Observations on a Career in Public Finance: A look back at Governmental Finance (one of GFR's previous monikers) in February 1973.

• Position: Rewind

GFOA has always worked hard to help our members and their communities, and one of our main areas of concern has long been ensuring the finance officer is taken seriously and has a seat at the table. Or, as we put it in 1973: "The finance officer is involved in virtually all local government policy decisions. He, more than any other public official can cost out the changes and revisions under consideration. It is his acumen and judgment that is called upon when fiscal decisions must be made."

That's from an article titled "Observations on a Public Finance Career," which pointed out that "The mass of minutiae to be handled in the average finance office is enough normally to cripple any drift of inclination toward experimentation or innovation."

As a result, the article said, "It is only through his professional association that the public finance officer can recharge his self-confidence and build his perceptual abilities. It is not enough that he must religiously keep up his readings in the technical journals or occasionally find a short-term course to expand his knowledge base. Without the assistance of a professional organization facilitating a systematic transmission of expertise in finance matters, there is no career pattern obtainable. With such a resource, the public finance officer feels less vulnerable and alone in meeting the many troubling questions he may be called upon to answer. Certainly, the requirements to be a success in the governmental finance field are becoming more confused and complicated. The responsibility of sorting these out and identifying them adequately will be the role of MFOA."

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