Council Meeting Update

By Johanna Sweaney Salt, CPA

Following a successful CPA Day at the Capitol, the CalCPA Council met Jan. 21 in Sacramento. As usual, council members had a jam-packed agenda, with too much to report here. However, here are a few highlights.

CalCPA Chair Andrea Cope gave her report on the December CalCPA Board meeting. The board is looking closely at key performance indicators in conjunction with CalCPA’s strategic plan. We have also experienced a year of tremendous legislative success, with key bills being passed. Additionally, Andrea talked about how much she has enjoyed visiting the various chapters statewide.

Next on the agenda was first vice chair Conrad Davis. Conrad presented various charts and graphs relating to CalCPA’s market and how it relates to membership efforts. A couple of key points: In 2003, CalCPA unveiled its “first year free” for candidate memberships. At that time, only 22 percent of the new licensees were CalCPA members. In the five years following, tremendous progress has been made, with 2008 having 45 percent of new licensees being CalCPA members. This is especially important in light of the next statistic: The number of years licensed when licensees joined CalCPA starts to rise at the year before they are licensed, spikes at year 0 and drops rapidly thereafter. Ultimately, the chapters with the highest percentage of student and candidate members are the ones who are experiencing the most growth.

Conrad also presented information relating to market penetration, annual event attendance, sponsorships and membership growth by chapter. It is crucial for the future wellness of CalCPA that chapters share their best practices so that we can all benefit.

Treasurer Ed Jordan presented the proposed 2010-11 budget and dues structure. The major highlight is that the CalCPA Finance Committee and board agreed to implement a long-standing recommendation that dues for members in industry should mirror the structure used for public practice members. As a result, industry members who are new to the profession will experience a dues decrease, while those who hold executive-level positions will incur an increase. All other membership categories will have no dues increase. With CalCPA moving its headquarters from Redwood City to San Mateo, the budget included a one-time moving expense.

Several members of the Black Caucus who were meeting in the same hotel also treated council members to an impromptu visit. In addition, Sen. Leland Yee addressed the council. Yee was one of our strongest allies in 2009 and sponsored critical CalCPA legislation. Mark Peterson, AICPA government affairs vice president, presented a legislative update on the national level. Most notably he commented that since health care may not come to pass in its present form due to the Boston senatorial election results, financial market reform might be the legacy President Obama leaves behind.

The above is only a small part the activities that took place and the information that were shared at the council meeting. I urge anyone who has the opportunity to attend the next council meeting that they do so.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Chapter News. 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.