In case you haven’t heard, the NYSSCPA recently added six new chapters—for a total of 17—in what is easily our most significant member-focused action in more than a decade. Our chapters finally truly cover every corner of the state and give all members equal access to programs and services.
Although the NYSSCPA exists first and foremost for its members, for most of its history many Society members have belonged to chapters in name only: Yes, they paid their dues, but they could not take full advantage of all that the chapters offered. Some say that the overall trend is actually toward fewer state society chapters. In 1998, for example, the Michigan Association of CPAs dissolved its seven chapters in favor of a broader committee structure and a regional advisory council. But in New York, both our committees and our chapters have always been a vital force, even though the majority of our members have been in parts of the state with no strong chapter presence until now. Over recent years our members’ needs evolved in ways that brought that disparity into sharper focus, and surveys told us that members needed more from us in their own backyards. Recognizing this, past Society President George Foundotos created a task force in 1999 to examine the number of chapters and their geographic boundaries. The proposal for the new chapters originated with this task force.
The Society’s chapters create opportunities for CPAs to meet, learn, obtain CPE, and discuss relevant professional and practice issues. Over the years, our chapters have also become a primary means for the Society leadership to keep in touch with members, and for members to find the level of participation at which they can best serve the profession and meet their personal goals. The response to our recent membership survey—the first in almost 10 years—indicates that a significant number of members place a high importance on meeting and networking with each other.
Queens and Brooklyn each have their own chapters for the first time, and Manhattan and the Bronx share a chapter. Previously, the closest chapter meetings for the nearly one-third of Society members from New York City were in Staten Island, Long Island, or White Plains. The situation was even worse upstate, where members with sufficient motivation to belong to a chapter had to travel incredible distances to attend meetings even though the shared community, culture, and concerns that chapters are supposed to reflect, represent, and serve, were usually lacking. It is no surprise that the many members that found themselves in this situation chose not to attend chapter meetings. I hope that the new chapters in the Adirondacks, the Central Southern Tier, and Rockland will make more members feel at home.
I encourage all of our members to join a chapter and participate in chapter activities. (For details, visit www.nysscpa.org and click on the Society Chapters link.) If you’re so inclined, get involved in developing and running a new chapter. The Society is creating resources to help the new chapters operate, and inevitably these resources will also benefit existing chapters. But the staff can do only so much. The most vital support comes from the members who see chapter involvement as a form of participation that pays enormous rewards in its own way.
Louis Grumet
Publisher, The CPA Journal
Executive Director, NYSSCPA
lgrumet@nysscpa.org
The CPA Journal is broadly recognized as an outstanding, technical-refereed publication aimed at public practitioners, management, educators, and other accounting professionals. It is edited by CPAs for CPAs. Our goal is to provide CPAs and other accounting professionals with the information and news to enable them to be successful accountants, managers, and executives in today's practice environments.
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