Committee Co-chairs
Accounting & Auditing (APAS): David Rogers
Student Outreach: Daniel Gutierrez
Financial Literacy: Caitlyn Acquaviva
Government Relations: Lisa Coston
Litigation & Forensic: Kimberly Alvarado
Taxation: Kelly Vickers
Young & Emerging Professionals: Viki Speegle
Technology: Ryan Cunha

Event Chairs
Bankers Forum: Lisa Coston, Craig Rickett
ABC Night: Danhira Millan, Kimberly Alvarado
Golf Tournament: Lauren Be, Stanley Handren
Holiday Party: Caitlyn Acquaviva, Viki Speegle
Student Night: Roc Foster, Daniel Gutierrez
Professional Issues Update: David Rogers
Industry: Tom Bracken, Lauren Be

We can finally look at April 15th in the rear-view mirror, the image growing smaller by the day. Spring has sprung and now we can get out from behind our desks and enjoy the sunshine!

May 1 also marks the beginning of a new year for CalCPA. On behalf of the other officers and board members, I’d like to thank you for your continued membership in CalCPA, and for your participation in our chapter’s activities. If you have not been participating, read on and see what you’re missing!

Last year started a renewal of sorts for our chapter, as we strived to deliver value to you, our members. As a professional membership organization, we provide our members with many excellent opportunities to get to know others in our profession, as well as other professionals with whom we do business every day, such as bankers and attorneys. This year we’ll be gearing many of our activities toward getting useful information about a variety of topics into your hands to help you in your practice. We also view CalCPA and CPA-PAC as excellent conduits for information about the profession, as well as for legislation that has the potential to affect our businesses.

This year’s leadership team has already started planning for many exciting activities for the 2013-14 year, so keep an eye on our website for updates. In the next couple of weeks, be on the lookout for our first event of the season. Right out of the chute we’re co-sponsoring an oil industry CPE event in May. We’ll follow that with a variety of other events, including a class with our new technology committee, an expanded Banker’s Forum, an ABC (attorneys/bankers/CPAs) Night, as well as more social events to relax and unwind. Of course, don’t forget to mark your calendars for our annual golf tournament Oct. 22 to help raise funds for our scholarship program to help local accounting students!

CalCPA’s new year also welcomes back onsite Education Foundation continuing education classes to Bakersfield. There will be a GAAP update June 12, a federal and California tax update Dec. 9, and an ethics update Feb. 13. Let’s make sure the courses are well attended so that we can bring more live instruction to Bakersfield!

Also posted on the website is an introduction to our leadership team. I invite you to reach out to them and let any of them know what you’d like to see in our program. Don’t be surprised if they recruit you in the process! We are always looking for new blood and ideas. The more we have, the more we can do!

As always, please feel free to reach out to me as well via email or phone, (661) 549-8123.

I look forward to hearing from you, and look forward to seeing you at our events in what promises to be an exciting 2013-14 for our chapter!

The award recognizes contributions to accounting education from demonstrated excellence in teaching and/or endeavors in research over a sustained period of time through:

• Excellence in teaching and mentoring, as evidenced by receiving various awards or citations;

• Educational innovation, including developing curriculum, case studies and new programs;

• Published articles in professorial or academic journals and/or written textbooks for use in accounting classes;

• Significant involvement in professional and/or academic societies and related activities.

Nominations are due by May 6. You may submit nominations online.

For a chance to be one of five lucky recipients, renew online today.

For rules, go to www.calcpa.org/renewalrules.

Unclaimed property must be reported to the state controller’s office to reunite the owner with their property.

The guide also includes important reporting dates for holders unclaimed property and FAQs.

• Public Service Award
• Public Service Award for Firms
• Distinguished Service Award

Happy new year! The chapter’s leadership team hopes you had a joyous Christmas with your family and friends. Now you can get back to work and get some rest … well, until the busy season cranks up!

A long-standing New Year’s tradition is making resolutions. Whether it’s getting back to the gym, cleaning out the garage or maybe just trying to get organized (I gave that one up long ago!), most of us approach the new year with the promise that we’ll make that extra effort this year.

As incoming chapter president, a new year’s resolution I’d like every chapter member to make is this: I resolve to get more active in my CalCPA chapter.  I know, I know: time is precious and it’s tough. Between family commitments, job obligations and just living life, it’s difficult to find time to devote to any more activities. But great things are happening with our chapter, and we want you to be a part of its momentum.

This past year has marked a turning point for our chapter. The 2012 leadership team worked hard to re-energize the chapter and, by all accounts, we were successful. Our annual Student Night turnout was amongst the best in the state. We held classroom visits at Cal State and Bakersfield College to engage young accounting talent to participate in a re-energized, meet-the-firms day, concluding the day with our biggest Student Night attendance to date. We were able to award more than $10,000 worth of scholarships that night from our chapter’s 2011 Golf Tournament.

This year’s golf tournament turned out to be even a greater success than last year. The new, re-engineered format made for a fun day of friendly competition and networking. While the best reward was that our chapter raised $12,000 for scholarships for local students to be awarded at this year’s Student Night, we also had some great prizes for our players including cash prizes, a big-screen TV and an iPad. A great time was had by all, so save the date and put Oct. 21 on your calendar to join the fun this year.

Our Young Emerging Professionals program had a number of mixers that were a great time as well. These get-togethers provide a great opportunity to meet other young (and a few more seasoned) accountants and just have a great evening of networking!

The social mixers at Imbibe provided a great opportunity to enjoy a glass (or two) of wine and catch up with some fellow CPAs and friends we might not see otherwise.

We concluded the year with an event geared toward our more experienced side. Our chapter reintroduced the Bankers’ Forum with an informative mixer with the local banking community. The event was such a success that we will make it an annual event, along with a long-absent chapter ABC (attorney, bankers and CPAs) Night, so keep your eye out for those dates.

All these activities and more will be coming your way in 2013. There’s just one thing missing: The bottom line, as we accountants like to say, is that we need you! Please make the New Year’s resolution to join us in 2013 and get involved and have some fun. We’ll be dark for the next few months, but please be looking for more information on activities in May. And, if you have any ideas, suggestions or events you’d like to see, we’d love to hear from you.

When I joined the chapter leaders at my first CalCPA planning conference, I heard a lot of, “Oh, back in the old days we were just hopping with activities” and it was more “fun and exciting.” Being a YEP (young and emerging professional), I only know what I’ve experienced—and it’s not very much. I haven’t been to an ABC Night. I hadn’t even heard about the annual holiday parties or installment dinners until I flipped through a 1994 edition of our chapter Bulletin (thanks to Rita Meyeres, my wonderful mentor). What happened? Shouldn’t my generation of CPAs experience and benefit from CalCPA the same way many professionals before us did?

When we asked why things have changed, the answer pretty much boils down to “because attendance and participation aren’t there anymore,” so the events get dropped off on the calendar. OK, another question from me, the inexperienced CPA: “Why is participation dropping off?” Value. How is CalCPA a value to you? Some of you may have even noticed that this year’s theme in Lisa Coston’s President’s Message has been focused on CalCPA’s value to members. Here’s my message on CalCPA and value.

I see it as gardening. If there is no care to make sure it’s being properly watered, pruned and kept pest free, you won’t have a beautiful garden fit to be on the front page of a home magazine, or on any of the pages for that matter. But with some attention, that garden is bound be beautiful and the gardener feels joy, pride and accomplishment.

I’m a CalCPA member and I enjoy participating in CalCPA events. I’m often asked by others, “Why? How does it benefit you?” By being an active member, I am able to sharpen my leadership abilities, work with various people and help my network connections grow at the same time. But most importantly, as the gardener in the paragraph above, joy, pride and accomplishment are some of the intrinsic values I receive from CalCPA. This is your CalCPA too. Make it worth something to yourself, to your colleagues, to your mentees/mentors, etc. CalCPA can be as valuable as the local chapter wants it to be—as long as you, the members, see it as valuable.

Please volunteer as a committee member for next year or if you’re too busy for that, come to our events. As they say, the more the merrier! (Ho, ho, ho … Merry Christmas, by the way.) The success and continuation of our events depend heavily on members’ attendance. Before we let them go extinct, please support them and this young and emerging professional—and others—who is starving of that good ol’ CalCPA experience.

I would like to thank Patrick Paggi, Kelly O’Neil, Patrick Hoffman, Tom Maxwell, Marko Horvat and last but not least, Rita Meyeres, for speaking at our Bankers’ Forum. Support from such members is much appreciated and their knowledge made for a successful event. I encourage you to look for our PDF newsletter. It’s a special end of the year edition of the Chapter Bulletin recapping the Bankers’ Forum and other chapter events held this year.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. I look forward to seeing you in 2013!