A year of challenge and accomplishment.

• Author: Bernard, David L.
• Position: President's page

The calendar does not lie. And the calendar says that a year has passed since I met with TEI s 2006-2007 Regional Vice Presidents and Chapter Presidents to outline a set of proposed objectives for the coming year. The past 12 months have gone by rapidly, and following the Institute's tradition, I am pleased to devote my last column as President to summarizing the year's highlights and, just as important, to expressing my appreciation to those who have made the year at once satisfying and memorable.

Since its founding in 1944, TEI has served its members and their employers through advocacy, networking, and education. The mission of providing in-house tax professionals with a forum for sharing ideas, of enabling them to learn from one another and top-notch practitioners, and of engaging government officials on a wide variety of tax (and non-tax) issues is as compelling today as it was in 1944. Thus, the objectives set by the Board of Directors last August were designed to build upon TEI's six decades of success by enhancing the Institute's effectiveness through a series of dynamic, member-driven initiatives.

Advocacy

This year's advocacy objectives fell into three categories: those related to process, those related to communication, and those related to particular projects or subject areas.

Our process changes were intended to ensure that the Institute better balances its activities. For example, once a month, the top officers hold a conference call with the chairs of the U.S.-based technical committees to discuss each committee's priorities and--where choices have to be made--to agree upon which projects should be addressed first. Similarly, the chairs of the International, European, Asia, and Canadian Committees hold regular calls to coordinate the Institute's work on transnational issues (e.g., relating to the OECD or European Union). Neither of these developments constitutes "rocket science," but by ensuring a good, ongoing flow of information among our chairs, we guarded against misallocating our resources and ensured that the important issues were adequately covered.

Our communications initiative was straightforward: We committed to doing a better job of providing our members with up-to-date information about our advocacy efforts. One means of accomplishing this objective was the development of an "advocacy scorecard" to inform our members of the projects we've undertaken and the results we've achieved. The scorecard, updated monthly...