How are Conference Hotels chosen?
If you drive by a hotel, you may think “That would be a great place for a CMGMA conference!”  Truth be told, however, not every hotel can accommodate our conference.

A hotel must have the following capacities for our conference:
1. A catering/banquet department
2. Exhibit Hall - 5000 sq ft
3. Meeting Room - Large enough to seat 125 people in a “classroom” style set-up
4. Banquet Room -  Large enough to seat 190 people in “rounds”
5. Be affordable

 In Colorado Springs, only 4 hotels meet the first 4 criteria:

Broadmoor
Doubletree
Antlers
Crowne Plaza

The Broadmoor and the Doubletree have not met criteria #5 in the recent past.

In Denver, we used Sheraton West for years, but outgrew that space.  We need the exhibit hall, meeting room, and banquet room to be available concurrently.  They do not have 3 large rooms available concurrently for our use.

How does our state membership dues compare to other states?

Our annual active membership dues are $80.  A sampling of other state annual dues are:
New Mexico - $60
Arizona - $100
California - $110
Minnesota - $125
Utah - $130

Colorado MGMA dues have remained unchanged since 2003.  The Board of Directors is committed to keeping the membership dues at this price point to be affordable to small medical practices, which constitute the majority of Colorado practices.

What is our bottom line number for our annual budget?

The 2008 budget was constructed to breakeven.  The mission of the organization is not to make money, but to provide services to and on behalf of the members.  Thus the majority of expenditures are poured into high level, national recognized educational programming.  We have sought to cut our printing and mailing costs by 50% by going to an electronic medium for the newsletter in 2007 and delivering the Salary Survey on CD in 2008.

How much should a non-profit association have in savings?

In a 2008 survey of state MGMA affiliates, one-third of the responding states keep 12 months of operating expenses in reserves. The American Society of Association Executives reccommends at least 6 months of operating reserves.