but that senior ALA management was putting off that decision until after Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., in June. An alternative measure of closing ALA offices for a week in the summer was discussed but rejected because of the many differences in publication deadlines, staffing schedules, and unit needs.
“2010 was a tougher year than we expected,” Fiels told staff, “and 2011 will also be tough, but maybe a bit better than we feared at first.” ALA managers are working to have a 2011 budget in place by May that “will minimize the negative impact on member programs and services—and the staff that support them,” he added.
“Libraries across the United States have been facing severe budgetary stresses due to the economic downturn that began in November 2007,” Fiels said, “and ALA reflects those stresses. Library recovery will lag behind the overall economy, but we are cautiously optimistic for 2012.”