Politics and CalCPA

By Thomas A. Letus, CPA

With Election Day finally here, I thought it would be a fine time to talk politics. I won’t give you my political views, but I will tell you about CalCPA’s effort to get the word out to our state legislators regarding CPA mobility and its importance to California CPAs and consumer protection. We all have heard or read about CPA mobility and the need for substantial equivalency. You can find more information on the issues on the CalCPA website.

CalCPA is working hard on this issue in Sacramento, and we will be doing the same thing right here in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties over the next couple of months. The plan is to schedule appointments with our state representatives or their staff in their local offices. The appointments will take about 15 minutes and include two or three CPAs. CalCPA’s Government Relations Division has prepared talking points for mobility and substantial equivalency, so we can make our state legislators aware of the issues. We are looking for volunteers for these meetings, so please let us know if you can help.

The local efforts will culminate with CPA Day at the Capitol Wednesday, Jan. 21. Last year approximately 300 CPAs went to Sacramento, and we need your involvement this year as well. Please put this day on your calendar and join us at the Capitol for a fun and informative event.

Speaking of volunteering, we all know a local CPA who consistently volunteers his or her time and expertise. CalCPA has a couple of annual awards that recognize members’ volunteer efforts, and it is time to make nominations for those awards.

CalCPA’s Public Service Award honors a chapter member who either has participated in charitable, civic or religious activities that have had a long-term, significant impact or who was responsible for a public service project that had a positive and significant impact on the community. The Distinguished Service Award honors a chapter member who has provided long and distinguished service to the chapter or has performed a singular act resulting in an extraordinary contribution to the chapter or the profession. More information and nomination forms are available online. Nominations are due Jan. 31.

Keeping the focus on politics, our next chapter meeting will be held Election Day, Nov. 4. However, guest speaker David Cieslak’s topic has nothing to do with the election. David speaks regularly at our chapter meetings, and his topic this time will be “Security 2008.” David is chair of the AICPA Executive Committee and is a past chair of the CalCPA Technology Committee. You can register online.

I also want to mention a couple of December events The 2008 Women’s Leadership Forum will be held Wednesday, Dec. 3. This event sold out last year, with more than 300 members from around the state in attendance. Be sure to register now for this popular event. Then, Thursday, Dec. 4, we’ve scheduled continuing education that is sure to draw CPAs from both industry and public accounting. Join us as Karen Schoenebeck speaks on “Financial Statement Analysis” at the University Club in Santa Barbara. Register online.

Enjoy the month and have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
— Thomas Letus, CPA

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 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.