Smooth Transition: The Foundation of Future Success

By Anjela DeRosa

The young accounting graduate, fresh out of university and knowing everything, applied for his first job. The prospective employer asked him what starting salary he was expecting. “Oh … around $100,000 a year, depending on the benefits package,” he replied. “Well, how does this sound?,” the prospective employer said. “Five weeks annual leave, 22.5 percent superannuation, paid expenses to overseas conferences every year, home telephone reimbursed and a company car—say a Mercedes convertible—replaced every 15,000.” The graduate sat up, tried not to look excited and asked, “Wow. Are you kidding?” “Yeah. But you started it.”

For some of us, this is our first busy season. To our veterans, remember to check with our rising stars to ensure the smooth transition to the wonderful world of limitless charge hours. Remind them about endlessly fulfilling the sense of self-gratification from the amount of work that can be done between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. The power of arriving at work before the sunrise and leaving way after the sunset! Assure them that before they know it, they will crave the adrenaline rush associated with our busy seasons and they will wait eagerly for this magical time of the year. Repeat to yourself, “I am measured by the success of the rising stars behind me—together we can move mountains.”

I want to congratulate Erica Pastor and Chad Rinde on their first Government Accounting Committee meeting, which took place in January. The first meeting, in a series of two, was a single audit refresher presented by Michelle Knepp of Macias Gini & O’Connell.

The committee is in the process of scheduling speakers for their February–June meetings, which are held on the fourth Thursday of the month, 8–9:30 a.m. the Novey Building, Second Floor Conference Room; 2515 Venture Oaks Way.

The following is the tentative schedule for the next five months:

Feb. 23: Single Audit (Part II)—Advanced Topics; Michelle Knepp
March 22: RDA Update
April 26: Internal Control/Fraud Refresher
May 24: Presenter’s Choice (Possible topics: Yellow Book Update, Pension Update or School Districts Topic)
June 28: Financial Reporting/Revisiting Fund Balance

Erica states that the committee is open to any topic and speaker suggestions you may have. If you know of anyone who would be interested in speaking, please contact Chad or Erica.  Although the meetings are scheduled for 1.5 hours, the material just needs to cover approximately one hour. Extra time is provided for questions, if needed.

I also would like to congratulate next year’s chapter leadership group nominees and ask our veterans in the leadership group to ensure the smooth introduction of our new faces serving their first year on our chapter board:

Officers
President: David B. Boyce, Brown, Fink, Boyce & Astle LLP
Vice President: Perry Ghilarducci, Avaunt Ltd. CPAs & Consultants
Secretary/Treasurer: Jamie Baker, McGowan & Baker AC
Past President: Anjela V. DeRosa, Moss Adams LLP

Chapter Directors
(First year of a two-year term) Kim Kirkish, GALLINA LLP
Erica Pastor, Munn Urrutia Nelson CPAs & Associates LLP
Dorothea Silva, CCH, a Wolters Kluwer Co.
Stuart Robken, Robken & Company

(Second year of a two-year term)
Jolene Fraser, Ueltzen & Company LLP
Bridget Sanders, Crowe Horwath LLP
Annette Stalker, Ueltzen & Company LLP

(One-year term to replace Jamie Baker)
Holly Roznowski, Vavrinek Trine Day & Co. LLP

CalCPA Council Representatives
David Boyce, Perry Ghilarducci, Anjela DeRosa

As always, I would appreciate hearing your comments or suggestions and will be happy to answer any questions you may have. You can contact me and I will read and respond to every question.

If you would like to be more active in our chapter’s events, contact program associate Dana Agosti.