Advancing Virtually, TEI Proud.

• Author: Welch, Katrina
• Position: Tax Executives Institute - President's page

For seventy-five years, TEI has set the standard for excellence, service, and commitment to the in-house tax community around the world. Our mission of supporting the educational, networking, and advocacy needs of our members is absolute, as is our commitment to keep members connected to one another, practitioners and sponsors connected with our members, and the Institute fully engaged with the tax and regulatory authorities worldwide which govern the work we do.

Although the developments in recent months have altered how we conduct the Institute's business, the underlying commitment of excellence and service to you, our members, has been and remains unshakable.

Though the Institute was compelled to cancel its entire spring educational calendar, in very short order, working with members, practitioners, and sponsors, we were able to successfully pivot and convert nearly forty hours of best-in-class live education into virtual formats, reaching over 10,000 professionals and ensuring members and tax professionals stay connected.

In addition, working with our sponsors, TEI established a dynamic COVID-19 tax information portal to enable our members to stay up to date on COVID-19-related tax developments at home and around the world.

Further, the Institute's staff worked closely with countless chapter and regional leaders to ensure that meeting cancellations triggered by COVID-19 did not result in any cancellation or attrition penalties at any level within TEI.

These efforts can fairly be described as triage, and I am very proud of everyone's efforts to band together.

Beyond the near term, the steps the Institute has taken to position itself for the coming months have been especially laudable.

We have smoothly pivoted from a live, face-to-face approach in educational delivery to a virtual approach--for the near term. In doing so, we ensure the safety and security of everyone affiliated with TEI, avoid unnecessary speculation about the scientific issues associated with COVID-19, and do not place our members, partners, and sponsors in harm's way. I am confident that there will be a return to some semblance of normal. But, for now, that timeline is still undefined.

Accordingly, I am extremely proud of the Institutes decision to chart a clear and...