New (and Old) Opportunities for Connecting with Your Peers.

• Author: Morrill, Christopher P.
• Position: FROM THE CEO

Over the past few years, GFOA has taken a good, hard look at what our members want and need from our organization, and this focus has led us to make some exciting changes in member engagement. Our more than 21,000 GFOA members across the United States and Canada represent an invaluable resource for discussing best practices, sharing lessons learned, trading templates and examples, and encouraging innovation and growth in the field of public finance. Our role is to connect you to your peers, both formally and informally, and we encourage all finance officers to get involved. Many of our networking opportunities are free or heavily discounted for GFOA members.

* Participate in GFOA training.

We've had to cancel in-person training and conferences through at least early 2022 because of the pandemic, but you'll find that we've transformed our learning curriculum to provide you with numerous opportunities for both webinars and multi-day e-learning courses. Many courses also offer discussion groups and interactive exercises so you can meet your fellow finance officers.

And don't miss GFOA's 26th annual GAAP Update this November (with encore offerings in December and January). This is GFOA's most popular training class, and with good reason--it's a great opportunity to learn about new GASB pronouncements and ongoing projects, and there's a special segment on implementation of GASB 87 (Leases).

* Join a GFOA affinity group.

Finding other members who share similar challenges at similar organizations can seem difficult, but we can help! GFOA has dramatically enhanced programming for all its affinity groups. We offer networking and career development through the Women's Public Finance Network and Black Caucus, along with regular programming on specific issues facing small governments, large governments, and utilities through our Small Government Forum, Urban Forum, and Utility Finance Forum. All GFOA networking groups are free to members.

* Share your work. GFOA research regularly features examples from GFOA members to help communicate innovative ideas, best practices, and case studies. As you read through this issue of GFR, for example, think about what you can contribute and consider submitting an article.

* Be part of the online member community. Post a question, share an example, or simply check in to view other conversations as part of our online member communities. We have several member communities so you can stay connected with topics or areas...