June 2008 | Silicon Valley San Jose Chapter Bulletin

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CHAPTER EVENTS

ERISA

Topic: Current 401(k) Issues with Benefit Plan Audits
Date: Friday, June 6
Time: 8–10 a.m.
Location: CBIZ/Mayer Hoffman McCann PC, 3rd Floor; 84 S. First St.; San Jose
CPE: 2 hours
Cost: Free
RSVP: Online

Kickin’ It with the San Jose Earthquakes: Chapter Installation Event - Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy - Witness Beckham, Donavan and Cannon in Action!

Join us Saturday, June 14 as we mark the changing of the guard, express our appreciation to outgoing chapter President Roger Laux and wish a successful year to incoming chapter President David Veyna. We also will recognize the work and dedication of all chapter leaders. We encourage you to come with your family and colleagues.
Date: Saturday, June 14
Time: 5:30 p.m. award ceremony; 7 p.m. game time
Location: McAfee Coliseum, Oakland
Cost: $45/members and each guest
RSVP: Limited seating! To register or check availability of tickets, contact Program Associate Stephanie Stewart at stephanie.stewart@calcpa.org

Tax Interest Group Meeting

Topic: International Expansion: Tax Opportunities and Pitfalls, Part 3
Speakers: Doug W. Wright, U.S. Tax Advantage, LLC
Date: Wednesday, June 18
Time: Noon–1:30 p.m.
Location: Bella Mia Restaurant; 58 S. First St.; San Jose
CPE: 1 hour
Cost: $30/members; $15/student and candidate members; $35/nonmembers ($5 additional at the door)
RSVP: Online
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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

32,000 Members Strong … and Growing

By David Veyna, CPA

On May 13, more than 300 CPAs from throughout the state converged on Sacramento for CalCPA’s CPA Day at the Capitol. This annual event provides an opportunity to meet our state senators, assembly members and other designated representatives to help them understand key issues facing California CPAs. There is always something important to bring forward, and this year we focused on the importance of CPA mobility, achieving substantial equivalency in our state and our concerns about the proposed expansion of sales tax to professional services.
   With more than 32,000 members, CalCPA is the largest statewide professional association of CPAs in the United States. Our members come from large, medium and small firms and businesses. Our organization’s size and the fact that we are active and interested in the issues that affect our members is what catches legislators’ attention. That is why it is important that we continue to grow our membership and encourage involvement.
   While the main goal for attending the CPA Day at the Capitol is to promote issues important to CPAs, there is another, personal benefit that you can gain from attending: The ability to network and develop professional contacts is invaluable. In addition to meeting and talking to the movers and shakers in our state Capitol, those CPAs who attended also were able to meet and become better acquainted with CalCPA’s current and future leaders.
   I would like to thank everyone who was able to attend this year and encourage those who did not make it to set aside the date to attend next year’s event. It will be time well spent.
—David Veyna, CPA
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CHAPTER NEWS

Second Annual Young and Emerging Professionals Conference: Were You There?

The second-annual Young and Emerging Professionals Conference was held May 9 at the San Francisco Marriott. This year’s event surpassed all expectations.
   The day started off with a panel discussion on “The CPA Rising.” Loretta Doon, CalCPA chief executive officer, John McWilliams of San Francisco State and Golden Gate universities and Diane Rubin of Novogradic & Co. LLP discussed the difference between rising CPAs from a generation ago versus now and what future CPAs can expect, including topics affecting both personal life and career.
   After a break and some raffle prizes, Vintage Foster of Armanino McKenna gave the scoop on being a “Trusted Adviser: The Gold Standard.” Foster definitely inspired the room of emerging professionals to stay on the right side of the integrity track. Julie Bauke of Congruity Career Consulting then provided a perfect segue into lunch talking about “Smart Networking.” Bauke gave tips on how to introduce yourself, get business cards and exit conversations gracefully. During a three-course lunch, conference attendees were treated to Dean Chance presenting “You Wore What to Work?” Chance shared a fun presentation on business casual dress and the top-10 office “don’ts” for men and women.
   Lunch was followed by another prize giveaway and a panel discussion on “My Life as a CPA.” Glen Dong from the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation, Veronique Kessler from the Wikimedia Foundation, Kenneth McGuire from the FBI, Jennifer Ziegler of Hemming Morse, Inc. and Cricket Weaver of KPMG LLP discussed their unique experiences as CPAs, why they chose the career path they did and how they achieved success.
   Following another break with even more raffle prizes, Jan Baller, president of Potential Plus+, spoke on “Communications: Your Ticket to Career and Life Success.” The keynote speaker was the one-and-only Christopher Gardner, who was the inspiration for the film “The Pursuit of Happyness.” Chris revisited the time in his life portrayed by the movie, giving us an inside scoop that the movie could not. Gardner’s energy and passion lit up the room and provided the crowd with a great energy that carried over to the networking event held immediately after the conference.
   Next year’s conference has a tough act to follow, but with all of CalCPA’s bright young and emerging professionals, there is no doubt that next year’s conference also will be a hit.

New Members

On behalf of the Silicon Valley San Jose Chapter’s officers, directors and members, we extend our warmest of welcomes to our new members:

Licensed CPAs
Jennifer Barnes, Gallina LLP
Liana Felix, Mohler Nixon & Williams
Connie Feng
Robert Hallatt, Ryan McDonald & Kincheloe LLP
Yung-Ming Ling, RINA Accountancy Corporation
Kevin Madej, LMGW CPAs
Susan Nakagawa, Wubbels & Duffy CPAs LLP
Wanwan Zhang, Berger/Lewis A/C 

Candidate Members
Ashley Barber, Chiang  Hammon & Co
Marygrace Bautro, BDO Seidman LLP
Armina Behrouzi, Novellus Systems Inc
Bing Ju
Cara Kelly, Berger/Lewis A/C
Gregory Kucaj, Ernst & Young LLP
Sung Lee
Drea Li, DeCarolis Design & Marketing
Jester Liao, Berger/Lewis A/C
Brenda Martin, Cynthia Lazares CPA Inc
Eric Orlando, Orlando Mitts Moore & Co
Namrata Popat, Berger/Lewis A/C
Lacy Rieber, Petrinovich Pugh & Co LLP
Aaron Rubin, Abbott Stringham & Lynch
Vania Santella, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP
Xiaolan Shi, Bell Microproducts Inc
Kuan-Ting Wang, Pai Accountancy LLP
David Wilds, Johanson & Yau AC
Helen Zelinsky, Petrinovich Pugh & Co LLP
Yamei Zhai, Berger/Lewis A/C

Associate Members
Amy Tombor, Perisho Tombor Ramirez Filler & Brown

Candidate Members Converted to Licensed CPAs
Alicia Alvarez, Grant Thornton LLP
Debasish Bhowmick, Ernst & Young LLP
Eilean Guo, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Alpana Shah, Gallina LLP
Chris Tainty, Agilent Technologies

Student Members
John Jeffs, , Santa Clara University

Member Anniversaries

One–Five Years
Michael Ainslie, Marion Babbel, Andrew Bader, Petra Barry, Patricia Beckwith, Camille Bikle, Mark Blumenfeld, Shan Nen Bong, Darrell Brinkman, Doralene Campbell, Steve Chang, Richard Chen, Jenny Chen, Christopher Chew, Lily Chow, Luisa Chu, Melanie Cleveland, D Leon Clinton, David Cooper, Iona Da Costa Pereira, Carly Denham, William Donnelly, Jr., Grant Dow, Matthew Elliott, Oscar Espinoza, Jacob Farrar, Jan Foo, Michael Fujii, Negin Gamini, Ahmad Gharaibeh, Isidro Gomez, Leena Gupta, David Hayashida, Robert Hirt, Alice Huang, Mansoorali Hudda, Loreen Huddleston, Natasha Hunerlach, Corrine Hung, Dana Ingols, Syed Iqbal, Sarah Johnston, Greg Jones, Chie Komiya, Akiko Kunugi, Ling Lee, Jongkwon Lee, Nicole Letellier, Qin Li, Hoiying Li, Jeffrey Lin, Abe Livchitz, Helena Lou, Maggie Ly, Laura Ma, Eric Malick, Margarita Malyugina, Rebecca Mankey, Graciela Martinez, Sean McLean, Kristen Merritt, James Meyers, Deepak Mistry, Bette Morphis-Andrade, Heather Myers, Nicole Nadvornik, Nhung Nguy, Thao Nguyen, Lamiya Nguyen, Janet Norris, Michael Park, Susan Parker, Jeannine Parsons, Shreyasee Patil, Saikat Paul, Naseem Punnilath, Natalie Rava, Anahita Razmazma, Daniel Reuter, Wendy Richard, Elena Salguero, Jennifer Shum, Merav Spradlin, Aparna Srinivasan, Jeffrey Stark, Alexander Su, Kota Sugimura, Robert Sweeney, Purna Tagdiwala, Merlissa Tan, Linda Tang, Li-Teh Teng, Megan Thompson, Tina Tragarz, Huei-Wen Tu, Erik Vartanians, Carol Wagner, Ye Wang, Jarrett Warner, Matt Winans, Clinton Woodward-Pickering, Annie Yamashita, Hyong Sik Yoon, David Zechnich

Six–10 Years
Karl Bergmann, Joseph Cicero, Brian Fenn, Derek Fohs, Michael Gurr, Sanchita Kumar, Debbie Kwong, Kristie Nolan, Rosario Ponce, Keith Rode, Keith Schwehr, Peggy Stockwell, Christopher Thomas, Daniel Ukestad, Syeda Yunus

11–15 Years
Byung Ahn, Cesar Arreola, Eric Brettner, Mei-Na Chen, Dianne Glynn, Daniel Goncharoff, Rae Gularte, Meenakshi Kandukuri, Sharron Keegan, John Kelm, Maura Matera, Stanley Ng, Douglas Nichols, Dennis Ondyak, Pamela Pier, Yu Wenlan Pong, L. Marcel Provencher, Steven Robertson, Jetan Sahni, Hirohide Takatsuji, Shirley Terra, Lois Vega, Tsungyin Yeh

16–20 Years
Anita Adams, Donna Bumgarner, Regie Ducusin, David Galiotto, Robert Hutton, Gloria King, Tammy Nunez, Dennis Shaler, Brenda Swiney, Shari Vanloo

21–30 Years
Michael Bailey, Glenn Cahalan, Eric Childs, Annette Delgreco, Jacquelyn Edgemon, William Fahey, Clifford Fenske, Jr., Leslie Fisher, Andrew Glassanos, Michael Grace, Allen Greco, John Halim, Mary Horner, Michele Izor, Liza Keh, James Killin, Richard Kogura, Scott Leahy, Patrick Mauldin, Edward Michaels, Benjamin Mozzetti, Jr., John Murphy, Mary O'Connor, Laurie Orlando, C. Sue Park, Judy Parsons, Clare Piech, Michael Riordan, Albino Rodrigues, Eno Schmidt, Edward Seledon, William Smith, Jr.,Yoichi Sogawa, George Stanford, Gary Strutz, Jared Suzuki, Thomas Tuttle, Jay Weil

31–40 Years
Lawson Adams, Michael Gray, Carl Johnson, Morgan Lynch, Gary Price, D J Teresi, Jack Welkley

More than 40 Years
Max Dakins, Griffith Lewis, Joseph McCahan, William Miller, Donald Robinson, Jr., John Vucina, Jr., A. Carleton Williams

CalCPA NEWS

CalCPA Co-Sponsors State Bar Annual Income Tax Seminar

Topic: 2008 Annual Income Tax Seminar

Highlights include:

• Audits with sensitive issues
• Property taxes—change of ownership issues
• Tax preparer penalties
• S Corporation acquisitions
• Effects of the Credit Crisis—foreclosures, income from canceled debt and related issues

Sponsored by: Golden Gate University, CalCPA’s San Francisco, East Bay, Silicon Valley San Jose and Peninsula Silicon Valley chapters, California Association of Attorney-CPAs and the Sonoma County Bar Association
Date: Friday, June 20
Time: Registration 8 a.m.; Program 8:30 a.m.–5:05 p.m.
Location: Golden Gate University School of Law; 536 Mission St.; San Francisco
Cost: $100/advance registration ($20 additional at the door) or $50 for materials only
RSVP: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/taxation

Ascend Leadership Conference

The San Francisco Bay Area Ascend/NAASA Chapter is hosting its second annual “Inspiring Across Generations” SF-Bay Area Conference and Anniversary Dinner.
Date: Saturday, June 7
Location: Four Seasons Hotel; San Francisco
RSVP: Online

And the Winner Is ...

Congratulations to Jerry Butterfield of the San Joaquin Chapter, who won the free VP membership courtesy of the Education Foundation. And thank you to everyone who has renewed.
   If you haven’t already renewed—your dues were due May 1—now is the perfect time.
   It only takes a minute, www.calcpa.org/renew

2008 National MAP Survey: New and Improved

Find out how your firm stacks up against others by taking part in the PCPS/TSCPA National MAP Survey, which covers key practice management issues, from billing rates and salaries to services as a percentage of fees.
   Survey results will allow you to compare your firm’s management policies and financial results to other firms, gain strategic guidance to build a more profitable and rewarding practice; and help make core business decisions.
   Changes to this year’s survey include 40 percent fewer questions, targeted and “user-friendly” results, a free summary results report for all participants, and results made available months earlier than in previous years.
   The summary report will contain an extract of the survey’s key performance metrics, such as number of hours charged/compensated, major income statement statistics and more. The comprehensive report, available for purchase and free to PCPS members, will include all of the performance metrics crossed against many relevant comparison groups, as well as additional ratios and statistical analyses.
   The survey is open through July 11.

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