The Place of the Regional Associations in the MLA

COMMENTARY THE PLACE OF THE REGIONAL ASSOCIATIONS IN THE MLA William D. Schaefer The MLA has approximately 30,000 members, of which fewer than 20 percent (only some 5,000) also belong to one of the regional associations . The six regional associations have a combined membership of approximately 10,000, so it follows that the other 5,000 regional members (roughly 50 percent) do not belong to the national MLA. Now, these are very interesting figures; the only problem is that I am not at all sure, even with a heavy dose of "roughlys" and "approximatelys," that they are accurate enough to be useful in any way. I didn't exactly make them up, but I came pretty close to doing just that. To atone for this sin of creativity I have another set of figures which I assure you are extremely accurate. The current PMLA Directory Issue reveals that from the eight states considered by the MLA to be in the Rocky Mountain Region (which should not be confused with the Rocky Mountain MLA) there are 952 MLA members. The current RMMLA Directory lists 383 members as belonging to the Regional, of which 279 come from these same eight states—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. I do not know how many of the 279 are also MLA members, but I do know, because I counted them, that 196 (51.2 percent) of the total number of 383 listed as members of RMMLA are also listed as MLA members in the current PMLA Directory. If half of the 279 eight-state RMMLA members are also MLA members, then we have about 140 of the 952 (or 14.7 percent) as double members. These figures are so accurate as to turn one's stomach, but unfortunately they too have to be qualified because the MLA statistics were "peak figures" taken last April before membership drops, whereas the RMMLA figures are presumably taken this fall after drops for non-renewal. Moreover, the MLA has already added well over 1,000 new members since the time its September Directory went to press. Some of these no doubt come from the area in question , and I am sure new members have also been added to the RMMLA list. One tends to despair; we will never know for sure. If, however, it is true, as it is with the RMMLA, that 50 percent of a regional group belongs to the national group (and I think it probably works out on an average), and if there really are 10,000 regional members, then that means 5,000 belong to both MLA and a regional. Well, let us not worry about it; the number of double members is possibly 5,000-maybe it's 4,000, maybe it's 6,000-but let's say 5,000. Moreover, let us not worry at this time about the other 25,000 (or 83 percent) of MLA members who have not joined a regional; and by all means let us not even 142 Regional Associations in the MLA143 mention what may be another 25,000 or even 50,000 English and foreign language college-level teachers who have not joined anything. No, I would like to concentrate on that interesting group that apparently feels there is value in belonging to both the national and a regional MLA. I would like to speculate on why such a lapover exists by comparing what the MLA has to offer with what the regionals have to offer, for I think that true contentment can come only with double membership. Let me begin with the national MLA. People join MLA for a number of reasons, which I would cover in three main categories, not in order of reality or probability, but in order of what I consider their importance. First recognizing that only through collective action can the modern language and literature "profession" effectively promote study, criticism, and research and further the common interests of its teachers, members join MLA because they realize that their dues support an association that generates programs and projects designed to accomplish this main purpose. Thus, to mention but a few examples, the MLA...