Nikki Nelson, CPA
January Greetings fellow CPAs! Winter seems to be upon us and with that the busy holiday season. Every year it seems to be busier than the last one, so it becomes increasingly more important to step back and remember the true reason for the season.
In October, I had the privilege of attending the Annual AICPA Member’s Meeting along with the AICPA Fall Meeting of Council in Phoenix, Arizona with Jim Abbott, Mike Schmitz, John Mongeon, Faye Miller and Len Splichal also from North Dakota. They were great meetings that covered lots of material in a very professional manner. I would like to take a moment to recap some of what we were briefed on at the meetings.
The meetings involved presentations on current professional issues, a lengthy discussion on the Chartered Global Management Accounting designation (CGMA), Private Company Financial Reporting, CPA Horizons 2025, an update from NASBA, an update on the “Feed the Pig” Financial Literacy program, an update on CPA2Biz and updates on Washington developments and the economy, among others. I would like to highlight a couple of these items.
First, I would like to fill you in on the CGMA designation, which I discussed at each of our stops along the President’s Tour in May. The CGMA is a new professional designation that is targeted toward AICPA members who work in business, industry and government. These members make up about 2/3 of the total AICPA membership (similar to here in North Dakota), so it is great that the AICPA has finally come up with something to directly impact CPAs in the management accounting field. One of the main goals of the CGMA is to elevate the profession of management accounting globally. The CGMA is set to kick off the end of January 2012. Please watch for more information from the AICPA and seriously consider this designation if you work outside of public accounting, as it will definitely set you apart from those who do not have it.
Secondly, as most of you are aware we are currently in the comment period of a very important issue to our profession: Private Company Financial Reporting. The AICPA Council has strongly approved a resolution urging the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) to create a separate independent board that would have the authority to set differences in generally accepted accounting principles in the United States for private companies. There are approximately 29 million privately held companies in the United States according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which could be greatly affected by the passing of this resolution. The AICPA maintains that this resolution is in the best interest of everyone involved, including the private business owners, investors, lenders, CPAs and other fi nancial statement users. There is a very simple way to submit a comment letter to the AICPA and it takes only 30 seconds to do it. The comment period ends January 14, 2012, so please take a moment to visit the front page of the AICPA.org web-site and follow the link to send a very quick letter. Please also encourage other CPAs and users of financial statements to do the same.
As always, feel free to contact me at any time. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year! See you in 2012!
November
Happy Fall! What a beautiful season it has been so far! School. Football. Cool nights. 85 degree days. Crunchy, colorful leaves. First newsletter article for me.
As I sit down to write this letter, I am finding myself being caught up in the excitement that I even have the privilege of writing this letter! I am so very thankful and proud to be taking on the role of the president of the North Dakota Certified Public Accountant’s Society (NDCPAS)---you are thinking to yourself right now--”Nikki has lost her mind! She doesn’t even know the correct name of our organization!--YIKES...boy are we in trouble!” Actually, I am excited to announce that our organization has undertaken a new Brand Consistency Campaign! At our September 20th Society Board meeting that was held during the Annual Convention in Fargo, the Board was presented with the results and recommendations of our market study that was completed by a professional marketing firm. There were lots of interesting things presented to us and we are very excited to begin sharing more with our membership in the coming months. We are confident you will love our new unified look!
Speaking of the Annual Convention...thank you very much to those of you who made the effort to attend! Your participation is greatly appreciated and without you there, everyone else might not have had such a great time! I may be a bit biased, as I was on the planning committee, but the CPE was top class, the entertainment was fun, the food and accommodations were wonderful and the people attending were AWESOME!!! I can’t underscore enough, the importance of supporting our organization’s Annual Convention NO MATTER which city it is located in. I would like to reach out to you and ask that you place the dates for next year’s Annual Convention in Minot in your calendar RIGHT NOW! The dates of the convention are September 23-25, 2012. Just imagine the support that our colleagues in Minot would feel planning the convention one year after the devastation of the 2011 flooding and being supported with a RECORD BREAKING NUMBER OF ATTENDEES!?! Let’s each do our part to make it happen!
We were very fortunate to have the Chairman of the AICPA, Paul Stahlin, and his wife, Nonny, spend a great deal of time at our convention. Paul gave a very thorough update of happenings affecting our profession at the national and international levels and also assisted in presenting our 42 new CPAs with their certificates. We were very excited to have so many new CPAs at the banquet to be recognized for their great accomplishments and also stay to attend the convention. Thanks to these new CPAs for joining our profession and hopefully also joining our great organization. It is through this growth that we will continue to be a growing and thriving society readily available to serve our membership anyway we can.
I look forward to serving each of you this upcoming year and thank you for the opportunity to do so! Please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time!
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