What’s on Tap

By Denise M. Patterson, CPA

By the time this Bulletin is issued, two chapter events will have occurred. The first was the annual CPAs Care–United Way Day of Caring took place Sept. 13. I hope you and your firm’s professionals, staff, family and friends had a wonderful time working to improve our community. The other event, our Annual Student Night, took place Sept. 16. Again, I hope you were able to attend and had a wonderful evening meeting the students from our local colleges and universities. Additional results of these events will be shared with you in the next Bulletin!

Be sure to mark your calendar for upcoming CalCPA and Fresno Chapter events, including: the Annual Golf Tournament (Monday, Oct. 27); Members’ Recognition Dinner (Wednesday, Nov. 19.); Women’s Leadership Forum in Los Angeles (Wednesday, Dec. 3); and the Past Presidents Breakfast (Wednesday, Dec. 17). Look for additional information in this issue of the Bulletin, as well as direct e-mail messages.

During the past year, CalCPA began a strategic planning effort that is continuing into the current year. Several priorities have been identified, including: advocate for members on issues that affect the profession; enhance and promote the visibility of the profession and CalCPA; and attract, educate and support CPAs in their professional and personal development. Our chapter leadership has been asked to develop a plan that addresses how the Fresno Chapter can contribute to the success of the strategic plan. Over the next several months, your chapter board of directors will develop a plan to address each of the stated priorities. You can download a copy of CalCPA’s strategic plan online. If you have any suggestions as to how the chapter can implement the stated objectives, feel free to share those with me via e-mail. We look forward to learning of your ideas and including those in the chapter’s plans.

Nominations are being accepted for the Outstanding Young & Emerging Professional Awards for Excellence.

The award categories are:

• Young and Emerging Professionals in the Community—An individual who has made a significant contribution to his/her community through charity or voluntary work.
• Young and Emerging Professionals of Determination—An individual who has had to overcome significant adversity or challenge to make a difference or to succeed personally or professionally.
• Inspirational Young and Emerging Professionals—An individual whose behavior, actions, words or achievements have inspired others.
• Innovation of Young and Emerging Professionals—An individual who has shown a continued effort to share his/her ideas of how to improve and modernize the CPA profession.
• Young and Emerging Professional Demonstrating Leadership and Team Work—An individual who demonstrates leadership and teamwork in his/her profession.
• Young and Emerging Professional of the Year—Overall winner.

Download the nomination form online. Nominations are due Wednesday, Oct. 8. Please consider nominating one or several of your young and emerging professional staff members for these awards!

In member news over the past month, Laura Cullen appeared on ABC30 to discuss how to minimize taxes by having your property value reassessed and revisiting your income tax exemptions. And Gary Istanboulian appeared on KSEE–TV 24 to discuss when an individual should begin receiving Social Security payments. Thank you Laura and Gary for representing CalCPA and the Fresno Chapter!

— Denise M. Patterson, CPA (FL)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 5:23 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.