Chapter focus: dallas.

Area Covered: The Greater Dallas Metropolitan Area Year Founded: 1944

No. Members: 494

Member Companies Represented: Southwest Airlines Co., Brinker International, ExxonMobil Corp. and J. C. Penney Co. Inc. are among the large corporations, mixed with a myriad of middle-market manufacturing and service companies.

Annual Dues: $275, which covers the cost of all chapter events: monthly meetings (21 CPE credits available), winter social (cocktails/dinner/entertainment, couples event), spring golf outing, off-season (summer) professional development sessions (4 CPE credits available) and various other luncheons/receptions for new members, chapter outreach efforts, etc.

Meeting Schedule: Monthly dinner meetings (1 CPE credit each), generally on 2nd Tuesday from September to April, preceded by Professional Development (PE) sessions (2 CPE credits each) and a networking reception.

Meeting Locations: Monthly meetings are usually held at the Bent Tree Country Club in North Dallas, though we always try to move a couple of meetings a year elsewhere. This year, we had one meeting at the Belo Mansion in downtown Dallas and our annual winter social at the Dallas Fairmont Hotel's Venetian Room.

Attendance at meetings has been steadily growing the past few years. The most popular meetings are those with nationally recognized speakers or firms, together with meetings held at new locations.

Dinner Speakers: Some of the popular speakers this year have included the chief economist of the U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC), a partner from KPMG's Forensics Practice, a panel led by a New York Stock Exchange Board Member and TV host, an oil industry CEO, a vice chairperson from a nationally known real estate company and the Dallas ISD Superintendent.

Monthly PD Sessions: This year included a panel session on risk management, an accounting update led by KPMG and an XBRL update, as well as sessions on e-discovery and ERP controls.

Chapter Sponsors: The Dallas Chapter has several sponsor levels. KPMG LLP is our Chapter Sponsor, Capital One Bank and Comerica Bank are our Strategic Partners and American Express Corporate...