Expanding the network.

• Author: McCormally, Timothy J.

The hoopla surrounding Senator Charles Grassley's recent embrace of Twitter notwithstanding, social networking is nothing new to members of the tax community. (Many of us cannot imagine saying anything in 140 characters, but that's another matter.) To be sure, the technological interface is changing as services such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, and Twitter proliferate, but networking has long been a critically important part of every successful organization. In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote perceptively in Democracy in America about the then-uniquely American practice of individuals of common cause coming together to form clubs, societies, associations--social networks, if you will--in order to share information and ideas and support one another.

The intervening 175 years have not done anything to undermine de Tocqueville's thesis (other than to cause the adverb "uniquely" to evanesce as globalization takes deeper and deeper root). Thus, Tax Executives Institute is not unique among tax organizations in emphasizing the networking opportunities that members have. That said, there is something special--unique--about the depth and breadth of networking that has been TEI's sine qua non since the Institute's founding in 1944. Based on more than a quarter century of observation, I am confident in saying that, as a group, TEI members are more connected with one another than members of any other organization with which I'm familiar, and the connections often extend beyond a discussion of arcane tax rules, of the best tax lawyers in this state or that, of experiences with a particular revenue agent, or of what potential job opportunities exist. They include all those things--and everything else that a business association should reach--but in more situations than I could count, they blossomed into true friendships.

In June, I had the pleasure of attending a reception in honor of a true TEI friend, Chris Baldwin, who retired from Gannett Corporation earlier this year after more than 30 years. A long time member of first the Rochester and then the Baltimore-Washington Chapter, Chris increased his TEI activity after Gannett relocated to the Washington area in 1986. During his years with TEI, he served as a member of the Awards, Continuing Education, and Communications Committees, including serving as chair of the latter committee from 1990 to 1992. (Our first interaction dealt with the fringe benefit regulations the IRS issued after section 132 was...