Giving back doesn't have to end when your "working career" does.

• Author: McCormally, Timothy J.
• Position: Less Taxing Matters

Dave Penney's inaugural column as TEI president begins I with his paying homage to the "selfless enterprise" that the Institute's founders exhibited in 1944 when they gathered in New York City to discuss whether to organize what we now know as Tax Executives Institute. Dave's term was new to me, but it encapsulates the essence of the Theodore Roosevelt quotation that adorns the table of contents of every issue of The Tax Executive since 1989:

Every man owes some of his time to the upbuilding of the profession to which he belongs. (Before 1989, the quotation was on the front page of TEI News, the Institute's bimonthly newsletter.)

"Selfless enterprise" does not mean that the member will not benefit personally or professionally from getting involved, but that he or she is not motivated primarily by "what's in it for me." When TEI's Board of Directors adopted the Institute's Social Responsibility Initiative four years ago, it invoked a different, but conceptually similar term: "enlightened self-interest." That term has been defined as a philosophy in ethics that states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong) ultimately serve their own self-interest or, in the business sphere, that you can do well by doing good. That TEI has followed this credo for nearly seven decades is something all members have benefitted from--and can be proud of.

An interesting fact about the Theodore Roosevelt quotation: Despite Bartlett's, Wikipedia, and Internet-based search engines, TEI has never been able to establish its provenance. Coincidentally, just as Dave submitted his column containing the term "selfless enterprise," a listserv message from the American Society of Association Executives hit my inbox and may have provided the answer. The questioner asked about "the Roosevelt quote about associations." Several ASAE members responded, but none offered up the TEI version. It seems that the reason we couldn't confirm the accuracy of the quotation was that, as pithy as Teddy ("Talk Softly and Carry a Big Stick") Roosevelt could be, his actual quotation is nothing like what TEI has ascribed to him.

Thus, although the quotation provided by the ASAE uses the word "man" (instead of the more inclusive, 21st Century friendly "individual" or "person"), it does not speak to people's "upbuilding the profession" to which they belong. (Alas, the only publications in which we can find this term are...