Reporting for duty and honored to serve.

• Author: Lucchesi, Janice
• Position: President's page

Leading the preeminent association of in-house tax professionals represents the ultimate combination of service and duty to our peers and profession and, for me, is a capstone to my thirty-plus-year career as a tax professional.

As I rose through the Institute's leadership queue, I regularly thought about how, when my turn came, I could help advance TEI's mission of serving the needs of in-house tax professionals around the world. My term has just started, and I have chosen Staying Nimble with Change as the theme for my 2016-17 goals, reflecting my belief that as an organization we must stay vigilant to changes in our professional surroundings and to the shifting needs and composition of our members around the world.

Goal Setting: Choice and Guidance

Operationally, goal setting involves choice and balance: choosing from among many worthy pursuits, while balancing short- and long-term organizational needs. In some respects, that means moving forward with and continuing efforts that are well underway, while also embarking on new initiatives.

Only time will tell whether we got the mix right, but if the energetic discussions at the Leadership Foundations Seminar in Portland and the Annual Meeting of Members in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, are any indication, I think we are certainly headed in the right direction. What I am absolutely certain of are the unwavering commitments of my leadership team to undertake these initiatives with vigor and purpose. For the first of what will become a very familiar refrain, I want to express my appreciation to them and the TEI members and staff who will drive our goals in the coming year.

Our Membership

We have embarked on a three-year effort to expand TEI's membership base--the lifeblood of our organization. Our global recruitment campaign, Access Granted, represents an integrated, multiyear effort designed to make the case to in-house professionals around the world why a TEI membership is virtually a required credential.

Implementation of our campaign will proceed in a multipronged way, via our Chapter + 1 visitation program and by integrating Access Granted messaging throughout the broad range of chapter, regional, and Institute-level educational programming. Our efforts have been further enabled by the Board of Directors' approval of a year-long suspension of the new member initiation fee, thereby making TEI membership even more economical.

Successful implementation of Access Granted is every member's...