Back to School—Back to Basics

By Johanna Sweaney Salt, CPA

September seems an especially appropriate month to review CalCPA’s strategic priorities that support our vision and mission:

• Advocate for members on issues that affect the profession.
• Enhance and promote the visibility of the profession and CalCPA.
• Attract, educate and support CPAs in their professional and personal development.

This month, I’d like to focus on the third priority: Attract, educate and support CPAs in their professional and personal development.

Attract: Our chapter has always placed a high value on student involvement and membership. Did you know that we were the first chapter to have a student representative on our board of directors? This year, our student representative is Kurihi Chargualaf, an articulate and passionate young man who is an incredible asset to our chapter. Be sure to read his article in this Bulletin.

Clearly, our chapter has recognized the importance of interacting with and supporting students. We offer several opportunities for students and young professionals to connect with those of us who are, shall we say, more seasoned. These young professionals are, after all, our future, and as the baby boomers prepare to retire, we must reach out to those following in our footsteps. Consider attending the Student/YEP Event Oct. 29 at the University of California, Riverside, (look for more information in upcoming bulletins). Or perhaps you’d like a more casual event: Our chapter hosts various quarterly member and guest socials. Check out the dates online.

Educate and Support: Your chapter’s leadership has scheduled some very timely and interesting events for the upcoming months:

• Sept. 9: Licensing Renewal; Fraud Overview
• Sept. 29: Annual A&A update; Mandatory Peer Review
• Oct. 20: Health Care Reform
• Nov. 9: Our first annual ABC (attorney, banker, CPA) Event
• Dec. 1: What Every CPA Should Know About Foreign Taxation; Tax Update
• Jan. 14: Accounting and Auditing With Excel
• Jan. 27: Inspector Gadget—Technology Security Issues

Don’t forget to take advantage of our Big Five Discount Program, which provides a 10 percent discount when you register for five of our chapter’s events. This offer expires Sept. 8, so be sure to preregister today! For details and to take advantage of this offer, go online.

Additionally, we have a monthly Management of an Accounting Practice Discussion Group, and, as mentioned above, various member/guest socials and YEP events. Information for all of these events can be found online.

If there are other ways in which your chapter can educate and support you in your professional endeavors, please contact me. I look forward to seeing many of you this fall.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 10:51 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.