Progress on all three E's - engaging members, empowering members, and enhancing membership value.

• Author: Rossi, Raymond G.
• Position: President's Page

When TEI's staff informed me that this column would be my final one as TEI President, my first reaction was to look at the calendar. Wasn't i it just yesterday, I thought, that I was working on my first column, outlining the Institute's goals and objectives for the coming year and gearing up for an eventful and fulfilling year? No, it wasn't just yesterday; it was nearly a year ago. Hence, this column properly becomes the one in which I look back and review the progress the Institute has made on the objectives that the Board of Directors approved last August.

Reminiscing, of course, is something that comes with the time of year. Graduations and commencements are typically a time to look both forward and backward, and the 60th anniversary of D-Day and the recent death of Ronald Reagan prompted a flood of memories across the nation and the world. TEI was founded six decades ago, a little more than two months after the Normandy Invasion. Forty-two years later, in 1986 and in the midst of the Reagan Presidency, I joined the Institute's Santa Clara Valley Chapter. At the time, one of the hallmarks of the Reagan years--the Tax Reform Act--was wending its way through Congress. Among the first projects to command my attention was the International Tax Committee's pre-regulation comments on the legislation's behemoth international tax provisions. Many of those provisions continue to haunt tax executives, and while some progress has been made to "reform the reforms" in the ensuing 18 years, much remains to be done. Indeed, many of the recommendations set forth in TEI's submissions on the pending FSC/ETI repeal bill are the legacy of the work done in 1986, first to identify potential problems with the legislation and then to temper and ameliorate their harsh effects.

Communication and Member Service as TEI's Overarching Goals

It is not only Ronald Reagan's tax reform efforts, however, that spurred my memories as I take stock of TEI's accomplishments. It is also his unparalleled abilities as "the Great Communicator." Communication, of course, is the key to success in any field, and that is why effective communication was one of the Institute's two overarching goals this past year. Specifically, TEI undertook to promote our advocacy, networking, and educational accomplishments more effectively and to strengthen our unwavering commitment to high professional standards. Our other general goal was improved member service--to equip TEI's members with the...