July 2007 Central Coast Chapter Bulletin
IN THIS ISSUE
President's Message: Greetings Central Coast Chapter
Chapter News
Installation Dinner a Success!
CalCPA Committees Merging?
New Members
Chapter Events
North County Discussion Group
The Winning Edge
SLO Tax Roundtable
Pension Plan Comparisons
Save the Date
Tax Seminar
All Central Coast Chapter Events
California CPA Education Foundation CPE in Area
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Greetings Central Coast Chapter
By Dana Senes, CPA
Your new board met in early June to formalize our chapter’s upcoming year of continuing education programs and social events. We think you will be pleased with our programs and venues as we continue to welcome your ideas, comments and feedback. There will be meetings geared toward leadership and motivating staff, retirement plan comparisons, trusts issues and human resource updates. We are also planning an ABC Night (attorneys, bankers and CPAs), which will be a social event to get to know our community better. We are looking for the perfect venue, so look for that event in October.
We are also planning our annual California CPA Education Foundation course in September. This is our scholarship event where we generate funds so we can continue to support our local colleges and our profession with the best and brightest. Plan for Student Night in November, and if you have an interesting background and would like to share your experience with our students, let us know. We’d love to get to know you better.
For those of you who weren’t able to attend the Installation Party, I will be including some pictures from time to time for your viewing pleasure. I wanted to take a moment to say a special thank you to Debbie Wacker for being such a remarkable example of our local leadership. It continues to be a pleasure to work with you. Debbie and first vice president Rusty Roy were off to Seattle in June to attend the CalCPA Annual Members Business and Council meetings. Rusty was kind enough to step in for me as our family headed to Paris June 10.
Don't know if all of our 31,000-plus members received the following note from former CalCPA Chair Marc Parkinson, but I found it inspiring and wanted to share a portion of his thoughts regarding hot topics:
The 2007 Young and Emerging Professionals Conference was a huge success with more than 600 attendees. CalCPA is committed to continuing to provide valuable benefits to this member segment, and many of those benefits start with your wonderful activities. Also, if you did not attend, we videotaped the Los Angeles conference and will post highlights on the CalCPA website.
Among the topics discussed at the recent CalCPA Board meeting were:
• Financial Leadership Forum: This will be our new home for business and industry members. The official rollout is scheduled for January 2008. This will be the start of something big.
• Lots of activity in Sacramento.
AB 1185 (Hayashi, Ma) is a CalCPA-sponsored bill, which would change the date that the California Board of Accountancy is required to report to the Legislature on Peer Review. The current date is September 2011; the proposed report date would be September 2008. Status: AB 1185 has passed the Assembly and is in the Senate.
CalCPA supports AB 150 (Lieu), which would create a statewide financial literacy council to help get financial literacy in K-12 schools.
SB 414 (Corbett) would increase the minimum insurance requirements for limited liability partnerships from $500,000 to $1 million.
• CBA: All of the California Board of Accountancy officers are CPAs and CalCPA members: president David Swartz; vice president Don Driftmier; and treasurer Robert Petersen. A first, and a big plus.
Also regarding the CBA, CalCPA has been attempting to have the CBA’s regulation on audit documentation revised to parallel, as much as possible, national standards on audit documentation. The differences concern when and how CPAs can delete documentation from the audit file after the report has been released. At its March meeting the CBA approved the revised regulation. However, the regulation must now be approved by the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Office of Administrative Law. That process could take up to a year.
Also, The CBA Qualifications Committee is considering a proposal to increase the mandatory number of audit hours prior to issuing an attest certificate from 500 to 1,000. The committee is also looking at differentiating CPA licenses based on those qualified to attest and those who are not.
• The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy and AICPA have proposed changes to Sec. 23 of the Uniform Accountancy Act to ease mobility problems across the country. The revision would allow for practice across state lines without notice to the state boards for all services except for audits of entities headquartered in the state. Recently the CBA authorized a comment letter that would express its support for the proposed changes, along with some suggestions for improvement.
• Appropriate compensation for overtime remains a critical issue for the profession. We encourage you to make sure you are in compliance with current laws. For an overview, visit www.calcpa.org/californiacpa/articles/2003/05.01.htm. This was a hot topic on the last managing partner conference call, so check into it.
• Additionally, the board approved the CalCPA Advertising Policy and CalCPA Editorial Policy and Guidelines; both documents were the result of work by the Communications Advisory Committee and staff.
Enjoy the summer!
– Dana Senes, CPA
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CHAPTER NEWS
Installation Dinner a Success! [Photos]
A great time was had by all. We danced, we ate and we listened to a great band. Congratulations to our incoming board. We know that there are great things coming. Here is one last thank you to our outgoing board members, who have served us well! Also, congratulations to Thomas Sleeman, our 40-year member!
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CalCPA Committees Merging?
CalCPA’s MAP and Management Consulting Services committees recently held a joint meeting with the primary focus of discussing a merger of the committees.
Consultant Don Scholl facilitated the discussion and at first blush, the merger didn’t appear to make much sense because of the seeming divergent interests of the two committees. However, after much discussion, each committee agreed there might be more potential benefits and synergy together rather than separate. It was agreed to continue having joint meetings in the coming year with several joint task forces working on specific issues relating to the benefits and practicality of a joint committee. Stay tuned!
Scholl also provided a brief update on the state of the profession from his perspective as a consultant to CPA firms. In many ways it was a replay of top issues facing the profession for so long: staffing (can’t get enough), succession planning (haven’t planned enough), technology (effect of technology is still important, but slowing down) and workload compression (not getting any better, but some hope with flex schedules and telecommuting).
Finally, CalCPA Communications Director John Larkin gave an update on the new CalCPA website, which really looks sweet. The new site is topic and content driven, placing relevant information at the forefront and making the site an even better resource for members. Check it out.
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CHAPTER EVENTS
North County Discussion Group
Topic: TBD (e-mail sherri.parkinson@calcpa.org to be e-mailed the current topic)
Date: Friday, July 13
Time: 7:45–8:45 a.m.
Location: Centennial Park (Live Oak Room); 600 Nickerson Road; Paso Robles
Cost: Free/members and nonmembers
CPE: 1 hour
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The Winning Edge
Speaker: Jim Pentico
Date: Wednesday, July 18
(Note: this is not our regular Tuesday)
Time: 5–8 p.m.
Location: Edna Valley Vineyard; 2585 Biddle Ranch Road; San Luis Obispo
Cost: $35/members; $40/nonmembers; $5/student members
CPE: 2 hours
RSVP: Online
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SLO Tax Roundtable
Topic: FDIC Coverage/Misconceptions in Banking
Date: Friday, July 20
Time: 7:30–8:30 a.m.
Location: SLO County Courthouse (room behind cafeteria)
Cost: Free/members and nonmembers
CPE: 1 hour
RSVP: Online
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Pension Plan Comparisons
Speaker: Doug Hendry
Date: Tuesday, Aug. 21
Time: 4:30–7 p.m.
Location: Café Roma; 1020 Railroad Ave.; San Luis Obispo
Cost: $35/members; $40/nonmembers; $5/student members
CPE: 2 hours
RSVP: Online
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SAVE THE DATE
Tax Seminar
Back by popular demand, we have the team of Tom Daly and Gary McBride. This event benefits our scholarship fund. More information will follow and registration begins soon.
Speakers: Tom Daly and Gary McBride
Date: Friday, Dec. 7
Time: 8 a.m./registration; 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m./program
Location: Shore Cliff Lodge/Pelican Pointe; 2555 Price St.; Pismo Beach
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RESOURCES
Central Coast Chapter Leadership
Contact Program Associate Sherri Parkinson
Contact Program Director Vince Chin
