Donna's Diary

Kicking Up Our Heels in Fort Worth

The Annual Meeting of Members wrapped up at noon last Saturday in Ft. Worth. Many thanks to the Ft. Worth Chapter for welcoming us to their city. About 20 brave souls even got up for a 6 a.m. walking tour of downtown led by Lei Testa and Kathy Kelly on Saturday. I have to confess to not being that energetic!

The meeting was a whirlwind of activity for me starting with the golf tournament on Thursday, two meetings that afternoon and Executive Board dinner that evening (where Kym Anderson and I got to roast last year’s chairman, Jeff Gregg). After dinner, the Ft. Worth Chapter hosted a reception for the members of Jeff’s and my executive boards. 

On Friday morning, my husband, Steve, who was already the golf tournament chairman, got roped into filling in to do a 2 hour presentation on cloud computing when the presenter had a family emergency. I was able to sit in on the first 45 minutes and he did a great job – if he hadn’t told everyone he only had about an hour to prepare, they wouldn’t have known. I guess that’s what 30 years of experience will do for you! I left that presentation so that John Sharbaugh and I could do the orientation for new board members. It’s always fun to welcome new people to the board and hopefully we helped them to understand their role a little better.

The big meeting kicked off with the awards luncheon – congratulations to all the winners. At the end of this, Jeff passed the virtual gavel to me (since the real one was missing in action). Friday afternoon’s meeting agenda was full with Jeff giving us a recap of his year, and Rick Baumeister reporting on last year’s financials and Tracy Stewart presenting the year’s budget for approval. It’s always fun to be the CPA providing financial information to a room full of CPAs, but Rick and Tracy were up to the task. We had an energetic presentation by Joe Gerstandt entitled “Illuminating the Value of Difference.” He had some interesting ways to make us think about our differences and how they affect our leadership and our working together to make good decisions, which was a good segue into my Saturday presentation.

The meeting was followed by a PAC reception and then it was off to the evening dinner and dance. I was excited to have not only my husband, but both our daughters and my mother in attendance. I challenged the CPAs to break the stereotype of boring CPAs and dance the night away, and I’m happy to say that many of them did just that. We also raised $13,500 for the TSCPA Accounting Education Foundation by holding a silent auction. As usual, Pat Winters’ amazing quilt brought in big money!

I kicked off Saturday morning by discussing my theme of the year “Strong, Diverse, United” and went over some of my initiatives. I asked for suggestions for naming my blog, and thanks to Diane DeCou, it is now Donna’s Diary. We were honored to have our own TSCPA member and U.S. Congressman, Mike Conaway, speak to us about the Federal deficit. It was not an uplifting discussion, as you can imagine, but one the country needs to hear. We are lucky to have Mike working on our behalf in Washington.

Our related entities also brought us up to date on their activities. As you can see, it was a full agenda and by the time we adjourned on Saturday, I was ready for a nap!

June 19, 2011

I was honored to be able to speak briefly yesterday at the CPA swearing-in ceremony here in Austin. We offer the new CPAs a one-year free membership, and I had the opportunity to talk to them about why they should join our ranks. My home chapter (the Austin CPA Chapter) provided ushers for the event and did their usual outstanding job.

 The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy makes this such a great event for the new CPAs and their families, and TSCPA is always glad to be a part of that celebration. And what a celebration it is. Most of the new CPAs who attend the ceremony have family and friends with them, and it’s a great affirmation for all the hard work that we all know it takes to get to that day.

As part of the ceremony, TSBPA also recognizes CPAs who have held their licenses for 50 years. There were 49 names in the program and 8-10 of them were there in person, including former TSCPA chairman Stan Winters and former Houston Society president Joe Rye. Their attendance brings a sort of symmetry to the ceremony.

Do you remember when you got your certificate? I sure do! Before the swearing-in ceremony was put into place, the certificates were actually mailed out to the local chapters of TSCPA and presented at chapter functions. I was in the Brazos Valley Chapter and my boss, Jim Ingram III, was the president of the chapter and presented the certificates to us. There were about five of us who got our certificates, and it was big news in Bryan/College Station – we got our pictures in the paper, but I don’t think any of our families were in attendance.

So congratulations to the 1,212 new CPAs in the great state of Texas! We look forward to seeing you at TSCPA events soon!

YEP Conference Wrap-Up

I got home late last night from the Young and Emerging Professional Conference.  While I’m certainly not a member of this conference’s target audience, I was excited to be able to speak at the conference and then spend the day hanging out with the future of our profession.  These young people (CPAs, candidates and student members) left me with the feeling that our future is in good hands.

Many of them are already involved in meaningful ways in TSCPA and/or their chapters and many others expressed an interest in becoming more involved.  They are indeed a diverse group and they came from all over the state for the opportunity to learn and mix and mingle with other young and emerging professionals, to hone both their technical knowledge and learn some soft skills that are also so important to our success.

So thanks to the committee for inviting me and starting my year as chairman off with such a great group!

 

So it Begins!

It’s official.  Today is the first day of my one year term as chairman of TSCPA.  So far so good!  I have been planning and preparing and clearing my calendar for the past 20 months, and now it’s time.  The TSCPA has been a big part of my career; for leadership, education, networking, resources and friendship.  I am certain that I am a better CPA for having been involved in this organization and it is an honor to be serving as your chairman.

My theme for the year is Strong, Diverse, United.  TSCPA is Strong because we serve a Diverse membership and yet we are United in our goal to serve our members, advocate on behalf of the profession and recruit new people into both the profession and our organization.  I will be talking about this in more depth at the annual meeting and in the July/August issue of Today’s CPA, so stay tuned.

I am excited that my first official duty this week is to speak at The Young & Emerging Professionals Conference on Friday.  I remember when I was the young professional!  What an exciting time and I’m glad to get to meet with them.  It’s also apropos as I had an initiative to put at least one CPA who is 40 years old or younger on each TSCPA committee this year, which I’m happy to announce has been accomplished.

So, I’m off and running and looking forward to a great year.