Midwinter Tuesday: Treasurer Urges New Business Development

January 27, 2009

ALA is a pretty big organization, with a $58-million annual budget, ALA Treasurer Rod Hersberger said at the second Midwinter session of the ALA Council. He's concerned about ALA's "mature businesses" that are not yielding annual revenue growth and the need to develop new businesses. Echoing what he said at the Planning and Budget Assembly, Hersberger talked about the need to develop new products for new markets. Among his ideas are capitalizing internationally on the ALA brand and turning more units into revenue generating centers. Hersberger concentrated his report on the work of the Washington Office, urging that a larger portion (the current level is about 25%) of programmatic resources be devoted to the office. ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels said we are introducing a more formal method for developing new businesses, especially for their capitalization. As a member of the ALA Publishing staff, I can attest to the fact that ideas for new businesses have been easy to imagine over the past few years but capitalizing them has been another matter altogether in an organization that is a 10 on the risk averse scale. New businesses mean new risks, and I wonder if the Association is going to be willing to take them, especially in a climate where financial security seems ever less attainable. We're not a the bottom of the slump yet, and there is always a lag in ALA feeling the pinch, said Hersberger. Units that aren't performing as well as they should "may need some attention," he added. Fiels said expenditures will undoubtedly need to be reduced in accord with revenue reduction, but he noted that there is no magic place where I have eight people sitting in a room doing nothing and can just eliminate the positions with no impact on the operation." Councilor Marilyn Hinshaw observed that "the federal government can't do it all," and we will have to help ourselves through this national financial crisis.

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Midwinter Tuesday: Treasurer Urges New Business Development

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