A Message from AALL Treasurer Anne C. Matthewman

Balancing an organization’s strategic intentions against its fiscal realities can be difficult at the best of times and almost impossible in harsh economic times. Due to the prolonged downturn in the financial market, AALL does not have the funds to support its Type V Scholarships in 2003.

Many factors are responsible for the lack of funds for the Type V Scholarships, which are awarded to law librarians who have degrees from accredited library or law schools and have registered in continuing education courses related to law librarianship.

All of AALL’s endowed and contributed funds, which include the scholarship fund, have suffered in the recent severe market conditions. They have not earned interest, and, indeed, the corpus of these funds has decreased. This situation is not unique to AALL, but it does affect the market generally. Without any interest, there is no money to award scholarships. Additionally, the corpus must be maintained in order to generate interest when market conditions improve.

Another factor is the poor financial return on the 2002 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla. AALL relies on its Annual Meeting to generate income for many of its activities, including the awarding of grants and scholarships.

Finally, it will be several months before the Association reaps the benefit of the recently approved dues increase.

These last two factors mean that AALL has had to trim its 2003 budget drastically in many areas. There is simply no money to augment the scholarship fund.

The Executive Board realizes that awarding scholarships is an important activity and is vigorously seeking alternative funding for Type V Scholarships. Type I through IV Scholarships, which are supported by vendor contributions, will be awarded in 2003. AALL is very grateful to those vendors who support its scholarship program.

For further information on AALL scholarships, please visit AALLNET at http://aallnet.org/services/scholarships.asp. To receive information on the Association’s Restricted Endowment Funds and on other contributed funds, please contact Steve Ligda, AALL director of finance and administration.