Message From the President

By Don A. Kiamie, Westchester Chapter President

Before I start my column for this month, I wanted to thank everybody for supporting my presidency. My job (and I hate to call it a job since a lot of fun comes along with the hard work) has been made so much easier because of my supporting cast. The officers, board, committee chairs and you, the membership, have been more supportive than I could have imagined. Believe it or not, we have already started the transition for the 2005–2006 year. Thank you: two words that are not used enough, but mean so much.

I would like to mention three special events we had in November. First, on Nov. 4, we had our first Young CPA networking event in several years. Most people link networking with career awareness. A broader term would be “intelligence” networking, since it also has an educational value and is a means to develop a support group for decision making.

Our annual officers visitation night was scheduled for Nov. 11, Veterans Day. This has drawn a crowd of 200 people annually. There’s not a better way to meet and mingle with the people you have elected to represent you. As usual, there was an ethics educational value to the evening.

For several years, we have been trying to increase the support for our semi-annual Westchester dinner theater event. For a very reasonable cost, you get great people, food, the show Cabaret, networking and education all in one evening. This event was on Nov. 12.

The Message

By now, you must know that my favorite word is education. That is, we must never cease to be students. The learning process should never stop.

This month’s message was suggested by one of my officers. I always like to start with a question. Would we have had Enron, WorldCom and the other accounting debacles of the past several years if CPAs were proactive, rather than reactive? I really had to think about this. Sometimes I think CPAs, including myself, are scared of the word change. If it’s going OK, don’t change it. Change will only lead to questions. So even if the change is for the better, don’t change.

I remember my first encounter with change in the corporate world. I was working for General Foods (now Kraft Foods), and I was asked to do a board report detailing gains and losses on the sale of capital assets. This report had been presented annually for over 20 years. Having just moved to private from public, I was eager to make a good impression on my bosses since they were all from PriceWaterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) and I was the token Peat Marwick (KPMG) accountant. I called the corporate secretary, and he sent me a copy of the board resolution that had been passed many years ago. Naturally, the report looked nothing like what the resolution requested. Of course, I did the report the way the board resolution requested—and was almost an ex-General Food’er before I started. My boss had me do it the old way and warned me never to change anything again.

Where is this going? I guess proactive is never being afraid to change. Never be afraid to look at things in a different way. Never be satisfied with the status quo. Where would this country be if there was no change? Where would our profession be without change? Looking back on our profession, where it is now, and where it will be makes me wonder, Why haven’t we been proactive? Why haven’t we changed the way we do things?

In closing, have a Happy Thanksgiving. Change, be proactive, and let me hear from you.

Don Kiamie can be reached at 212-213-2112 or donalbert@mindspring.com.