Celebrating milestone chapter anniversaries: from five to seventy years old, TEI chapters hit the mark.

• Author: Levin-Epstein, Michael
• Position: TEI CHAPTERS

Individual TEI chapters are the lifeblood of the Tax Executives Institute. The chapters host educational meetings, including all-day CPE events and annual tax conferences; award graduate assistantships and scholarships; perform valuable community services; honor members with meritorious service awards; host luncheons; support TEI's institute-level programs; host Congressional representatives; and provide seemingly endless networking opportunities for its members.

In 2016, thirteen TEI chapters celebrated milestone anniversaries, ranging from fifth anniversaries for the Alaska and Oklahoma City Chapters to the seventieth anniversary celebrated by the Detroit Chapter. The Baltimore-Washington Chapter is located fairly close to TEI's downtown Washington, D.C., headquarters, whereas the Alaska Chapter is, shall we say, more than a stone's throw away.

"We are so proud of the work of our chapters and everything they do for TEI. They're simply invaluable to the success of our organization," says TEI Executive Director Eli Dicker.

TEI chapters were created for a variety of reasons, most often because they enabled members to network with local colleagues. Typically one or two dedicated TEI members helped to form each chapter, supported by their companies and organizations.

But each chapter's challenges, opportunities, and successes are unique. We surveyed these thirteen chapters to find out more about their histories and to present some of what they reported.

The Alaska Chapter, celebrating its fifth anniversary, works with Alaska Native Corporations, which have their own set of unique issues. The greatest challenge for the Chapter: members sometimes have long distances to travel for meetings. Most interesting event: this years fifth-anniversary dinner, hosted by Grant Thornton and KPMG, which included two dozen "golfers and duffers."

The Arizona Chapter, celebrating its fortieth anniversary, spends a lot of time recruiting tax professionals to join TEI and attend meetings. The key to success: choosing meeting topics "that are interesting and appeal to a broad group."

The Baltimore-Washington Chapter, celebrating its fifty-fifth anniversary, hosted a CPE event in 2013 at Nationals Park, the home field stadium of the Washington Nationals, which easily became the most popular CPE event the Chapter has hosted.

The Calgary Chapter, celebrating its forty-fifth anniversary, notes that many of its members hold positions on standing committees, such as the Canadian Commodity Tax Committee and the Canadian Income Tax Committee. It is the second-largest chapter in Canada and is particularly proud of the appointment of Lynn Moen, a longtime Chapter member, as Region I Vice President.

The Detroit Chapter, celebrating its seventieth anniversary, isn't positive who its founding companies were, but "strongly believes" that General Motors and Ford were among them. In 2013, the Chapter held a Tax Reform Town Hall, featuring former U.S. Rep. Dave Camp (R-4th), current Michigan governor Rick Snyder, and former governor John Engler.

The Florida Chapter, celebrating its forty-fifth anniversary, notes that the impetus for its formation was the "dynamic growth in the South Florida area." Geography is also one of the Chapter's greatest challenges: "With such a large geographical area, it is difficult to schedule monthly meetings like many of the other chapters do."

The Iowa Chapter, celebrating its twentieth anniversary, hosts a half-day training seminar each spring and uses the fees raised from the seminar to fund scholarships for accounting students interested in taxation at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa.

The Montreal Chapter, celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, has grown from ten members in 1956 to more than 200 members in 2016. The Chapter is unique in that most of its members are bilingual French and English speakers. The Chapter hosted an annual tax conference in Quebec City in February, at which cocktails are served in an "ice glass" at the Ice Hotel (Hotel de glace). Sounds interesting, oui?

The Oklahoma City Chapter, celebrating its fifth anniversary, was chartered "in record time"-- three and a half months from discussion to charter. The Chapter has developed a popular full-day tax boot camp.

The Salt Lake City Chapter, celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, notes that it has received support from the IRS as well as Utah state officials, including the current chair of the Utah State Tax Commission, John Valentine. It also notes that while many organizations struggle with diversity, "the Chapter has been diverse from the beginning."

The Toronto Chapter, celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, notes that its members include some of the largest corporations in Canada, including the Toronto Blue Jays, the Toronto Raptors, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the CN Tower. In 1970...