Celebrating 100 Years of Excellence

By Patrick D. Rogan, CPA

I just attended CalCPA’s wonderful gala in San Francisco that marked our association’s 100-year anniversary. During its humble beginning in 1909, a group of insightful and forward-thinking individuals started an organization that today has surpassed 35,000 members and is the largest state CPA professional association in the country. Throughout its history, CalCPA has been a strong advocate for the profession and dedicated to providing professional education for CPAs.

CalCPA has come a long way since its inception, and from the beginning has worked to improve the lives of CPAs and their families. At this time of our organization’s big birthday, a little history is in order.

In 1959 CalCPA’s Group Insurance Trust was formed to provide affordable health care plans to CalCPA members. In 1966 the Education Foundation was formed to provide members with low-cost, high-quality continuing education. The CalCPA Education Foundation is the largest of its kind in the country. In 1979 CPA–PAC was launched, and Cal Accountants Mutual Insurance Company (CAMICO) was formed in 1986 to meet CPAs’ needs for malpractice insurance. CAMICO was organized during a time when it was difficult to find liability insurance, and it now holds a 25 percent market share and is sponsored by 16 other state societies. CalCPA Institute was formed in 2004 as a 501(c)(3) organization to promote financial literacy, scholarship efforts, education initiatives and other worthwhile causes.

During the past 100 years, CalCPA has evolved into the nation’s leading CPA professional organization with many events and happenings that are too numerous to mention in this article. Go online for more information on CalCPA’s first 100 years, including photos from the gala.

One particular area in which CalCPA excels is in being an advocate and protector of the profession by representing CPAs with the California Board of Accountancy and the California Legislature. We can point to many successes in this area over the past 100 years. Today, numerous pressing issues will affect our future as CPAs, including:

SB 691: Requires all candidates entering the profession in 2014 to meet the 150-hour education requirement. This affects all California CPAs and is needed to allow us to represent clients who live in other states without having to register to practice in those states.

AB 117: Requires a CPA using the CPA designation to disclose if their license is inactive.

AB 138: Sponsored by the CBA, this bill requires mandatory peer review for California firms that provide audit, review or compilation services.

AB 129: This CalCPA-sponsored bill will reinstate the taxpayer privilege.

Bruce Allen, CalCPA’s government relations director, and Jeannie Tindel, director of legislation, keep tabs on our government officials and are ready to act if needed to protect California CPAs. Each year CalCPA sponsors a CPA Day at the Capitol. Mark your calendar now for the next opportunity to visit your legislators at the Capitol: Wednesday, Jan. 20.

CalCPA has offices in Redwood City, Glendale and Sacramento, and the CalCPA staff includes plenty of hardworking individuals who strive to make CalCPA better for us, the CPAs of California. I have been a proud member since January 1978.

Our annual golf tournament is coming up Thursday, Aug. 27, at Morgan Creek Golf Club. This is our biggest fund-raiser for the year, and all proceeds go toward the chapter scholarship fund. Don’t miss this event, as it’s been a sell-out the past few years.

The Young & Emerging Professionals Committee is planning an evening at the Cal Expo Harness Races. All members are welcome. For more details and to check out our event calendar for other upcoming chapter activities, go online. You may find an event that interests you and offers the chance to network with your colleagues and gather new information.

I welcome your comments and suggestions and would like to hear from you. Contact me via e-mail. I will read each comment and respond.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 1:27 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.