Be Well, Do Good Work and Keep in Touch

By Joelyn Carr-Fingerle, CPA

“Be well, do good work and keep in touch.” “The Writer’s Almanac,” an online and radio program produced and distributed by Prairie Home Productions and American Public Media with Garrison Keillor, closes with this slogan each day. It really sums up what we all try to do each and every day, professionally and personally. It’s a pleasant break that reminds me to stop, take a deep breath, and just be in the moment instead of rushing forward to the next task.

Summer is a good time to relax and appreciate life. The pace is often a little slower. The sun is out and there are more opportunities to enjoy time with family and friends. Our chapter also has many committee activities and meetings that allow you to meet with your friends and colleagues, as well as learn something. I hope to connect with you at one of those events.

Summer also is a good time to develop your exercise habit so it becomes ingrained by the time winter rolls around and we are less inspired to get outdoors for some exercise. My workout helps me keep the week in balance. It increases my energy and stamina. I encourage you to find some activity you enjoy and stick to it! For me, it’s just too easy to push exercise aside when something comes up. So I make an appointment with myself to ensure I see my commitment through. You might try that strategy too.

As for keeping in touch, that is important on so many levels. We need to stay in touch with our clients, our friends and our families. There are friends we only contact once a year, with annual holiday cards, but I challenge you to send a mid-year note. You may be pleasantly surprised at the response you receive. It might be the beginning of a friendly correspondence. Try it!

Our chapter also would like you to keep in touch. We are putting together a book—available after busy season—that will cover 60 years of our chapter’s history. We welcome your input. Why did you join the chapter? What have you gotten from chapter membership? Why do you attend meetings? If you don’t attend, what could we do to entice you to come? What could the chapter do for you in the future? How could we better serve you? Would you be willing to share some of your experiences with our chapter? Please contribute so we can let others know more about our unique chapter and all the fun we have.

Of course, we especially want to include all the things we have accomplished, such as supporting victims of the Oakland firestorm; establishing our Low-Cost Education Day, the Divorce Mini-Conference and the Estate Planning Symposium; and awarding many scholarships to deserving students in the East Bay colleges and recognizing many excellent examples of leadership given to the community and to CalCPA over the years.

In addition, our chapter has attended baseball games, had dances and mystery dinner theatre presentations, gone ice-skating and listened to some great speakers deliver outstanding presentations. Please feel free to contact me directly or to leave a comment below this blog entry with your thoughts and memories.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please send me feedback anytime. I enjoy hearing your thoughts, suggestions and opinions and will do my best to respond to you promptly.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 11:54 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.