President: Raj Acharya
Vice President: Jason Janzen
Secretary: Yusuf Balogun
Treasurer: Darcia Stebbens
Past President: Gail Anikouchine
Director: Peter Iannone
Director: Ellyn Cole
Director: Eddie Moreno
Director: Gloria Berghoefer

Download your copy today and keep it nearby as you go through this busy season.

• Litigation support, fraud, economic damages, business valuation or family law.

• Personal financial planning discussion group.

If you are interested, contact program associate Rita Williams.

Volunteerism has been a part of society’s fabric for more generations than we can count. From coaching and mentoring youth to assisting seniors striving to maintain their independence, and from participating in task forces to solve problems to governance committees strategizing a community’s future, volunteers have contributed great successes.

Still, I was amazed by the volunteerism of past chapter president Joe Lanza, whose efforts to bring clean water to a small town in Kenya was featured in the December 2011 issue of California CPA.

Why volunteer? Most benefits of volunteering are intangible, often relating to feelings of accomplishment or having a sense of contribution to community—local or global. Volunteering allows us to transform our lives by giving of ourselves; we can choose where to expend our energy with great enthusiasm and passion. We can develop new skills (maybe then we will not need to be the treasurer on every board) that contribute to our personal growth, as well as have a positive impact on those around us.

As I write this President’s Message, the CalCPA Nominations Committee will be convening. This committee provides one with a unique opportunity to assist CalCPA in selecting professionals who will further the profession. Each chapter has at least two positions on the CalCPA Council. The committee selects additional members who would like to serve on Council, some of whom also seek a CalCPA Board position, such as chair or treasurer. In addition, the committee selects people to recommend to the AICPA Council for its selection. Everyone has a quest to serve the profession.

For a statewide committee, the time commitment is minimal and the impact is phenomenal. The Nominations Committee conducts phone interviews of some candidates and meets annually in January in conjunction with CPA Day at the Capitol and the January Council meeting in Sacramento to interview candidates, deliberate and select the slate for presentation to the membership. I found this a rewarding experience and I encourage anyone who would like to serve to contact chapter program associate Rita Williams.

Interested in other volunteer opportunities with less travel? We always have opportunities on our many discussion groups and event committees. These committee volunteers greatly impact our profession by providing opportunities to network, learn, help students, achieve, grow and have fun. Volunteer this month; the committees convene after April 17 to give you a carrot to get through tax season.

As we enjoy the last few days before tax season, remember that we do balance work and life—just not necessarily in the same eight weeks of busy season.

Effective Fall 2012

Closing date: Feb. 3, 2012

For a detailed description and link to the online application, please visit the website.

Approximately two years ago, the chapter’s Governmental Relations Committee was formed to link CPAs to our California legislators and I volunteered to be committee chair. Why is this committee necessary? Because despite the fact that we are a well educated, respected and powerful group, it is rare that we effectively express our concerns about issues impacting our profession.

An effective approach is to have a constant CPA involvement in the legislative process and evolve from a loosely banded reactionary group to a more forward thinking professional movement. The committee is one conduit to make this happen.

Why should CPAs be concerned? Because California has a full-time Legislature and a lot of time on their hands, they develop new rules and attempt to get them into law. Sometimes their best intentions are misguided, based on misinformation, or influence by special interest groups to the detriment of our profession. The unfortunate result is additional rules that are unnecessary, cumbersome and hindering. It is imperative that CPAs become more involved in better educating legislators and decision makers before they impose legislation that negatively impacts our profession.

Some of the recent legislative activities have resulted in:

1. A law that holds anyone that knowingly advises an employer to misclassify employees as independent contractors jointly and severally liable for any fines and penalties. (SB 459 (Corbett).
2. A law that restricts employers’ ability to screen for financially troubled job candidates. I can only see this resulting in a greater fraud incidence and, of course, subsequent negative involvement for the CPA (AB 22 Mendoza).
3. A number of proposed tax increases, including a call for sales tax on services—yes that would include CPA services.  These proposed initiatives may end up on the November 2012 ballot.

These issues should set all of our pulses racing.

How do we go about influencing and affecting issues like these? Here are a few paths to preserving and protecting our profession from damaging, needless and sometimes duplicative interference.

Each CalCPA chapter has a governmental relations committee chair, who can assist in developing new CPA relationships with legislators or maturing existing relationships. I encourage you to get in contact with them.

Another opportunity is to participate in CPA Day at the Capitol Jan. 18. On this day, more than 200 CPAs converge on the Capitol to meet with legislators. It is difficult to adequately express the experience and the awakening that occurs by participating in the event, but “awesome” may be a start. An inexpensive airfare to Sacramento, a meeting with action and goal oriented CPAs, then onto the Capitol to meet with legislators. To my surprise, the legislators were happy to meet and discuss topics with us. Why wouldn’t they? We are a great group of people! After that there is a group wrap-up meeting and then a reception. You catch a quick flight back home, and you will have concluded a very memorable and education packed day—in addition to possibly protecting your professional future. I highly recommend this!

Another suggestion is to correspond with your legislative representatives. Issues of concern are often mentioned in the chapter bulletins, as well as the CalCPA website and other CalCPA communications. Take a moment and express your opinion and send it to someone who can have an impact—your legislator. This does not take much more time than you would spend reading all of the jokes your friends email you. The results may be surprising, or sometimes disappointing, but you will feel better by taking some action instead of letting others determine your professional destiny.

We cannot just sit on the sidelines wringing our hands about these problems. We must all activate and participate; our futures are at risk.

As each year unfolds, we take the opportunity to reposition ourselves for the future. First, we see a vision of what we essentially want to be: Smoke-free, fat-free, anything-free. We picture the vision of our self! We then strive to make it our mission to achieve that vision. With marked determination, we make our resolutions for the year, certain that this year we will achieve. However, by Jan. 2 …

What prevents us from achieving our goals, even part of them? For me, many of these resolutions are repeats of ones made in prior years. Strategic planning includes having a vision that defines the way we want to look, a mission often related to the performing the purpose and a plan to accomplish. (By the way, “strategy” is derived from a Greek word pertaining to the office of the general, commander or generalship, and was used fairly exclusively in the military until the late 1700s when applied to other disciplines.) Perhaps the issue is come Jan. 2 we need to develop a set of action plans to guide us, as well as establish milestones so we can measure our success.

Look at each resolution as a type of goal that you want to achieve by the year-end. If possible, break down this goal into subsets of achievable goals—what can be achieved in one, two or three months or quarters—with consideration toward what are the first steps down the path of achievement. Next, ponder what, if anything besides not having a plan, has prevented success in the past. Does the first goal, with related plans, have to be removing or overcoming the hindrance? Then list the steps you need to take to achieve the remaining subsets of goals to reach the ultimate goal. Initially, do not worry about the sequence of steps; rather, list as many as is possible, then fine-tune the sequence. Of course, before chiseling all the above in stone, be prepared to improvise. Missing a milestone, or realizing a new hindrance exists, does not mean the entire road to success is blocked. Just map the detour to return to the road.

Annually, the chapter develops goals in May and formulates some of the action plans to determine if the goal is achievable. For example, with the new free student membership, our chapter determined we could add 75 new student members by April 30. We hoped we could achieve half this goal in October with the UCSB Meet the Firms night by having a drawing if a student completed the membership card. The qualitative goal was to inform students of the existence of CalCPA and extol the membership benefits. We achieved both goals in October with 48 students completing the membership application and we talked to countless more that night about CalCPA.

What goals would you like the chapter to accomplish in fiscal year-end 2013? Let us know!

Help legislators understand the issues facing California CPAs and sign up to attend CPA Day at the Capitol. How can your presence help? Take a look at our successful 2011 advocacy efforts for an idea and read the experience of past participants.

Don’t underestimate the importance of your presence!

Review the qualifications and download nomination forms online. The nomination deadline for all awards is March 30.

More information and applications are available online.

If state-level leadership isn’t your calling right now, there are plenty of opportunities at the chapter level—from board member to committee chair—to step up and showcase your skills. Find more information online.