Medical Library Association Group

“The classes of membership shall be voting and nonvoting. The subclasses of voting members shall be active and institutional. Active members shall be persons who at the time of qualification were actively engaged in, retired from, or interested in professional library or bibliographical work or a health or information sciences profession. Institutional members shall be libraries of the health sciences of professions or schools of library and information science. The authorized representative of an institutional member shall be any person designated in writing by the institution at least five weeks before the annual meeting or distribution of ballots in which representative is to vote.”

“Ballots, accompanied by the required biographical data, photographs, and statements of aims, shall be distributed to the voting membership by headquarters not later than nine weeks prior to the annual meeting and received at headquarters by the date previously announced for counting ballots, which shall be at least three weeks after ballots are distributed. Ballots received after the date announced for counting shall be destroyed.candidates for president-elect shall be declared elected upon receiving a majority of the votes cast. Where there are more than two candidates, a plurality shall elect candidates for the positions of director and member of the nominating committee receiving the highest number of votes for the number of vacant positions shall be by lot.the association shall hold annually a regular meeting of the members for the transaction of general business. Except as otherwise stated in these bylaws, voting members at the annual meeting shall be the final authority in governing the association. The voting body of the annual meeting or of a special meeting shall consist of all boing members who are in good standing and who are present at the business meeting. One person may cast two votes only if eligible as an institutional representative and also as an active member.”

“The president, president-elect, immediate past president, seven directors elected by the membership at large, and chairs of the chapter and section councils shall serve as voting members of the board of directors. The president shall serve as chair of the board of directors and shall not vote except to make or break a tie. The executive director shall serve as a nonvoting member of the board of directors. The board of directors shall have general supervision of the affairs of the association between its business meetings; shall fix the day, hour, and place of the meetings; shall make recommendations to the association; shall adopt the associations annual budget; and shall perform other duties prescribed by these bylaws. A copy of any budget adopted by the board shall be sent to members of the association before the next annual meeting. The board shall be subject to orders of the association; none of its acts shall conflict with actions taken at association business meetings.”

“A representative from each chapter included in the group return is responsible for reviewing and providing their chapter financials. The form 990 is reviewed by the mla director of financial and administrative services prior to filing.”

“The medical library association (mla) requires affiliation/financial disclosure for a member of the mla board of directors, committee of chairs and chair-elects, liaisons to other organizations, authors who write for mla publications, and instructors/presenters at mla sponsored events and activities (known as above-mentioned-group). Mlas disclosure policy is intended to protect all parties involved from and potential conflict of interest that may arise by serving/working with any programs and services. The intent of this disclosure policy is not to prevent people with significant financial or other relationships from servicing in official capacities, writing, or presenting, but to provide decision-makers and participants with the information to form their own judgements in regard to exposition or conclusions reached in presentations, courses, publications, etc. Members of the above mentioned group must predominantly state all disclosures information for each activity. In the case of presenters, authors, or instructors, failure to disclose affiliations or financial arrangements may result in denial of mla ce contact hours for the instructors course, cancellation of the ce activity, and/or denial of instructor/presenter honorarium or author royalties. Affiliation/financial disclosure conflict of interest may be considered to exist if a member of the above-mentioned group is 1. Serving as an officer or director of another nonprofit organization in the general areas of interest to mla 2. Receiving compensation (e.g. Consulting fees, speaking or writing honoraria, grant funds, research fees, salary, or other financial or material support, etc.) from a company offering products or services related to the interests of mla 3. Doing business or wishing to do business with mla. The users and/or participants in mla programs and services must be made aware of any affiliations or financial arrangements between members of the above-mentioned group and a grantor and/or an organization(s). Any affiliation or financial group, a grantor or an organization, that could be perceived as unethical, must be disclosed. Mla will inform users and/or participants of any affiliation or financial arrangements of members of the above-mentioned group through appropriate means.”

“MLA (group return) makes its bylaws available to the public through chapter websites and the MLA national website. The governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are also available upon request for the same period of disclosure as set forth in IRC section 6104(d).”