President's Message

So, Let’s Dance!

By Michele Day, CPA

Pardon me? I thought this was supposed to be a serious column about the accounting profession, CalCPA, the East Bay Chapter, etc. So, what’s the connection?

The other day, I was driving to work listening to the soundtrack of Mamma Mia!, which, as you probably know, is a movie with lots of singing and dancing as the characters meet and overcome life challenges. I was thinking about how, in the accounting profession, we often face unforgiving deadlines and stressful situations, and I began reminding myself of why we do our work anyway.

What came to me was that there could be a lot of joy in the opportunities we have to make a difference to individuals or organizations. Whether we’re preparing financial reports or tax returns, performing an audit or a forensic investigation, or executing almost any accounting-related task, we’re helping to uncover the story. Often, there are many ups and downs in the accomplishment of any given project.

The numbers we deal with reflect the tale of the business or the individual—how well (or not) things are going for the entity and any parties touched by the entity’s endeavors: owners, employees or even legal adversaries. Our role as advisers and collaborative professionals allows us to “dance� with our clients and often each other through the process as the picture unfolds, accomplishments are celebrated and challenges met.

In this dance of making a positive difference, myriad opportunities allow us to engage in a variety of roles at all levels of involvement. CalCPA gives us many such possibilities. For example, our chapter just hosted (read “celebrated�) another hugely successful and well-attended ABC (Attorneys, Bankers and CPAs) Night, which gave us a chance to connect with other professionals who help our clients deal with their financial affairs. Thanks, Rob Anderson and committee! Also, a good time was had by all at our chapter’s golf tournament, hosted in San Francisco at Harding Park. Thanks to Steve Willis for keeping us connected there.

Don’t miss the many other chances to get involved that are coming up in just the next few weeks! For example, our chapter is participating in an Oct. 4 financial planning/literacy event being spearheaded by the local chapter of the Financial Planning Association, Assembly member Sandré Swanson and the city of Oakland. We will take part by facilitating seminars to members of the local community. This is expected to be a large event with several hundred attendees.

Our next chapter meeting, Sports Night, is Tuesday, Oct. 28 and should be very enlightening and great fun. Then, be on the lookout for the Estate Planning Symposium and the Partners Forum coming in early November, plus all of our chapter’s committees and discussion groups.

So, as we work in this profession that provides us with so many opportunities to make a difference—let’s join in the dance!

— Michele Day, CPA

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 1:14 pm and is filed under President's Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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