New CPAs

A vow to protect the public ... and dance!

2011-06-13T11:11:17-04:00

I'll admit it: The thought of nearly 100 new Maryland CPAs vowing to protect the public is enough to make me want to dance.

I'm apparently not alone.

The MACPA celebrated its fifth New CPA Swearing-In Ceremony on June 2 by delivering its annual oath to dozens of Maryland's newest CPAs. With state and national dignitaries looking on, the CPAs recited these words in a vow to protect the public at all cost:

"I solemnly swear that I will assume the responsibilities and obligations as a certified public accountant in the state of Maryland and in the United States of America. I will support the laws and regulations and perform my professional duties to the best of my ability in an ethical, professional and objective manner. As a CPA, I will uphold the honor and dignity of the accounting profession and abide by the rules of professional conduct."

Though strictly ceremonial, those aren't empty promises.

"This a huge accomplishment. You've passed one of the toughest professional licensing exams there is," MACPA Executive Director Tom Hood told the new CPAs. "By being here, you are committing to the state of Maryland that you will always represent the public above everything else."

The vow also represents some pretty serious opportunities for the new professionals.

"You're in the accounting profession at an extraordinary time," said Ken Bishop, current chief operating officer and incoming CEO of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. "Your license in Maryland essentially means you have a license to practice in 47 states, thanks to mobility. This is a global economy as well, and your CPA license is recognized as the premier accounting credential in the world."

As I said last year, this is one of my favorite MACPA events of the year. Not only does the ceremony give new CPAs and their families an opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments, but it encourages those attending to actually verbalize their commitment to serving the public. Passing the exam and earning your license is one thing. Standing in front of state and federal regulators, raising your right hand and promising to do the right thing is a powerful step. I'd be willing to bet it's one the new CPAs will remember when faced with professionally and morally difficult decisions.

Sounds like a reason to celebrate to me, so I wasn't terribly surprised when, at a post-oath reception, the new CPAs were greeted by a flash mob of dancing MACPA employees and volunteers, all movin' to Flynt Flossy's "Did I Mention I Like To Dance."

Rest assured, new CPAs: The ability to dance and have fun isn't a requirement for most accounting jobs, but it does come in handy from time to time.

Check out the dancing CPAs here:

Congratulations once again, folks, and welcome to the profession. Make us proud ... and have fun doing it!

Check out photos from the Swearing-In Ceremony and the Maryland CPA Summit.

The future? It's yours to make

2011-05-03T09:28:29-04:00

We've talked time and time and time again about the massive changes that are engulfing the CPA profession.

Now, here's your chance to do something about it.

Tom Hood mentioned this recently, but I thought it was worth repeating: The MACPA is working hand-in-hand with the AICPA on the Institute's CPA Horizons 2025 project, a followup to the CPA Vision Project that gives CPAs the opportunity to "embrace the challenge of defining the future, for themselves and for those they serve."

Step 1: Tell us what you think.

The AICPA has built a brief survey designed to collect "unique experiences, insights and perspectives on the profession and its future."

"We need you to share those with us so that together we can create a vision for the future of the profession that represents all members of the CPA community," says AICPA Chair Paul Stahlin.

Take 15 minutes and fill out the survey here. You'll be doing your part to shape the future of the profession.

Step 2: Check out the schedule of Future Forums in Maryland and around the country. Find one near you and plan to attend. Your insights and feedback will be included in the final CPA Horizons 2025 report to be delivered in the fall. Plus, each event is worth a pocketful of free CPE.

Here's your chance, friends: Keep your profession strong amid unprecedented change.

NYPN's charitable efforts in full swing

2010-06-03T22:48:19-04:00

The MACPA's New / Young Professionals Network has sponsored two successful mini-golf tournaments recently. Participants were given the opportunity to network with peers in the profession while giving back to the community by donating all money raised to good causes like the American Red Cross and the Maryland SPCA.

The first tournament was held as part of the Capital Area Chapter at Bohrer Park in Gaithersburg on May 13. Participants raised $1,200 for the American Red Cross to benefit the earthquake victims of Haiti. This was the second event NYPN has sponsored in the Capital area, following the highly successful bowl-a-thon in Bethesda in September 2009 that raised money for the Maryland Food Bank.

The mini-golf tournament included four firms -- Watkins Meegan; BDO Seidman; Santos, Postal & Company; and Reznick Group -- sponsoring 22 young professionals. To add a touch of friendly competition, trophies (stylish silver and gold resin bobble-heads) were handed out in five categories -- Closest to the Pin, Male (Anthony Clark, Reznick); Closest to the Pin, Female (Heather Grinnik, Reznick); Best Individual Score, Male (Eric Rhoades, BDO); Best Individual Score, Female (Patricia Suchter, Watkins Meegan); and Best Team Score (Watkins Meegan –- Megan Powers, Kristie Moran, Mike Dudley, Patricia Suchter and Scott Ashley).

One week later, on May 20, the NYPN hosted another mini-golf tournament at Mitchell's Golf Complex in Reisterstown. The event was a success thanks to six firms -- SC&H Group; Stoy, Malone & Company; Reznick Group; KatzAbosch; Ribis, Jones & Maresca; and Hertzbach & Company -- sponsoring 26 young professionals who helped raise $1,550 for the Maryland SPCA. Trophies where handed in the following categories: Closest to the Pin, Male (Steve Schwartz, Ribis, Jones & Maresca); Closest to the Pin, Female (Amy Skvorak, KatzAbosch); Best Individual Score, Male (Dan Borcik, Hertzbach); Best Individual Score, Female (Susanne Hoffmann, SC&H); Longest Putt, Male (Eric Nigro, Hertzbach); Longest Putt, Female (Stephanie Yeung, SC&H); and Best Team Score (Hertzbach2 -- Dan Borcik, Eric Lee, Brandon Kleeman and Kyle Rosikiewcz).

Following each event, mini-golfers enjoyed refreshments, food and socializing.

The buzz is certainly spreading throughout the Baltimore and Capital areas about NYPN and the MACPA. NYPN board members are looking forward to hosting a happy hour at Nick's Fish House on Thursday, July 29. Visit the NYPN website for more details.

Keep an eye out for pictures of these events on the NYPN's MACPA, Facebook and MySpace communities.

How to Pass the CPA Exam - Guaranteed!

2010-02-11T07:42:07-05:00

The CPA Exam is known as one of the hardest professional licensing exams period. It is also one of the biggest steps you can take to boost your career and be recognized in the community. The one thing every CPA remembers well is the moment they got their passing grades for the CPA Exam.

What can you do to guarantee your success on the exam?

I loved the advice from a young CPA in his post on Ledgerlink titled, Six Attributes That Will Guarantee Success on the CPA Examfrom CPA blogger Lie Dharma Putra:

Knowledge of the material
Commitment to the exam preparation
Take a solutions approach
Grading insights - maximize each question's potential score
Develop an examination strategy
Examination confidence

Think about it like you are training for a major athletic event, a marathon is a great metaphor. Knowledge of the content is just one piece. Mental and physical preparation are almost as important as the knowledge of the core material.

From all of us at New CPAs & CPA Success - Best of Luck to all of you exam takers.Are you a CPA candidate member (get discounts on CPA exam prep and more)? Sign up here

For students - pay attention to all of your classes now - it is the beginning of your CPA exam preparation.Are you a member of MACPA's student community (it's free), join here at www.tomorrowscpa.org and sign-up for our Facebook fan page.

Read the full advice on his post at Ledgerlink

And when you are done (In Maryland and many states), don't forget to attend the offical swearing-in ceremony- The Maryland New CPA ceremony is scheduled for the evening of June 28th, 2009 at the BWI Hilton Hotel. Registration is free and details can be found here.

Maryland CPA exam educational requirements

What are the Best Jobs in America?

2009-12-08T07:23:25-05:00

Money magazine recently ran their story on the Best Jobs in America and guess what?

CPA - Certified Public Accountant ranked as the sixth best job!

The jobs were ranked based on the criteria of great pay, superior growth prospects and work that is meaningful.

We almost made the top five list:

Systems Engineer
Physician Assistant
College Professor
Nurse Practitioner
IT Project Manager

Here is their description and reason we made #6.

I also like the fact that they got the distinction right by using CPA versus accountant - there is a big difference. Yeah CPA!

Want more information about this exciting career?

Try our national site from he AICPA www.startehergoplaces.com

and MACPA's free student membership at www.tomorrowscpa.org

College graduates can learn more about the CPA Exam as part of our candidate membership

What a Day!

2009-07-09T09:03:50-04:00

Alright, it’s the second day of the AICPA Leadership Academy and I am taking it all in. My name is Amy Smith and I am a senior accountant at HeimLantz, PC in Annapolis. This academy is the first of its kind in Chicago, IL, and for three days 26 of us from across the country have the privilege of interacting with leadership experts and the leadership of the AICPA and state societies. Tom Hood is going to speak tomorrow, which I am so excited about and cannot wait to hear. Yesterday and today the leadership experts have challenged our thought processes, questioned our notions of ourselves and the roles we play at work and encouraged us to uncover our weaknesses, at least in terms of how they are getting in the way of our progress as “people who exercise leadership.”

So far it has been an amazing experience – overwhelming, insightful, humbling, exciting – I am learning a lot about myself and am humbled by my peers. The biggest idea I have learned is that my challenges are not so difficult to overcome. Certainly my challenges are different than those around me, but I am finding we have a lot in common. Considering all we have discussed, I am sufficiently confused, provoked, and embarrassed but still want to make a positive difference.

So, what have we discussed to make me feel this way? Well, the first day I learned that the word “leader” is a sort of carrot the powers-that-be use to bribe people to continue taking on more work. Marty Linsky and Kristin von Donop have been our leadership lecturers and are both from Cambridge Leadership Associates, a company committed to helping people and companies solve problems through adaptive leadership. Check them out, they are brilliant: www.cambridge-leadership.com. We are learning how to “exercise leadership” from the middle of our organizations and not necessarily how to “be a leader,” which connotes a position of authority, something one does not need in order to exercise leadership.

Then we were told by Marty Linsky that manipulation is not necessarily an evil to be avoided and can be used as a means to an end. The question was, “How does manipulation differ from motivation?” And really, they don’t differ. People aren’t using manipulation in an evil way, but rather to facilitate the exchange of two things two or more people want. It’s kind of like a quid pro quo or help-me-help-you scenario, not necessarily bad, just different, at least that is how one of my colleagues put it.

We are being challenged to start taking the actions we are not necessarily comfortable with, not because they are “bad” actions to take, but because we are not used to taking them. One example Marty threw at us was yelling. Why is yelling bad, if that is what it takes to get the best work out of people? I am not suggesting that we should all go to work today and only yell at everyone because that is our perception of how we get the best out of them, but wouldn’t that be funny? Perhaps the humor would only be one-sided. But why should we limit ourselves to the approach that works for us if it doesn’t work for the people we are trying to influence?

Here is the kicker. Kristin von Donop led us in a five-step process to uncover competing values we have that get in the way of our progress. So, while I wanted to blame other people for my lack of progress on achieving particular goals, what I uncovered through this process was that I can blame yours truly instead. It turns out I have competing values – who knew? Certainly I had not analyzed my intentions or competing interests in this light. Not only did Kristin help me shed some light on my situation and frustrations, but imagine the heart-to-heart I am going to have to have with myself to right the situation! I am on notice.

What really spoke to me the first day was the definition of leadership. Marty Linsky pointed out that one definition of leadership is “the distribution of losses.” What?! How can something that sounds so positive and noble have such negative consequences? But as we talked about that idea, it turns out that when one person exercises leadership, other people can suffer. For example, if one person is exploring why a certain part of the company isn’t as productive as the other divisions and makes certain determinations, which are then acted upon, those unproductive employees could stand to lose a lot, even their jobs. So what we discussed was keeping in mind that our actions affect other people and can have real-life consequences, even though we may not set out with those negative outcomes in mind. So, when we exercise leadership, we are called to help the people we impact negatively. We owe them a certain amount of understanding and assistance if we have changed their world for the worse.

Those are my thoughts on the last two days. I am still digesting all the information we have covered and am looking forward to tomorrow. I am excited about what I can do with this information, how I can manipulate my bosses (not you, Carter!), and how I can make a positive difference. I think we are all here to learn how to add value to our organizations and learn where we can take things next. So, thank you for reading and I hope you can take something from these principles and apply them, too!

First Guest Blogger - welcome Amy Smith

2009-07-08T15:22:52-04:00

MACPA member, Amy Smith (pictured at right with AICPA Chair Ernie Almonte) was selected as 1 of 25 Young CPAs across the U.S. to attend the AICPA's first-ever Leadership Academy and has agreed to blog about her experiences there. Amy is a Senior Accountant at the CPA Firm of HeimLantz in Annapolis, Maryland.

Amy comes from a firm known for its commitment to the CPA profession as Carter Heim and Tom Lantz were both past-chairman of the MACPA. Both have went on to play major roles in the AICPA with Carter currently serving on the AICPA Board of Directors and Tom Lantz recently completed a term on the AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee (PEEC).

The Leadership Academy takes place in Chicago on July 7-9, 2009. Led by Institute Chairman Ernest A. Almonte (@erniealmonte), those selected to attend the academy will engage in intensive workshop training where they will develop and hone leadership skills and prepare to become the next leaders in their organizations, communities and the CPA profession at large.

We are very proud of her recognition on the national level in being selected to participate in the AICPA's first-ever Leadership Academy. We look forward to seeing her grow as a leader in her firm, in the community, and in the CPA profession.

For more information check out our New Young Professionals Network

Do you have a life curriculum?

2009-07-01T11:14:56-04:00

School of Self, originally uploaded by gumption.

That is the question raised (and answered) in this great post titled, What is Your Ideal Life Curriculum, from James BonTempo with an international health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. In today's rapidly changing and increasingly complex world, you have to proactively manage your career (and life). James offers a great starting point for universal competencies that will benefit all of us.

James comes up with a great list that includes:

Accept things you can't change
Get along with others
Accept & incorporate constructive feedback
Ask the right questions
Find, analyze & synthesize information
Understand & describe dynamic and interconnected (i.e. complex) systems
Take care of your body, mind & soul
Be creative & imaginative
Explore & experiment
Design (graphic, product, instructional, software - whatever)

Learn from your experiences (successes & failures)

Write or tell a good story
Identify needs and opportunities
Know how to learn and how to teach

I would add to this 1) learn by reading lots of interesting stuff; 2) Know thyself (understand who you are and how you interactt with the world); and 3) Stayon top of your profession.

I encourage your to read James full post here.

Did you know the CPA profession has a set of core competencies for the future?

We created this in our national CPA Vision project in 1998 and they were set for the year 2011 (and beyond):

Communications & Leadership
Strategic & Critical Thinking Skills
Focus on the Customer, Client & Market
Interpretation of Converging Information
Technologically Adept

So do what is your ideal life curriculum?

Top 5 Reasons to Become a CPA

2009-03-23T07:18:22-04:00

Why should you work extra hard to complete the requirements to be a CPA?

Just last week, I returned from a Maryland State Board of Accountancy meeting where it was reported that applications for the CPA Exam and reinstatement of CPA Licenses were at record levels. When I asked them why they though the applications were pouring in, they said the reason is that many see the CPA license as critical during these tough economic times.

I was reminded of this in a post from our friends Francine McKenna over at Re:TheAuditorsand Roger Philipp's post Why Bother Becoming a CPA (over at Roger's CPA Exam Review). They discuss the major reasons to consider the challenging process of taking your accounting degree to a licensed Certified Public Accountant (I added the last two), Here they are:

It's not as hard as you think (pass rates overall average 75%
Earning your CPA makes cents (and dollars with an additional $720,000 over a 40 year career)
No one can ever take that accomplishment away from you (from Francine)
You can be part of the solution (CPA is a license to protect the public interest not a credential)
It is one of the top recession proof careers

Is it worth it? Watch this short video of Maryland's latest batch of CPAs who took the official oath pledging to protect the public interest and uphold the highest standards of the CPA Profession on June 17th, 2008 at the MDBIZEXPO(This year's ceremony is already scheduled for June 16th at the Baltimore Convention Center)

Roger did what any CPA should do - he calculated the difference in lifetime earnings over your career versus the costs of exam fees, review course and study time. Bottom line - the CPA career pays!

CPA Exam resources:

MACPA's CPA Candidate resource center - click here

AICPA CPA Exam site - click here

Love is (still) the killer app!

2009-03-02T10:26:09-05:00

That's the title of a very cool book by Tim Sanders. A book about networking and creating value for others, kinda a pay it forward approach to business.

This post combines the wisdom of three of my favorite thought leaders and authors into resources to help you through this downturn (whether you are out of work or not). The thought leaders are Tim Sanders, Debbie Weil, and Seth Godin. The books that every young professional needs to own are Love is the Killer App, The Corporate Blogging Book, and Tribes - We Need You to Lead Us.

I got to meet Tim at my all-time favorite annual conference, Association Digital Nowin 2005. I think Tim's book is THE handbook for professional networking. Then I read Debbie Weil's post titled, Digital Cupcakes: Smart Marketing in a Downturn Whether You Are Out of Work or Not, Debbie (our uber blogging coach/consultant that got us started here at www.cpasuccess.com and www.newcpas.com) uses the cupcake metaphor to describe how to market yourself in a down economy. Here is her recipe for making your own digital cupcakes,

"Imagine you've created a digital trail of cupcakes. But they're not cupcakes. They're blog posts, Tweets, Facebook updates, Flickr photos and YouTubevideos. Taken all together, these digital bites add up to your digital footprint or your on-line presence.

If your digital steps are delicious enough (are they satisfying to others? provocative? useful?), folks will follow you and subscribe to you and pass around your (delicious) content.

Ultimately, they'll hire you or do business with you. Even now, people are hiring the brightest, the quickest, the smartest for short-term gigs or project work. Make yourself irresistible. Create some delicious content."

It is hard not to smile when you hear the word, cupcake, not to mention when you eat one! I am also pretty certain that cupcakes = love.

I immediately smiled and thought about Tim Sander's best practices for these digital times - building your knowledge, network, and compassion (love) and then helping others to help yourself. In other words, Love is (still) the killer app. That brings me to Seth (and Debbie).

Seth talks about networking that matters in this brief interview with Debbie Weil at the INC 5000 Conference in Washington, D.C. He talks about helping others achieve their goals both on-line and off-line. Take a minute to watch and listen to what he says about networking.

Here is Debbie interviewing Seth Godin about social media and networking:

So there you have it, Love, digital cupcakes, and creating your own tribe as the new way for new / young professionals to weather the economic storm.

What are you doing to survive and thrive in this downturn?

Don't miss our New / Young Professionals Leadership Track at the MDBIZEXPO on JUne 16th & 17th at the Baltimore Convention Center

And our own New / Young Professionals Network on Facebook, website

Follow MACPA's digital cupcakes on Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube