We can make a difference.

• Author: Cox, Charlie S.
• Position: President's message

As an individual with both U.S. and Canadian ancestry, it is an honor to serve as your new president. I look forward to leading the GFOA into its second century of fulfilling its mission of enhancing and promoting the professional management of governments for the public benefit.

I want to extend a personal thank you to Tom Glaser, Carla Sledge, Nancy Zielke, and Ed Harrington whose commitment, leadership, and words of wisdom inspired me to follow in their footsteps. The strong foundation established by past presidents, executive boards, and GFOA staff has created an association recognized as a standard of excellence for state, provincial, and local governments throughout the world.

"To enhance and promote the professional management of governments for the public benefit"--that's our mission statement. A defining aspect of our profession is its commitment to public service--a commitment to making a difference. As I travel around the country, I take comfort in knowing that dedicated finance officers are heavily involved in projects needed to: house the homeless; build schools; improve transportation systems; build recreation facilities; provide adequate clean water supplies; build flood control systems; and the list could go on and on. In addition to these responsibilities, public finance officials also face the more mundane tasks of striving to balance budgets in a manner that keeps taxes low while still providing a place for residents to work, live, play, and sleep safely at night having the knowledge that their garbage will be picked up on time the next morning. I am proud to serve beside each of you in this great profession--a profession in which we can make a large difference in each of our communities.

The Government Finance Officers Association made a difference in my life. Twenty-one years ago, as I began my public finance career with a medium-sized city government--a government that had never had a director with a finance background, I remember looking around trying to decide where to start. It wasn't long before I was directed to the GFOA. Using the association's recommended practices, publications, and training, I was able to dramatically change the financial operations of the city and to put in place the reporting systems necessary to achieve both the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. These successes led me to start attending and speaking at national...