Chicago members chop and chat at chapter's annual meeting.

• Position: Chapter News

Members of the Chicago chapter marked the close of another successful program year with an evening of food and fraternizing at the Chopping Block cooking school on June 9. The annual meeting, themed a culinary tour of Chicago neighborhoods, included an entertaining mix of cooking demonstrations, hands-on cooking lessons with professional chefs, and plenty of delicious hors d'oeuvres such as samosas, spring roils, and stuffed poblano peppers, all prepared by chapter members.

During the business portion of the meeting, outgoing Chapter President Matt Patterson highlighted the group's accomplishments over the past year, which included hosting the chapter's first Chief Tax Officer Forum, initiating an aggressive membership recruiting drive, and forging a relationship with Ladder-Up, a tax-preparation service for low-income taxpayers. Mr. Patterson noted that the chapter goals for the coming year include increasing meeting attendance, developing new chapter leadership, and successfully hosting the TEI National annual conference in October.

In one of the evening's more emotional moments, Mr. Patterson announced that the chapter's scholarship program would be named to honor Phil Downey, a long-time chapter member who died in July 2009. Mr. Downey, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, spent a distinguished career in tax working for the Internal Revenue Service, Quaker Oats, and most recently as general counsel in charge of tax matters for Technology Solutions Company. Mr. Downey's wife, Jane Downey, and several of the couple's eight children attended the meeting to express their appreciation for the chapter's honor. Later in the evening, Tom Sturomski, chapter board member and coordinator of the chapter's scholarship program, presented four of the newly-named $2,500 scholarship awards, two each to representatives from the accounting departments of Northern Illinois University and DePaul University, which will award the funds in TEI's behalf to deserving accounting...