Our guest blogger today is Jonathan Lu, NMRT Treasurer, to give us the run down on how NMRT spends money.
A lot of you might wonder why you need to pay fees for NMRT. The money just goes into a black hole or just enriches the officers. That can be further from the truth. The Board members and Chair persons volunteer their time to the Round table. We don’t see a cent of that money.
The money that we get goes to these following expenditures.
1.       Room and equipment rentals
At every conference we have to pay thousands of dollars for rooms at the convention center. These rooms are for several programs you might have heard of like Conference 101 and the Resume Review Service. Also due to union rules we also have to pay for all the microphones, sounds system, Internet and conference staff help.
2.       Scholarships and awards
NMRT supports several scholarships and awards including Student Chapter of the Year Award, Emerging Leader Sponsorship, Emerging Leader membership, Annual Conference Professional Development Attendance Award, Professional Development Grant, Spectrum, and all small door prizes during NMRT events.
3.       Food and Drinks
You be surprise how MUCH food and drinks cost at the convention center. Due to contract agreements with the convention center and hotels. No one is allowed to bring in their own food and drinks to their events. A gallon of coffee would cost about $15 on the outside. At the convention it would cost double. Food is even worst. So remember not to waste any food that you see in the meeting rooms. You paid for them.
4.       Initiatives
To try new things ALA has rules in place to help NMRT budget for new initiatives. Please look for new NMRT Initiative like webinars, speakers, pre conference programs, and swag in the future.
If you have any questions about how NMRT spend your hard earn dollars please e-mail the NMRT treasurer at lu118282@hotmail.com or come to any NMRT Board meeting at conference. These meeting are open to the public.