Archive for the ‘Presidents Message’ CategoryIn ReviewMarch 1st, 2010
By far, the most exciting aspect of this past year has been the involvement of our past presidents in chapter events and activities. We held a past presidents breakfast at the Grant Grill in downtown that was well attended and a lot of fun! I hope this event signals the beginning of a strong collaboration between our chapter’s foundational members and the future leaders of our profession.
New OpportunitiesFebruary 3rd, 2010
Looking Forward to a New Year!January 12th, 2010
I also would like to thank all the past presidents who attended the party. The chapter has made real progress in tying together the experience of our longtime members with the enthusiasm and creative energy of our shorter-term members. And a special thank you to those members who have volunteered to be mentors or take leadership positions in the chapter. This relationship is one of joining the best of the past with the potential of the present to create a better future for the profession as a whole.
What’s New with the Chapter?December 1st, 2009
Success in FoursNovember 1st, 2009
Congratulations to Melody Thornton, our chapter’s first vice president, for being nominated to the 16th Annual Women Who Mean Business Awards. This event, which is sponsored by the San Diego Business Journal, recognizes outstanding women business leaders for their achievements and contributions to San Diego. An award luncheon will be held Tuesday, Oct. 27 at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center in Mission Valley.
Tenured Members Add Value to Our ChapterOctober 1st, 2009
Because many of these members may not be as concerned with the daily grind as they were in the past, perhaps they can spend more time influencing the future of the profession and playing a more active role in our chapter. By mentoring, helping with financial literacy, joining a committee, attending more events and getting involved, you will add to the richness of our chapter’s culture, and your efforts will be much appreciated. It is by drawing on the experience of our past leaders that we can more effectively reach out to our future. What a wonderful opportunity to have some fun, meet new people and help the profession grow. I believe that people need to make a difference in their own and in other people’s lives. I also believe that the role of mentoring gives people what they need to make this difference. It was my experience with my mentor that has most strongly affected my ability to do what I feel is right in life. By being true to myself and to my situation, I am able to make both professional and personal choices that reflect my values and give me the strength to do what I know is right. Today’s world makes this ever more evident to me. What allows a person to connect book learning with reality is the ability to trust their gut. So often I see people working hard to fit a situation into the book. For example, people often say: “The book says we should do this … based on this … .” Actually, what we usually need to do is first look at reality and the situation, and then consult the book. Today we live in a world of computer models and programmed responses to these models. Too often we gather around the consensus without considering what triggered the question in the first place. We buy because everyone else does, and then we sell for the same reason. It makes no sense at all. By having the guts to stand back and take the time to assess a situation, we usually are able to find a solution. By having a belief in yourself, you are better equipped to do this. And by having a real mentor, people often have a stronger belief in and better knowledge of themselves. This belief in one’s self is what allows individuals to break from the herd mentality and do what feels right. And now on to chapter business. I am pleased that our chapter’s CPE events are doing well. We draw between 20 and 30 attendees to our meetings, and I would like to thank all of our chapter interest group chairs for doing such a fine job of bringing relevant speakers and topics to our members. Check out our website to see the educational opportunities our chapter has to offer. We had our first chapter networking End of Summer Bash at the Catamaran hotel in Pacific Beach and hope to make it an annual event. We had a great turnout that included YEP members as well as some past presidents. It was a great opportunity to get together outdoors and have some fun. Due to the very successful joint mixer with the SDCBA, we will host another opportunity to network and interact with attorneys and our membership Wednesday, Oct. 21. At this event we will be having a SDCBA/CalCPA joint economic update featuring Dr. Alan Gin from USD. This will be a lunch event held at the San Diego County Bar Association Bar Center providing an opportunity for CPE credit and networking. Check out our website for further details. This year’s holiday bash will be held downtown Wednesday, Dec. 9 at the happening Hotel Solamar. The Marines will be there once again to collect Toys for Tots. Mark your calendars!
Gearing Up for the FallSeptember 1st, 2009
I would like to take a moment to remind you how to use our website to find out about chapter events, programs and activities. Just go to our website and on the left-hand side, you will see all the current chapter events. You can get a description of the event, including the topic, the speaker and where and when the event is being held. If you decide to sign up, click on the event. Note that you will need your CalCPA member ID and password. If you do not know your ID and password, you can call customer service at (800) 922-5272 and give the course ID number and your credit card. Last month’s young and emerging professionals event was going to a Padres game, and it was a real blast! The Padres beat Milwaukee 11-7. I enjoyed meeting new friends and reconnecting with some old ones in a relaxed outdoor environment. I would like to thank Joan Neely and Louie Wong for doing a great job co-chairing the YEP Committee. And if you haven’t checked out a YEP event yet, please do. Everyone is welcome. Another great event that I attended last month was the Business and Industry Interest Group meeting. Colleen Harvey, CFO of Karl Strauss Brewery, discussed how the company grew out of a passion for beer into a burgeoning local business. She explained the way the company is structured and how it manages its divisions and restaurant sites, as well as a little bit about the metrics she uses to track its progress (but no secrets were revealed). I would like to thank Jill Elsner, our Business and Industry Interest Group chair, for arranging this fun and informative presentation. I particularly enjoyed the Tower 10 IPA beer sample that was given out at the end. You can try it too! There is a Young and Emerging Professionals event being held at Karl Strauss Brewery Gardens Thursday, Oct. 1. Check out our website for all the details and to sign up. So, as we come into autumn, be sure to take some time to enjoy life, be with friends and family, and, when you can, sign up for some of the great events that our board members are working hard to arrange for us all. You’ll be glad you did!
A New PerspectiveAugust 7th, 2009
Anyone today can access facts and information. In addition, it is easier than ever to alter the appearance of data. This has changed the way we value information and make decisions. It is now common office banter to see co-workers’ photos cut and pasted into unlikely situations—atop Mt. Kilimanjaro, giving speeches to the masses, etc. Data can be mixed and remixed in a myriad of realistic looking, but specious ways. It is only when viewed in a broader context and from a comparative vantage point that it becomes apparent that it does not make sense. How else can the reliance on algorithms to assess risk create the huge financial mess that we find ourselves in today? Easy, just use a familiar and accepted baseline of data and inject something foreign, such as sub-prime debt obligations, and blend in increasing amounts over time to create triple-A rated investments. In other words, we need to see if it makes sense in the context of the past and in the context of other relevant facts, and not just on appearances. Today’s easy access to information makes us think we are smarter than we have ever been. In reality, it lulls us into a false sense of security. We need to look beyond the representational facts to the underlying reality of the situation at hand. If we begin to train ourselves to ask more questions about the nature of a given situation and not simply accept the past as an indication of the future, we will be much better prepared to address a given situation. We need ask more and better questions, and to develop new ways to evaluate the answers that we get. This means that a new and modern approach to financial literacy needs to be developed and applied. Today’s youth are great at quickly finding facts and figures, but we need to train them to look beyond the numbers to what is actually happening. Personally, I like to get out in nature to reset my internal clock and relax. It helps me to realize that when an environment is changing rapidly, sometimes it is best to do nothing and just pay attention to what is happening, rather than reacting to the changes. When people respond, rather than react, to a situation, they take a moment to feel what the body is saying and to recognize it as valid, instead of allowing the environment they are in to negate their feelings. Our economic crises was born out of an environment where almost everyone believed that it would work out well, that home prices would only go up. When it began to collapse, everyone equally disbelieved and entered a state of denial. We need to give ourselves and those on our teams the ability to have an educated gut check and to go with those feelings. I think that the more well-rounded a person is, the better able they are to do what is best according to their own moral compass. The more centered a person is allows them to act on those findings confidently against what is the norm. Perhaps this is the great value in the 150-hour rule. By opening up the additional education requirements to non-technical fields of study gives upcoming professionals the broad based background they need to make truly objective decisions in the face of a rapidly changing economic environment. Times of change create the most opportunity, and it is by looking at things from a new perspective that enables some to take advantage of those opportunities.
Off to a Great StartJuly 2nd, 2009
The CalCPA Council meeting included messages from Andrea Cope, our new chair, and Conrad Davis, first vice president. Both expressed positive points on membership, indicating that total membership—at that time—was almost to the 35,000 mark. Since then, CalCPA has surpassed that figure. Andrea noted that younger members are becoming more involved and are the key to our profession’s future. She encouraged the use of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to stay connected and network with our peers. Conrad pointed out that one of the best ways to attract new members is for current members to encourage other CPAs to join CalCPA. Let them know the many positive benefits our association offers, including networking opportunities, technical information and education, as well as professional and political advocacy. I urge us all to keep this in mind as we interact with our CPA peers. We are the best advertising this association has! Our sincere expression of how CalCPA works for us will naturally attract others who want to benefit in the same ways we do. We also had a government relations update arranged by Bruce Allen, CalCPA’s director of government relations. Assembly members Fiona Ma and Mary Hayashi spoke on SB 691 (the 150-hour rule), inactive license disclosure, peer review, mobility and taxpayer privilege legislation, all of which are pending. These two women are strong advocates of the CPA profession and deserve our support and appreciation. San Diego’s Jim Kuhn, the eldest past chair in attendance at the meeting, provided a glimpse into the CalCPA’s past, with stories of the early days. Jim recounted how, in 1958, he was involved in starting what sounds like the precursor to today’s Young and Emerging Professionals group. He spoke of getting together with younger members and creating their own meetings and social events separate from the regular chapter agenda. He talked about leadership training, installation events and golf tournaments to raise money—all familiar topics to us today. Jim recommended getting to know our colleagues. Jim’s passion for the profession is because of the people, and I can understand why he feels this way. Thanks for all your years of service and dedication, Jim! This past month also saw our chapter board’s planning conference held at the Riverwalk Golf Club in Mission Valley. My primary goals for the chapter this year are focused on financial literacy, networking with other professional groups and expanding our membership in the business and industry segment. Of these goals, I feel that financial literacy is the most important. At the conference, Wesley Martin and Bobby Singer of San Diego State University’s Beta Alpha Psi gave an excellent presentation of a teaching tool that their group created. It is a game played with a bank balance and a variety of economic situations that change as cards are dealt. (Does that sound familiar?) The students get to make choices, spend or save and, at the end, see who ends up with the most money. The game is very well-designed and a lot of fun to play. It really gets the students to think about the results of the financial decisions they make within the context of a fun activity. We will be coordinating with the SDSU students to deliver financial literacy throughout the county this year. I invite you to join us in the effort. We also had a very nice officer’s installation event held at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park. I would like to extend my gratitude to Cindy Holcomb, Maria Nazario and the San Diego chapter members who made my installation event such a pleasure and success. It looked to me like everyone was having as good a time as I was. It was a privilege to share it with you all, and I am looking forward to a great year. The SDCBA/CalCPA mixer was a lot of fun and a huge success. We had a balanced mix of attorneys and CPAs, which created a fun-filled night of conversation and networking. Thank you Leslie Mittanck, CalCPA ABC Interest Group chair, Jerrilyn Malana, SDCBA president, Ellen Miller, SDCBA executive director, and Cindy Holcomb, chapter program associate for arranging such a successful event. I look forward to having more great networking events throughout the year. I hope this next year we are able to reach more people with our financial literacy initiatives, and I would like to see us learn more from one another so that we can all grow and prosper together.
The Next 100 Years of ExcellenceJune 1st, 2009
It has been 100 years since CalCPA has been serving its diverse and talented members as a nonprofit corporation. So please remember to register for the Centennial Gala being held June 19 at the beautiful Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. This celebration promises to be a worthwhile and elegant event. I am excited to help lead the chapter as it moves forward into the next phase of its development. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Cindy Holcomb, our new program associate, and welcome back Maria Nazario as our program director. Additionally, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Carmen Conrady and Gary Hammond for serving the chapter this past year as program associate and program director, respectively. I also would like to express my gratitude to Marlene Thudium on her contributions and leadership during the past year as chapter president. Marlene got the chapter focused on financial literacy and the 150-hour legislative initiative. These are two important issues that I look forward to continuing to work on during this coming year. In fact, I feel that financial literacy and accounting education are two essential areas in which CalCPA is uniquely qualified to lead and contribute to both the profession and the public at large. With regard to the 150-hour rule, I would be remiss if I did not mention the stupendous job the students from our local colleges and universities did in getting our state legislators to take notice of what students have to say in support of this initiative. These students took the time to go to Sacramento and visited locally with legislators. They clearly and precisely expressed their concerns and needs as students getting ready to enter the accounting profession. They made it clear that they had no interest in graduating with a degree that leaves them viewed as being substandard practitioners by the majority of other states. These students recognize that today’s business environment is global, competitive and demanding of skills that allow them a broader understanding and knowledge base so they can effectively understand, communicate and advise on their clients’ rapidly evolving business needs. Both Sharon Lightner and Tom Dalton have done an excellent job of leading this effort, and I would like to thank them both. I look forward to a fun and productive year, and I am excited to work with such a great group of people and outstanding professionals on this year’s board of directors. As a reminder to our local chapter members, please mark your calendar for the joint CalCPA and San Diego County Bar Association mixer being held on Wednesday, June 3, 5:30–7:30 p.m. Please consider coming out to meet some fellow practitioners and mingle with some local attorneys. I think this will be an excellent opportunity to build relationships and develop professional ties across our professions. Check it out and register online.
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I would like to take a moment to review some noteworthy highlights from 2009-10 that stand out in my mind as an indication of our progress as a chapter.
