Consulting and Training Services: PLA Conference 2024

You are eligible to apply for the PLA Conference Scholarship if you satisfy both of the following criteria:

• You work as a staff member in a Massachusetts public library
• Your public library is located in a town that has a population of 15,000 or fewer people

Applications from individuals who do not meet the two above criteria will not be considered.

Helpful Resource: If you do not know the population of your town, check out the Massachusetts Census Data website.  Look under the column for "2020 Census" on the "Municipal Populations" tab.  Only staff who work in libraries in towns with 15,000 or fewer people are eligible to apply.  

You must satisfy the two above criteria both at the time you apply for a PLA Conference Scholarship and at the time that the PLA Conference begins. 

You must be regularly employed by the library.  Both full time and part time staff are eligible to apply.  Substitutes are not eligible to apply.

Unpaid library workers and supporters (including trustees, friends of the library, retirees, and volunteers) are not eligible to apply.

If your PLA Conference Scholarship Application is approved, you may be reimbursed up to $2,500 to attend the Public Library Association Conference in Columbus, Ohio, April 3 - 5, 2024.  MLS only provides reimbursement, it does not provide monetary advances.  

MLS will reimburse the following expenses:

• Conference registration (April 3 - 5, 2024)
• Pre-conference workshop registration (held on April 2, 2024)
• Registration for other official conference programs and events (April 2 - 5, 2023)
• Air, train, or bus fare (coach class) to the conference location
• Hotel (maximum: conference hotel rates)
• Meals (maximum: $66 per day, inclusive of taxes and tips)
• Ground transportation to/from airport, or train or bus station (including mileage [at the IRS 2024 mileage rate of $0.67 per mile], tolls, and parking)
• Ground transportation at the conference location (e.g., taxi, ride share, bus)
• Associated fees (e.g., luggage fees) 

MLS will reimburse eligible expenses for April 1, 2024 (the day before the conference if you are attending a pre-conference workshop or library tour) or April 2, 2024 (the day before the conference if you are not attending a pre-conference workshop or library tour) through April 6, 2024 (the day after the conference) to accommodate travel to and from the conference.  

Scholarship recipients are required to provide detailed receipts or other appropriate documentation for all claimed expenses (including meals).  Expenses that are not supported will not be reimbursed.  Reasonable gratuities may be reimbursed provided they are documented on the receipts.

Please note: Credit card statements are not acceptable documentation for reimbursement purposes. 

Discretionary costs such as books, souvenirs, postage, entertainment, upgrades, membership dues, in-room movie and mini-bar charges, rental cars, insurance, alcoholic beverages, or equipment purchase/rental will not be reimbursed, nor will parking or speeding tickets.  Costs for persons other than the scholarship recipient (e.g., partner, child, spouse) are not eligible for reimbursement.  If you have any questions, contact us before incurring an expense.

Eligible applicants may submit a PLA Conference Scholarship Application.  The deadline to apply is December 8 (Friday), 2023, at 11:59 pm EST. 

Please note: MLS will consider only one application per library.  Please coordinate within your library before submitting an application.

We will let all applicants know the status of their applications by December 18 (Monday), 2023.  Your application will receive one of the following three statuses:

• Approved: Your scholarship application has been approved and you are eligible to be reimbursed up to $2,500 to attend the PLA 2024 conference.
• Denied: You are not eligible for the PLA Conference Scholarship and your application has been denied.
• Waitlisted: We had more applicants than we have allocated funding.  Unfortunately your application has not been approved.  You are on the waitlist.  If other individuals who have been approved are unable to attend the conference, we will pull people off the waitlist according to their waitlist number.

If your scholarship application is approved and you are unable to attend the PLA 2024 Conference for any reason, you must let us know as soon as possible so that we can offer your scholarship to an individual on the waitlist.  Failure to provide us with prompt notification may prevent a colleague from having the opportunity of attending the PLA 2024 Conference and may put you at a disadvantage for future conference scholarships.

This is a non-competitive scholarship. In deciding which applications to approve, we will use the following objective process:

Step One: We will sort all applications into three groups, according to the size of the population of the town in which an applicant's library is located:

• Group 1: Population under 5,000
• Group 2: Population 5,000 - 6,999
• Group 3: Population 7,000 - 9,999
• Group 4: Population 10,000 - 15,000

Step Two: We will provide each applicant within each group with a randomly generated number.  We will use this number in Steps Three through Six. 

Step Three: Starting with Group 1, we will approve eligible applicants in order of their randomly generated number until we have exhausted our funding. 

Step Four: If we have funding remaining after approving all eligible applicants in Group 1, we will move on to Group 2.

Step Five: If we have funding remaining after approving all eligible applicants in Group 2, we will move on to Group 3.

Step Six: If we have funding remaining after approving all eligible applicants in Group 3, we will move on to Group 4.

Step Seven: Eligible applicants who are not approved will be put on a waitlist according to their randomly generated number.     

If your PLA Conference Scholarship Application is approved, you are eligible to be reimbursed up to $2,500 to attend the PLA 2024 Conference.  MLS only provides reimbursement, it does not provide advances.  You are required to pay for your expenses and then request reimbursement. 

You are responsible for any expenses that exceed the $2,500 scholarship amount and any expenses that are not eligible for reimbursement (see the information about eligible amounts on the "3. Eligible Amounts" tab).

To request reimbursement, you must send the following to Terry McQuown (MLS’s Consulting & Training Services Director), at terry@masslibsystem.org:

• A completed MLS Expense Report (downloadable Excel spreadsheet),
• A completed W-9 form (downloadable online form), and
• Detailed receipts or other appropriate documentation to support each claimed expense.  

You do not need to wait until after the PLA 2024 Conference to request reimbursement for those expenses that have been actually incurred before the conference (e.g., registration, flight, luggage fees).  We will process your reimbursement request upon receipt of the above information and documents.  We will need your completed W-9 form the first time you submit for reimbursement.

Please note: credit card statements are not acceptable documentation for reimbursement purposes.   

You may request reimbursement one or two times:

• One Reimbursement Request: you will submit all of your claimed expenses after the conference. 
• Two Reimbursement Requests: you will submit one time before the conference (for claimed expenses actually incurred before the conference) and one time after the conference (for claimed expenses that were incurred after the first expense report was submitted). 

MLS will not consider more than two expense reports from any individual.

It is your responsibility to request reimbursement and to ensure that all required information and documentation is timely received by MLS.  Requests for reimbursement will not be considered until all required information and documentation has been received by MLS.

Please note: all requests for reimbursement must be submitted no later than June 15, 2024.  Requests for reimbursement that are submitted after June 15, 2024, or that remain incomplete after that time, will not be considered.

Contact us before the deadline if you have any questions about the reimbursement process.

MLS will process your reimbursements through Bill.com.  You may receive emails from Bill.com about your reimbursements.

If your PLA Conference Scholarship Application is approved, you must complete a Conference Scholarship Outcomes Report on or before May 5, 2024.

This report will help MLS understand the impact of the scholarship and will be used to continuously improve our scholarship programs.  It will also provide you with an opportunity to share some of your experience and learnings with library staff across the Commonwealth.  The report will consist of three parts:

Part 1: The first part asks for some basic information about you (e.g., name, library position, email), including your Scholarship Number.  It is important that your Scholarship Number is entered accurately, as this is how we track completions.  Your Scholarship Number is case sensitive. 

Part 2: The second part consists of a series of agree/disagree questions.  Your responses to these questions will be anonymized and combined with the responses of all the other PLA Conference Scholarship recipients for statistical analysis, reporting, and/or marketing purposes.

Part 3: The third part consists of a few open-ended questions.  Our intention is to publish your responses, as well as those of all the other PLA Scholarship recipients, on our LibGuide or website so that other MLS members can learn about your experience.  The published version will look similar to blog interviews we have previously published (see this September 2023 blog interview article as an example), and will include your name, library, position, and responses.  You are welcome, but not required, to submit a few photographs of your PLA experience to supplement your report.  If you would like to submit photographs, please send them separately to Terry McQuown (MLS's Consulting & Training Services Director) at terry@masslibsystem.org.

It should take you approximately 10 - 15 minutes to complete the Outcomes Report.  Completion of the Outcomes Report is a condition of the scholarship.  You must complete the Outcomes Report in one sitting.  Here is a link to a PDF of the Outcomes Report if you would like to see the questions in advance. 

If you have any questions about the Outcomes Report or how it will be used, please contact us before you submit your application.  Once you have been awarded a scholarship and have received reimbursement, it is expected that you will complete the Outcomes Report.

Please note: Failure to complete the report will result in MLS declining any application you submit for any scholarship funds for the next two fiscal years or until you complete the Outcomes Report, whichever comes first.

If your staff member's PLA Conference Scholarship application is approved, your library is eligible to be reimbursed up to $500 to cover their shifts (i.e., backfill) while they are attending the PLA Conference.  

MLS will provide funding to cover day(s) and time(s) that your staff member is absent from working at the library because they are attending the PLA Conference rather than working their shift(s) at the library.  MLS will not provide funding for any days or times that the staff member was not scheduled to work.

Example: Sally was awarded a PLA Conference Scholarship.  She had been scheduled to work at her library on April 3 and 4, from 1 - 5 pm each day. 

• Allowable: MLS will provide funding to cover Sally's shifts on April 3 and 4, from 1 - 5 pm each day. 
• Not Allowable: MLS will not provide funding for a substitute on April 5 because Sally was not scheduled to work that day. 
• Not Allowable: MLS will not provide funding for a substitute on April 3 or 4 other than between 1 - 5 pm, because Sally was only scheduled to work 1 - 5 pm on those days.  

The person who backfills may either be a library substitute or a part-time employee who is provided extra hours. 

In order to receive funding to backfill for an approved scholarship participant, the library (or town) must send an invoice to Terry McQuown (MLS’s Consulting & Training Services Director), at terry@masslibsystem.org, with the following information:

• Name of the staff member who had been awarded a PLA Conference Scholarship whose shift(s) you are backfilling
• Date(s) and time(s) of the backfilled shifts
• Hourly rate of the individual who is backfilling the shifts
• Total amount requested to cover the backfilled shifts (not to exceed $500)
• A note indicating that this invoice is for backfilling shifts for a PLA Conference Scholarship recipient.

The invoice should be on library (or town) letterhead and provide the mailing address where you would like the reimbursement check sent.  The library (or town) must also submit a copy of its completed W-9 form.  Payment will be made to the library (or town), not the individual who backfilled the shifts.

It is the library's responsibility to submit an invoice and to ensure that all required information and documentation is timely received by MLS.  Requests for reimbursement will not be considered until all required information and documentation has been received by MLS.  If you do not receive payment within 15 business days after submitting your invoice, please contact us to ensure that we have received your invoice.

Please note: all requests for reimbursement must be submitted no later than June 15, 2024.  Requests for reimbursement that are submitted after June 15, 2024, or that remain incomplete after that time, will not be considered.

Contact us before the deadline if you have any questions about the reimbursement process.

MLS will process your reimbursements through Bill.com.  You may receive emails from Bill.com about your reimbursements.