Yes. Most of them.

Are there national associations that actually pay for their speakers/teachers travel expenses? And if so, who are they? And is it just keynote speakers, or is it all presenters? I know locally we pay for keynote speakers and CE teachers, but other than that, I’m not familiar.

Also important: I’ve done freelance editing work on a couple of book-length works.

Most important of all: it’s one thing to volunteer to edit journal articles, or a regular column, or a monograph. Developmental editing and copyediting a book-length work are significant undertakings. If you find more than two MLA members who would be willing to volunteer their time to do this, I’d be surprised. Although, I must admit I’d be *pleasantly* surprised! I am against using volunteers for this type of work for the same reason many of us are against using volunteers for professional-level library work: it devalues the professionalism of editorial work, and it’s also mighty hard to hold a volunteer to production schedules, etc.

Regarding a EBM hedges & filters wiki, we already started one!

http://ebhcstrategies.wetpaint.com/

It would grow a lot faster if more people help. I’m working on it, but it is slow going — I personally have at least a hundred to add in dentistry.

Personally, I’m just as happy to have something like this *outside* of the MLA umbrella, for some of the reasons mentioned in discussion above as well as others.

“Interesting ideas, David. The publishing model you propose would actually cost MLA more, not less.”

Really?

“The book publishing program currently makes enough to cover expenses.”

So it breaks even by charging members for the books published by the association. Better to break even by making them free to members.

“The costs of printing and distribution are paid by our copublisher. “

…who also makes profit from them while the MLA breaks even and members have to pay for the books. If the books are online, there are no costs of printing and tiny costs for distribution.

“If books were free to members, MLA would need to manage the publishing process itself and take on all the other costs of publishing, such as negotiating contracts…

No need to negotiate contracts. One contract- authors can agree or not.

“…working with authors throughout the writing process, editing, layout…”

I’m betting members will volunteer for editing duties if it results in content being made available for free to members. Layout is a piece of cake online.

“…and marketing.”

You don’t have to market a free book to members- you merely have to tell them it exists.

“This would turn book publishing from a program that pays for itself to one that costs the association money.”

For the reasons I’ve noted above, I don’t agree. I think this is an excuse for not trying something new.

For the sake of argument, however, let us assume that this is true. Let us assume that offering the book content online would actually cost the MLA a small amount of money. How much more value would each member receive for his/her membership dues if access to all books published by MLA was included? How many more people would join just for access to this growing library of content? I believe that’d be more than enough to make up for a cost which, as I’ve argued above, I don’t believe would exist.

“Thanks for your input–­I hope you’ll consider becoming an MLA member so you can pursue some of these ideas directly.”

I’m as delighted to offer ideas to the MLA as I am to offer them to the AMA or the dozen other professional associations I’ve spoken with.

But this last paragraph would seem to suggest that my not having joined MLA yet (something I cannot afford given the absence of institutional support and the fact that MLA will not pay travel expenses for speakers/teachers who are members and the fact that I wish to participate in the community of the profession) is what prevents MLA from moving into the 21st century publishing.

This is ridiculous.

MLA members will create and edit the content. When they do, I’ll be pleased to put the content online in a content management system FOR MLA in my spare time at no charge in order to demonstrate how little it takes to do.

But the first paragraph of the post is what is most important here: If professional associations don’t modernize and start making use of these tools to the benefit of their members, members (and potential members) will do it without them.

As those familiar with association finances will know, member benefits typically cost associations much more than the cost of membership. A member benefit that costs the association additional money must be considered very carefully with an eye towards either finding a source of revenue to cover the expenses or accepting a deficit in the budget because of the importance of the member benefit.

As Laurie mentioned, the Books Panel is continually exploring electronic publishing models, and I hope we will be able to offer some book-length electronic publications in the near future. (There are of course already many shorter publications available in electronic format on MLANET.)

Thanks for your input–­I hope you’ll consider becoming an MLA member so you can pursue some of these ideas directly.

“…MLA members are not the only ones who purchase the books that MLA publishes.”

As I wrote above, making such titles available in paper editions via Lulu would allow non-members to buy the books at a reasonable price without MLA sacrifing anything.

“…We just haven’t yet found the right combination of topic, author and methodology that would satisfy everyone involved.”

• ANY topic would work fine.
• I can’t believe that there are no authors who wouldn’t be in favor of distributing their work this way.
• If by “methodology” you mean “how-do-we-get-the-book-online?”, there are lots of open-source CMSs that’d work very nicely and easily. I’d use WordPress without hesitation.

I am also certain that some MLA members would be pleased to volunteer to edit. I’ve met several who have great skill in and enthusiasm for this sort of work.

All these things being said, I’d be interested to hear more specifics about why the BP hasn’t abandoned paper yet. None of the reasons you mention really strike me as legitimate obstacles.

Neal-Schuman shouldn’t be the ones benefiting from the MLA’s work. MLA and its members should.

However, even though your assumptions about the MLA publishing program were a bit off, the idea of web publishing is one that the Books Panel has discussed frequently and will continue to do so. We just haven’t yet found the right combination of topic, author and methodology that would satisfy everyone involved.

I’ll point the BP members to this discussion. I’m sure it will be a topic in our monthly conference calls!

http://www.geocities.com/nqiya/NeatMeSH.html