March/April 2007
In This Issue:President’s Message: Almost Out of the Woods
Chaper News View all East Bay Chapter Events
Member Anniversaries
Welcome New Members
Post-busy Season Celebration
California CPA Education Foundation CPE in the East Bay Chapter
CalCPA News
CPA Day at the Capitol
Join the Profession’s Future Leaders
We Value Your Membership—Renew Today
A&A Answerline
Resources
President’s Message
Almost Out of the Woods
By Bob Johnston, CPA
What do accountants’ suffer from, especially during the busy season that ordinary people don’t?
Depreciation.
OK, OK. Enough of that.
No one wants to wish their life away, but aren’t we all looking forward to the end of busy season and the warm weather, sitting in the sun and relaxing? Well, some of us can hardly wait to run a marathon or go on a 250–mile bike ride or climb Mt. Everest—anything except what we have been doing in our winter caves for so long.
The chapter has planned for an entertaining and exciting event at the Blackhawk Museum April 24. If you love nice things and great places, be sure to sign up. And if you love cars, this is especially for you. Register early for this great event.
In January, which seems like years ago, a number of events were held, including meetings of the PFP Committee, where Carol O’Neil of Mechanics Bank shared excellent information concerning trust planning. Also, both the Contra Costa and South Bay discussion groups met and the YEP Committee had a sold-out event—“Time Management and Stress Management”—in January and the reviews of the presentation were terrific.
Also in January the Litigation Committee presented “Tax Issues in Divorce” and your board of directors was busy with a regular board meeting and a Meeting of the Firms. There was also Scholarship Night. Thanks to Scholarship Committee co-chairs Ching Fong and Miranda Beasley for dong a wonderful and thorough job of interviewing and selecting scholarship winners.
By the way, before every chapter meeting this past year Michele Day and her team of Jamie Menasco, Joelyn Carr-Fingerle and Tom O'Sullivan have called every new member to make them feel welcome to CalCPA and invite them to a chapter event. In January we had six new members attend the chapter meeting.
In February Bonnie Nagayama and the QuickBooks Committee met, as did the Business and Industry Committee, chaired by Jenise Gaskin.
Coming up: the Post-busy Season Celebration April 24. Check out the information elsewhere in this Bulletin; the Young & Emerging Professionals Conference is May 9 in San Francisco; and May 29 is CPA Day at the Capitol in Sacramento. Please consider attending and representing our profession in the halls of the Capitol.
Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
Auto.
Auto who?
You auto come to the Post–busy Season Celebration at the Blackhawk Museum.
—Bob Johnston, CPA
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Chapter News Welcome New Members
Licensed Members
Janet Avril, Resources Global Professionals
Brent Baxter, Comyns Smith McCleary & Deaver LLP
Laura Bergman, Jones Henle & Schunck
Carla Bryant, Mowat Mackie & Anderson LLP
Stephen Endo
Philip Hughes, Matson Driscoll & Damico LLP
Mark Lesti
David York, Ganze & Company
Candidate Members
Ryan Egan, KPMG LLP
Joyce Ho, Timpson Garcia LLP
Michael Imahara, Armanino McKenna LLP
Denise Jones
Jennifer Lee, Timpson Garcia LLP
Kristina Quam, Heffernan Insurance Brokers
Mey Saechao, Timpson Garcia LLP
Matilda Salako
Hsin-Mei Ton
Anna-Marie Turner, Ernst & Young LLP
Elisa Wong, KPMG LLP
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Post-Busy Season Celebration[PDF]
Join us for an amazing celebration at a unique and beautiful venue in the Bay Area. The Blackhawk Museum presents a one-of-a-kind coachbuilt and limited-production automobiles, dating from the early 1900s to the contemporary.
Take a tour with a docent and learn about these beautiful cars, or just relax and enjoy the company of others and the fine food. Be sure to bring friends and co-workers and celebrate in style!
Date: Tuesday, April 24
Time: 6-9 p.m.
Location: Blackhawk Museum; 3700 Blackhawk Plaza Circle; Danville
Cost: By April 10: $40 ($50 thereafter) Cost includes hors d’oeuvres and beverages.
Note: There is a 20 percent discount for firms with 10 or more registrations; 50 percent discount available for young/emerging professional members (students, candidates and professional staff with less than 5 years’ experience) and a guest. Registration with discounts by mail or by phone only.
RSVP:Online
Thank you to our sponsors Bridge Bank and ADP.
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CalCPA News
CPA Day at the Capitol [PDF]
Help legislators understand the issues facing California CPAs—join us May 29 for CPA Day at the Capitol.
CPA Day at the Capitol is your opportunity to speak with legislators and their staff on issues important to you as a California CPA. You will be briefed on current issues and then assigned to teams to meet with the legislators.
Our efforts are so much more effective when the legislator or their staff can sit face to face with someone—you—who is directly affected by an issue.
Please register as early as possible to allow CalCPA time to assign you to teams and schedule appointments with legislators.
Register today at www.calcpa.org/cpaday.
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Join the Profession’s Future Leaders [PDF] We Value Your Membership—Renew Today A&A Answerline Dear NSDP, Resources
The future leaders of the CPA profession will convene in May at the 2007 Young & Emerging Professionals Conference to challenge their thinking and experience professional growth.
Attend this forward-thinking event and leave with:
Review the full program at www.calcpa.org/yep.
Don’t Miss This Opportunity—Register Today!
May 9, 2007–San Francisco Hilton
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Renew your 2007-08 CalCPA membership, and you will be entered into a drawing for a FREE VP membership good through April 2008 courtesy of the California CPA Education Foundation.
Renew online today www.calcpa.org/renew.
For complete rules go to www.calcpa.org/renewalvprules.
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Dear Answerline,
I recently received a request from a loan broker asking me to state that a loan to a client would not have a negative impact on my client’s business. I prepare a compiled financial statement and corporate tax return for this client and am certainly not in a position to respond to such a request. What’s going on here? Are they just looking to shift the responsibility for evaluating how creditworthy their loan applicant is? I guess if I do their job for them, I better increase my professional liability coverage.
— Not-Such-Deep-Pockets
You are not alone. CPAs are getting more and more of these type requests from all kinds of lenders and brokers. I recently talked to the folks at CAMICO about this subject. It seems that they have received enough calls regarding these requested letters that they have prepared a report and sample letters on the topic. They have been gracious enough to allow me to share their report and samples with my readers. They can be located at www.calcpa.org/members/committees/apas/answerline.html and are reprinted there with permission of CAMICO Mutual Insurance Company.
The A&A Answerline is a free member service that can be accessed at (800) 922–5752, Ext. 2355.
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East Bay Chapter Leadership
Contact Chapter Coordinator Soco Davenport
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