Busy Times

By Denise M. Patterson, CPA

This past month or so has been busy with a number of chapter and CalCPA events. First, we had a wonderful turnout at the Annual Golf Tournament Oct. 27. Thank you to everyone who participated and supported our scholarship program by buying raffle tickets and mulligans.

In November we recognized our past presidents, 40-year members, young and emerging professionals and new members at our first Members Night, hosted by the chapter’s Young and Emerging Professionals Committee. This group did an outstanding job of organizing the program, including a terrific raffle. I’d like to offer my personal thank you to the YEP and Dinner Planning Committee: Tim Hancock, Nicole Centofanti, Crystal Cota, Tom Harris, Henry Oum, Nick Andrade, Julianne Averill, Brian Crow and Lan Bui.

Congratulations to our 40-year members: Thomas McFerson, Larry Jorge, Mark Cameron and Harold Sudjian. It is tremendously inspiring to learn of our 40-year members’ professional accomplishments.

During the evening, the YEP Awards for Excellence were announced. These awards recognize our young and emerging professionals who have significantly impacted the profession or their community. The recipients were:

YEP in the Community: Jennifer Brandon, Baker, Peterson & Franklin
YEP of Determination: Nicole Centofanti, M. Green & Co.
Inspirational YEP: Susan Davis, K.R.M. Risk Management
Innovation of YEP: Keith Scott, Seventh-Day Adventist Church
YEP Demonstrating Leadership and Team Work: Crystal Cota, M. Green & Co.
YEP of the Year: Nikolya Serdyuk, Baker, Peterson & Franklin

Congratulations to the award recipients, as well as to all YEP members who were nominated. Be sure to watch for more information on CalCPA’s young and emerging professionals in the January/February issue of California CPA magazine. I’d also like to thank Vicki Crow and Natalie Lay for serving on the selection committee. The task of selecting the recipients was daunting given the number of qualified nominations received.

The annual CalCPA Women’s Leadership Forum took place Dec. 3. It was a wonderful event! The program and speakers provided information on various topics, including leadership skills and opportunities, work/life balance and presentation pointers. If you didn’t have a chance to attend the event this year, consider attending in 2009. It is a wonderful program that is open to both women and men!

CPA Day at the Capitol takes place Jan. 21. This is your opportunity to meet with your legislators in Sacramento to discuss new legislation that is expected to be introduced in January and that will impact all California CPAs.

Did you know California law does not meet the national standard for CPA licensure and California CPAs are at risk of losing the ability to serve their clients’ interests outside of California? Fortunately, the solution to this problem is simple: California must adopt the 150-hour educational pathway as its only pathway to licensure. More than two-thirds of new California licensees choose the 150-hour pathway—what’s more, that percentage has grown every year since the option was introduced in 2002. (All existing CPAs and those licensed before 2012 would be grandfathered in.)

Help communicate this to your legislators in Sacramento. Register today for CPA Day at the Capitol.

As we end 2008, I’d like to offer a special thank you to the Fresno Chapter officers and directors. It has been a pleasure working with each of you this year. A heartfelt thank you to Kay Coffin for her commitment and direction to our chapter. She is a tremendous asset to CalCPA, and I am honored to work with her.

— Denise M. Patterson, CPA

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am 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.