New Beginnings: WDYWFY?

By Michele Day, CPA

Greetings! How time flies when you’re having fun! Can it be 2009 already? I hope this finds you still basking in the glow of a lovely holiday season and that its warmth will carry with you into the new year.

With the advent of January, we can set the tone and direction for our year. Michelle Alberda of Skirtworking, one of the speakers at the recent Women’s Leadership Forum, reminded us of the catch phrase “WDYWFY—pronounced “whiddy whiffy.” It’s short for What Do You Want For Yourself? It was suggested that we make three personal and three professional goals for ourselves for the upcoming year. This would be a great time to use those priorities that surfaced during our consideration of “Balance” last month.

Perhaps you may want to do some reading outside of the profession. Consider Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers: The Story of Success. In this book, Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, presents a fascinating study of why some people succeed far more than others. It’s not necessarily what you might think!

CalCPA may be able to assist you in meeting some of your goals. Consider:

• Becoming a leader in the profession. CalCPA offers many opportunities to become involved at whatever level that works for you. Attend chapter and CalCPA level events. Check in with Joelyn Carr-Fingerle, our chapter’s first vice president and upcoming president, and the leadership team (members of the board and committee chairs) as they plan for next year to see how you might use your existing skills and develop new ones. Another opportunity: participate in CPA Day at the Capitol Jan. 21 to help our legislators better understand the issue of substantial equivalency facing the profession.
• Expanding or focusing your practice. What better way to do this than to network with fellow CPAs and other professionals serving our clients’ financial needs? Real networking—building relationships between individuals who come to know and trust each other—happens while you’re contributing to a larger purpose. Many times, just being at an activity constituted contributing to the whole. Sign up for the Tax Issues in Divorce Mini-conference coming up Jan. 13. You can register with lunch or without.
• Getting your A&A continuing education requirement completed early this time. Attend our chapter’s Low-Cost Education event Jan. 24. You can attend the morning session, afternoon session or all day.
• Mentoring those new to the profession. Join us at Honorees’ Night, our chapter dinner meeting,  Jan. 29, when our Scholarship Awards will be presented (as well as our Garcia Award and CPA Executive of the Year Award).

OK, you get the picture. CalCPA’s a great resource to help you with WDYWFY.

Chapter update:

In early December, your board of directors approved a revamping of our Scholarship Awards Program. Many thanks to Joe Mori, chair of the chapter’s Accounting Education and Scholarship committee, and his team for all of their hard work in developing the new program, which will be implemented next fiscal year.

We’ve continued with our meetings with local legislators. Thanks Soco Davenport (our program associate) for coordinating these meetings. Thanks to all who have taken the time to call on legislators here in their local offices.

Our December chapter dinner meeting, Tax Night, was a great success. Thanks to Zak Sahar, chair of the chapter’s Tax Committee, for organizing the event and to our own Professor Gary McBride for his, as always, informative talk.

The Emerging Professionals group hosted its annual ice skating party in Walnut Creek in late December. Thanks to Jason McKenna, chair of the chapter’s YEP Committee, and his team. It was a great success! Many brave souls left the warm shelter of Maria Maria’s to show their prowess (or not) on the ice.

Beth Rasler has stepped forward to chair the South Bay Discussion Group. Thanks, Beth!

Speaking of the Women’s Leadership Forum, which was held in early December in Los Angeles, the East Bay Chapter was well-represented. “Women to Watch” awards were presented for the first time. The eligibility criteria and competition for the awards was strong. Candidates were nominated by their peers and selected from a pool of finalists. Mary Kay Foss was a finalist for the Experienced Leader award category. I was a finalist in the Emerging Leader category. I cannot tell you how astounded and honored I was to be nominated and selected as a finalist. Thanks so much to those who nominated me and wrote letters of support.

And kudos to Jamie Menasco and her team for the wonderful results in attendance and presentation at the New Member Orientation, which was held just prior to the December Tax Night dinner meeting. Thanks, Jamie—and welcome new members!

That’s what I know for now. Happy New Year and see you out there! Here’s to a great 2009! WDYWFY?

— Michele Day, CPA

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 11:19 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.