Off to a Great Start

By Joseph A. Forlenza, CPA

CalCPA’s centennial gala was an elegant and festive event. Members came together and celebrated the great things that CalCPA has come to stand for over the last 100 years. These include the strategic priorities of advocacy for the profession, visibility and professional education, in addition to the respected status of CPAs as their clients’ most trusted advisers. It was also a chance for friends and colleagues to meet and have a wonderful time. What especially impressed me was the number of young CPAs who showed up to celebrate. The young professionals are an impressive lot, and they mingled comfortably with everyone, including the more senior generation.

The CalCPA Council meeting included messages from  Andrea Cope, our new chair, and Conrad Davis, first vice president. Both expressed positive points on membership, indicating that total membership—at that time—was almost to the 35,000 mark. Since then, CalCPA has surpassed that figure. Andrea noted that younger members are becoming more involved and are the key to our profession’s future. She encouraged the use of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to stay connected and network with our peers.

Conrad pointed out that one of the best ways to attract new members is for current members to encourage other CPAs to join CalCPA. Let them know the many positive benefits our association offers, including networking opportunities, technical information and education, as well as professional and political advocacy. I urge us all to keep this in mind as we interact with our CPA peers. We are the best advertising this association has! Our sincere expression of how CalCPA works for us will naturally attract others who want to benefit in the same ways we do.

We also had a government relations update arranged by Bruce Allen, CalCPA’s director of government relations. Assembly members Fiona Ma and Mary Hayashi spoke on SB 691 (the 150-hour rule), inactive license disclosure, peer review, mobility and taxpayer privilege legislation, all of which are pending. These two women are strong advocates of the CPA profession and deserve our support and appreciation.

San Diego’s Jim Kuhn, the eldest past chair in attendance at the meeting, provided a glimpse into the CalCPA’s past, with stories of the early days. Jim recounted how, in 1958, he was involved in starting what sounds like the precursor to today’s Young and Emerging Professionals group. He spoke of getting together with younger members and creating their own meetings and social events separate from the regular chapter agenda. He talked about leadership training, installation events and golf tournaments to raise money—all familiar topics to us today. Jim recommended getting to know our colleagues. Jim’s passion for the profession is because of the people, and I can understand why he feels this way. Thanks for all your years of service and dedication, Jim!

This past month also saw our chapter board’s planning conference held at the Riverwalk Golf Club in Mission Valley. My primary goals for the chapter this year are focused on financial literacy, networking with other professional groups and expanding our membership in the business and industry segment. Of these goals, I feel that financial literacy is the most important. At the conference, Wesley Martin and Bobby Singer of San Diego State University’s Beta Alpha Psi gave an excellent presentation of a teaching tool that their group created. It is a game played with a bank balance and a variety of economic situations that change as cards are dealt. (Does that sound familiar?) The students get to make choices, spend or save and, at the end, see who ends up with the most money. The game is very well-designed and a lot of fun to play. It really gets the students to think about the results of the financial decisions they make within the context of a fun activity. We will be coordinating with the SDSU students to deliver financial literacy throughout the county this year. I invite you to join us in the effort.

We also had a very nice officer’s installation event held at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park. I would like to extend my gratitude to Cindy Holcomb, Maria Nazario and the San Diego chapter members who made my installation event such a pleasure and success. It looked to me like everyone was having as good a time as I was. It was a privilege to share it with you all, and I am looking forward to a great year.

The SDCBA/CalCPA mixer was a lot of fun and a huge success. We had a balanced mix of attorneys and CPAs, which created a fun-filled night of conversation and networking. Thank you Leslie Mittanck, CalCPA ABC Interest Group chair, Jerrilyn Malana, SDCBA president, Ellen Miller, SDCBA executive director, and Cindy Holcomb, chapter program associate for arranging such a successful event. I look forward to having more great networking events throughout the year.

I hope this next year we are able to reach more people with our financial literacy initiatives, and I would like to see us learn more from one another so that we can all grow and prosper together.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 1:45 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.