Reach Out to Outreach

By Jamshed Behram Gandi, CPA

One of my goals as president has been to enhance our standing and visibility among the various financial service organizations. An opportunity arose last week for me to represent the chapter at the inaugural meeting with board members of such organizations. The Coalition of Financial Services Group holds regular meetings and aims to make members aware of each other’s educational and social networking events. This effort is spearheaded by the San Francisco FPA group and has been in the offing for quite some time. The idea is to bring the various organizations together and, in time, share event information. I am hoping that this brings value to our members in forming their own networks and affiliations, and in turn leads to co-sponsorship of events and meetings.

In other news, our Oct. 22 annual ABC mixer was well-attended. The new venue at the City Club added greatly to the ambience. On behalf of the chapter, I thank all of our sponsors in making this event such a success. Attorneys, bankers and CPAs have a natural affinity, and these types of events continue to bring together the local financial community on a regular basis.

On the legislation front, the governor passed into law the licensing requirement for 150 hours of college education. This brings to an end the bad boy image of California not being a substantially equivalent state. Additionally, beginning in 2010, peer reviews will be mandated for California CPA firms, and details will be announced soon. On both fronts, we have progressed significantly in shifting legislation to stay in line with the needs of the profession, although I am sure that in both instances there is contrary thinking of sorts.

Globalization took a front seat at the recent AICPA Council’s meeting. AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon commented, “The globalization of the world’s economies will mean that the ability of CPAs to operate across borders will no longer refer to just state borders, but to international borders as well.” Also mentioned was the fact that the AICPA is working with NASBA to offer U.S. CPA exams internationally. Melancon added, “We are supporters of what we would call ‘IFRS pure,’ one set of standards applicable everywhere, not country-specific modifications to it.” This seems to be a tall order in my opinion, but it does reflect the prevalent thinking as to the direction of our profession.

Lastly, I draw your attention to our chapter meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 18, which is our new-member event. This meeting is perhaps one of our most important programs of the year and brings to the forefront the value that our chapter provides to our members. I have always found this meeting to be extremely informative, and I hope that you will encourage new CalCPA members on your staff to attend.

Have a splendid Thanksgiving with family and friends.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 5:38 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.