Providing excellence as a premier membership organization.

• Position: Message from the chair ...

I'm honored to serve as CalCPA chair this year. I have been a CalCPA member since 1976 and my connection to our profession has always been important to me.

As a member in industry, I have kept my CPA license active to stay current and CalCPA has made that possible. Being a CPA is a badge of honor for me.

As chair, I will ensure that we continue to focus on our strategic priorities:

* Advocate for members on issues that affect the profession.

* Enhance and promote the visibility of the profession and CalCPA.

* Attract, educate and support CPAs in their professional and personal growth.

A Great Time to be Chair

Our membership continues to break records--we just hit 38,000--and building momentum. And, we continue to advocate on important issues that affect the profession, such as crafting a workable solution for the 150-hour requirement for licensure that is effective in 2014. As we build our grassroots efforts, we strengthen our evergrowing voice in Sacramento. To ensure ongoing success, it is critical that all of us support CPA-PAC. I can't say it enough, please give to the PAC.

As I think about issues impacting the profession, one that rises above the others for me as CFO at a privately held company is private company financial reporting. Employees in privately held companies spend a lot of time and effort addressing standards that aren't relevant to their business.

A recommendation sits with the Financial Accounting Foundation to create a new, separate standard-setting board that reports to the FAF that would set changes and modifications in existing U.S. GAAP to recognize the unique needs of private company financial statement users. I believe that all CPAs who work with or in a privately held company, no matter what the size, should endorse this.

As I reach out to members in industry on this issue, my goal is to discuss financial reporting for privately held companies and establish relationships and promote the value of CalCPA. While we want to increase our membership in all professional areas, I would like us all to play a major role in our outreach to members in industry as we create more offerings for this membership segment.

Another subject of great interest to me is lifelong learning. I'm enthusiastic about how CalCPA, in partnership with the Education Foundation, will continue to offer a range of CPE topics and webcasts.

Helping Members Grow As Leaders

CalCPA will also continue to help our members grow as leaders with programs such...