Donna's Diary

Life is Also a Juggling Act

My last blog post was titled “Life is a Balancing Act.” Right now, it’s more of a juggling act! Tax season is in full swing and the press is on. Every year about this time, I start thinking about what a strange business model we tax CPAs operate under. About 50 percent of the returns we prepare in a year have been completed and the other 50 percent are either in some state of preparation, waiting to be worked on or need to be extended. Work compression issues are real. But somehow it all gets done every year and we move on.

The Tuesday after we got back from our ski trip that I posted about last time, we headed up to Waco so I could speak to the Beta Alpha Psi Chapter at Baylor. The meeting was well attended by both students and CPA chapter members. Their faculty sponsor is our own member and Today’s CPA technical editor and column editor for accounting and auditing issues, Dr. Bill Thomas. Bill and I served on committees together many years ago and it was fun to reconnect with him. The students were an impressive group of up and coming CPAs, and it was great to have a chance to speak to them about our profession, as well as our organization. We got there early enough to spend a little time wandering around the lovely campus and even went to visit the Bear statue.

The following week, we headed to El Paso. Our good friend and former TSCPA Chair, Kym Anderson, picked us up at the airport, and we enjoyed visiting with her and her wonderful husband Wynn at their home. We got to meet all four, yes four, of their weenie dogs too. That was followed by dinner with them and about eight or 10 other El Paso chapter folks. The next morning, their President-elect, Tony Benitez, picked us up from our hotel and, as is the chapter’s tradition, took me to the Lucchese outlet to get a pair of boots. I was stoked about that and had been looking forward to it since I found out I would be the chairman this year. Steve was glad I finally got them so he could quit having to listen to me talk about it!

After that, it was time to get down to business, so we headed to the luncheon where I was scheduled to present a 50-minute Professional Issues Update. When it was time to introduce me, they held up a poster with the Texas A&M logo and “Howdy” on it and had the crowd greet me accordingly. Now that’s hospitality!! The lunch was excellent and as usual at these events, I connected with some old friends and met some new ones. And hopefully gave them all some good information on what’s happening in the world of CPAs.

After returning home and surviving the March 15 deadline, we took a short break and headed to Atlanta for the AICPA Spring Regional Council meeting. We spent a good part of the day talking about the strategic plan for AICPA and discussing planning issues in small groups at our tables.

And now it really is crunch time. I’ve rarely worked on Sundays during tax season – everyone needs a break. But this year, with all this time out of the office for TSCPA, I have had to work every day I’m home. It’s a once in a lifetime ride, though, one that has been filled with great experiences, and I am honored to have been given the chance to serve. So, back to work I go!

Here are a couple of pictures from my travels...

Life is a Balancing Act

Believe it or not, I spent last week in Telluride, CO snow skiing. I say believe it or not since I’m in public accounting. I skied about six days total in my youth and then never skied again until I was 40 because of the demands of tax season. The last year I was in Houston, I went skiing over Thanksgiving. A couple of years later when I moved back to Austin, I decided tax season or not, I was going skiing. So since 1994, I have not missed a year. We used to go at spring break when our kids were in school, but no one goes skiing at spring break unless they have to or because they love crowds! Lately, we’ve gone in January most years and usually for two weeks. This year, due to all the travel with TSCPA, we decided we’d better only go for a week. 

It was a glorious week – four days of powder skiing and two days of cruising. The only injury I sustained was knocking the $%&*#% out of one of my toes on a table while I was sitting on a couch. So apparently, I can ski eight black runs in a row with no problem, but sitting on the couch is dangerous. Oh well, a little ice and some tape and it was good to go. Black and blue, but good to go.

We all work hard, whether we’re in public accounting or industry, government, education, etc. CPAs tend to be dedicated, hard working folks. But we all need a break and one of my favorite ones is snow skiing. So, I make it happen. Now of course, I’m working double time to make up for it, but it’s worth it to me. I encourage you all, even when you’re busy, to find some time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

I Fell Off the Blog Wagon...

I have not posted anything since November! Wow, where has the time gone? I will try to stay up to date better for the rest of my term. I did pretty good for the first 5 months and then things got to going a pretty fast pace and I just dropped the ball.

Right after the last post, I had the pleasure of speaking to the students at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. I love these student events – it’s fun to meet the upcoming leaders in our profession and to encourage them continue on to become CPAs. Jeff Gregg, of course, took us to a great barbeque joint in Wichita Falls before the meeting. You can always count on Jeff to know where the good food is!

We drove back to Dallas that night and spent the night, then flew out the next morning to San Francisco for Executive Board meetings. We had a full business agenda, including bringing the rest of the EB up to date on AICPA Council. Did you know you can get an e-mail address now through AICPA that ends in CPA.com? That’s pretty cool. And of course we discussed the new Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation that will launch on January 31. And no executive board meeting is complete without a discussion of private company financial reporting. We updated everyone on the Rising Stars Program – we had over 70 folks nominated and over 60 of them submitted the paperwork to be considered. The top 12 winners – this year’s Rising Stars will be announced shortly. I say the top 12 winners because, believe me, they were all winners and it was a difficult decision for the task force that made the selections. We reviewed the membership survey and the financials and voted to recommend to the Board of Directors a $25 dues increase (the first one in eight years).

We were only home a few days and then headed south to the Rio Grande Valley. I was the luncheon speaker at their annual meeting of members and their big CPE day event. It’s a great event with good CPE and great participation. And a trip to the beach is always a good thing for an old Corpus Christi person like me.

At the end of November I flew out to Texarkana to present a Professional Issues Update at their chapter meeting. I had the chance to catch up with some old friends there and meet some new people. It was a lunch event and well attended. These chapter visits are one of my favorite things – the chapters are our life blood and it’s great to see them in action.

On December 3, I spoke at the Swearing In Ceremony for new CPAs. I love this event too – almost all of the new CPAs have family and friends there to cheer them on and they are all so proud and excited –as they should be. I had the opportunity to shake each of their hands as they came off the stage, hand them a packet offering them a one year free membership and the chance to speak to the crowd and tell them why I believe they should join us at TSCPA. That’s an easy speech!

I dashed down to Houston a few days later for their open house at their new location. It’s a wonderful facility and they had great attendance at the event. I really liked that they recognized new members and also had tables set up around the room for their committees where people could find out what the committee did and volunteer on the spot to get involved. What a great idea and they got a good response.

I missed Fred Timmons’ executive board orientation in December as my daughter, Kirsten, flew in from Portland, OR the night before. I would have liked to be there to support Fred, but I am pretty oriented to the executive board by now (this being the 7^th one I’ve served on over a span of about 25 years).

Things were quiet on the TSCPA front for the next few weeks so I was able to do year- end tax planning with my clients, have my mom up for 9 days (from Corpus Christi) and spend time with Kirsten as she came and went. Steve & I managed to make it to Dallas to see Lake Travis High School win its fifth straight state championship in football and I had 4 generations of my family, including both of my daughters, home for our annual cookie baking day. The holidays were good.

I kicked off January by speaking, along with our Executive Director John Sharbaugh, at the Austin Chapter Leadership Academy on January 13. This was their final classroom event and they’ve certainly got some good people on the leadership track. Austin CPA Chapter partnered with Leadership Austin and the program appears to have been a big success. I left that meeting and dropped by a meeting of our Accountants Confidential Assistance Network (ACAN). This is a very special group of dedicated volunteers who work in conjunction with the State Board to assist CPAs with drug and alcohol problems. I was so taken by their commitment to this program and I applaud the work that they do.

We were in College Station (whoop!) for Executive Board and Mid- Year Board of Directors meetings in mid-January. Between the two meetings, I had the chance to speak to over 200 accounting majors at TAMU about the future of the profession and their job opportunities. I also managed to put in a few plugs for student membership in TSCPA. At the Board of Directors meeting, we had updates from the State Board by Dr. James Flagg from Texas A&M University, from FAF by Mack Lawhon and on the economy by Dr. Barton Smith. We of course had the vote on the dues increase and I’m pleased that it passed. No one likes having to ask for a dues increase, but after 8 years, the time had come. Things got lively when we discussed an idea to consider a policy going forward of increasing dues in small increments annually, subject to the approval of the Board of Directors, as is required by the by-laws. This one got tabled by a narrow vote and we moved on to other topics. The Brazos Valley Chapter arranged for the Aggie Wranglers to perform for us on Friday night and what a performance it was! They are a western dance group, but there was a lot of gymnastics going on with it. Even the t-sips thought they were good!

I managed to spend one night at home before heading off to speak to the San Antonio Chapter. I got to visit with my nephew Sean Tullos (who is a candidate member) and his family, as well as see a lot of old friends. I presented a Professional Issues Update to a sell- out crowd that included a lot of familiar faces.

I drove back to Austin after the luncheon and flew to Dallas so John Sharbaugh, Bill Schneider and I could do the Professional Issues Webcast the next day. Bill is a former president of the Georgia Society of CPAs and we are lucky to have him involved in TSCPA now. The next day I spoke to the Fort Worth Chapter (another Professional Issues Update) and was especially glad that my old buddy from my CPE Council days, Mike Griffin, made it to the meeting so we could catch up a little. I think I could almost do the Professional Issues update in my sleep at this point. Hopefully, I don’t put the rest of you to sleep when I’m presenting it.

Whew! Now you know why I have not been blogging. All I can say is I’m having a great time and I’m even more convinced of the value we bring to our members by providing them with the tools they need to succeed in their business lives and by advocating on their behalf in so many different arenas. I’ve got a few more chapter events coming up, but before you know it I’ll be a lame duck.

Made Up and Ready to Go

I participated in my first Professional Issues webcast as a presenter yesterday. The studio where this is produced is a very professional and interesting place in Dallas. Before the webcast, they even took me in to do makeup. I thought I already had makeup on, but apparently it wasn’t nearly enough, because the young woman spent about 20 minutes making me presentable! Anyway, it was a great experience and if you watched it, I hope you learned a few things and found it to be interesting. I was joined on the webcast by our CEO, John Sharbaugh, as well as fellow TSCPA member, Kathy Kapka, who is a senior lecturer in accounting at the University of Texas at Tyler.

We covered a variety of topics in the area of tax and accounting & auditing, as well as ethics. If you missed this free webcast, TSCPA members can still view it and get two hours of CPE by registering to watch it when it’s replayed next Monday, September 26 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Click here to register. You can watch it on your computer at your desk while you have a Coke and some popcorn, and all the presenters will be available via e-mail to answer any questions that arise. This is a great member benefit, and I am proud to be a part of it.

Next week, I’m off to Abilene to speak to their chapter on the 28^th. As Willie Nelson says, “On the Road Again.”

Texas is on Fire

Hopefully, this finds all of you and your property safe. It has certainly been a scary few weeks here, and our hearts go out to all the people affected by the recent fires. We are aware that some of our members live in the areas affected by fire, and I know that the Austin CPA Chapter has been in contact with the ones we could identify.

If you, or someone you know, live in Bastrop County you may be eligible for federal aid or tax extensions. Here is the link to the IRS news release on this: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=245558,00.html.

Here are a few other links that might be useful.

To register your cellular phone for reverse 911 calls:

http://wireless.capcog.org/ENS/HowItWorks.aspx

And information on protecting your property:

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/wildfire/wf_prepare.shtm#3

Hopefully, we will see some relief from the heat and the drought soon. In the meantime, stay safe and cool.

I Escaped!

No, I wasn’t in jail – I just went to the mountains for a few weeks to escape this heat. Now let’s be clear; I’m a Texas woman – born, raised, educated and worked here my entire life. But even I can’t bear this heat. While we were in Colorado, there was even water falling out of the sky a few times – they tell me it’s called rain.

Towards the end of my trip, the TSCPA Executive Board joined me for our August meeting. In addition to the usual reports and items we have to take care of, we had a lively discussion about the future of our leadership development programs. I have appointed a task force that will be chaired by Fred Timmons and includes a former participant, a participant in the AICPA Leadership Institute, a few executive board members, and one of the members of the original task force that was responsible for our last leadership development program. They will be looking to make a recommendation to the Executive Board by the time we meet in College Station (whoop!) in January.

We also spent some time going over the Rising Stars Program that was officially announced this week. Please be sure to check it out and nominate someone from your company, firm, chapter or just someone you know who qualifies. Click here for the nomination form.

Additionally, we voted unanimously to send a letter to the Financial Accounting Foundation supporting the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Private Company Reporting Standards.

We received coordinating officer reports from many of our committees and they are off to a good start for the year. It’s always amazing to see how much we have going on and I’m continually thankful for those of you who donate your time to make this a great organization.

Member Benefit = Another Tool in Your Toolbox

If you haven’t looked at the new ACPEN Databank, you should give it a whirl. I used it last week for a clarification on something and it was quite useful. This is a new benefit, free to members and I think you will like it. It’s a research tool that provides 10-20 minute videos on a variety of topics. These clips have been gleaned from previous CPE webinars and converted into an online resource for us to use. There are accounting, tax, not-for-profit, fraud, GASB and a myriad of other topics available to view whenever you need them. It’s nice to have another source for these topics, to verify what you understand from the research you’ve already done or maybe to get information on something to point you in the right direction for your research. Or sometimes, I don’t need to know eight hours’ worth of information on a topic; I just need a refresher or a quick overview. While this is not for CPE credit, it’s a wonderful new tool, and I encourage you to make use of it.

 

Here’s the link to TSCPA website information on the Databank: http://tscpa.org/Content/cpe/ACPENDataBank.aspx

Or if you want to jump straight to ACPEN: https://a-databank.acpen.com/index.php

IMPORTANT: After selecting the video of interest, you will see a page with specifics of that program and an opportunity to select it (“add to cart”) for free, as a TSCPA “Member.” On the next page, click on “Proceed” to confirm a $0.00 purchase, then move on to the following page and click on “Complete the Order” at the bottom, taking you to the “Receipt” page. View the video of your choice by selecting “Click here to watch now.”

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!

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.