A New Beginning

By Patrick D. Rogan, CPA

It is my honor and pleasure to be your chapter president for the upcoming year. These are challenging times for the state economy, as well as the profession.

I would like to thank David Motes, our past president, and the officers, directors and committee chairs for their dedicated and outstanding service. Their hard efforts created a very successful year.

The chapter is CalCPA’s fifth-largest in terms of membership and covers one of the largest geographic regions of the state. This creates and poses challenges for both the chapter leadership and members.

My vision for the upcoming year is “Get Involved!” The profession needs you! I want to emphasize a number of priorities this year, including member outreach, financial literacy and student outreach.

Member Outreach—I want to reach out to all members, especially those located in the outlying regions of the chapter, and get more members involved in the activities of their choice and interest.

Student Outreach—The CPA profession is facing critical shortages because there is increased demand for our services and the average age of members is rising. We need to encourage students to become CPAs. Those same students want to hear from CPAs to understand what we do and why they should became a CPA.

Financial Literacy—Our economy demonstrates that Californians need to be better educated in financial matters and become financially literate. Remember, CPAs are the most trusted adviser to business. What better way to participate than to use our expertise to help the community improve its financial knowledge and better prepare for its future.

CPAs have much to offer. Our expertise gives us a unique position with the public to help others. In the coming months I will lay out ideas and plans for theses priorities.

Some exciting events are happening in May and June. The chapter installation dinner and dance is scheduled for Friday, May 8 at Scotts on the River in the Le Rivage Hotel. Come out and meet the chapter leadership and have some fun.

In June CalCPA celebrates its centennial with a gala planned for Friday, June 19 at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel. It is expected to sell out, so make your reservation early for this don’t-miss event.

Also check out our event calendar for other chapter activities. You may find one that interests you, and if you attend, you can meet your colleagues and gather new knowledge.

I welcome your comments and suggestions and would like to hear from you. Contact me and I will read each comment and respond.
— Patrick D. Rogan, CPA

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 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.