Message From the President
By Lauren L. Kincaid, Syracuse Chapter President

As we begin a new fiscal year, I look forward to getting a lot accomplished as a chapter. We have a preliminary lineup of events that will hopefully have something for everyone over the next year. As we go through the year, we hope to add events to our lineup and will keep you posted via The Trusted Professional and/or individual event flyers.

I should have started by introducing myself. I am Lauren L. Kincaid, a principal with Firley, Moran, Freer & Eassa, PC, located in downtown Syracuse. I have been actively involved with the New York State Society of CPAs for the last five years and cannot begin to tell you what a great experience it has been for me, both personally and professionally.

I have a tough act to follow, as Roger Beer did a wonderful job over the past year. I will try to do the same. I would like to thank Roger for his hard work and dedication to the Syracuse Chapter; we would not be as successful a chapter without the dedication of our members and leaders. Thanks again, Roger!

The new officers and executive board were installed at the organizational luncheon on May 18 at the Century Club. We had a good turnout and would like to thank Bill Pape and Joyce Lewis from the Society for facilitating the meeting. I would also like to thank Andy Eassa, one of the new state-level vice presidents in charge of chapters, for facilitating the meeting and bringing his experiences and suggestions. The current year officers are as follows:

I couldn’t ask for a better group of fellow officers. I look forward to working with them for another year. I know from past experience they will be there to help whenever needed. I would like to extend a special welcome to newcomer Rick Shaw; we appreciate your commitment to the chapter and hope that your involvement meets your expectations.

Also in attendance at the luncheon were Dave Moynihan (executive board member), Tom Riley (executive board member), Robert Kawa (executive board member), John Markert (CPE committee chair), Howard Port (Management of an Accounting Practice committee chair), Tony Abboud (Young CPA committee chair), Kari M. Dalton (COAP committee cochair), and Franco Strangis (Members in Industry committee chair).

I appreciate the support of all who attended and have volunteered to be involved with the various committees. If you would like to become involved at any level, please feel free to contact myself or any of the board members at any time.

We were asked as a group by Bill Pape and Joyce Lewis what we feel makes us successful as a chapter. What we felt was the biggest factor was the “buy-in” to the State Society of CPAs as a whole, at both the local level and the state level, by many regional Syracuse firms and in particular the partners of those firms. Younger members would not be able to be as involved in and participate in chapter activities without this buy-in. Everyone felt that this is possible in our chapter because of our mutual respect and trust of each other. We have a pretty friendly competitive environment, and for the most part there is common respect provided between competing firms. I would ask that if you need help to get your firm to buy in to chapter activities, please contact us and we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.

One of my goals as president this year is to bolster our members in industry group. The committee chair, Franco Strangis, would be appreciative of other members in industry who would like to help him reach out to that group and get more active involvement by those members. Please contact him at franco.strangis@carrier.utc.com or 315-432-6877. Franco has been actively involved for the last several years and would like to see more activities for members in industry. I will try to see that we make that a priority this year.

On May 18, several Syracuse firm representatives (Mark Reid of Firley, Moran, Freer & Eassa; Kathy Kaminski of Green & Seifter; and Paula Deckman of Testone, Marshall & Discenza) attended an IRS liaison meeting in Rochester. This is the second meeting that has taken place between IRS representatives and local tax practitioners. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss current “hot topics” with the IRS representatives and to get a heads-up on changes being proposed. The representatives who attended would like to give interested members a brief overview of the meeting. We felt that the annual summer sizzler (clambake at Hinerwadel’s) on Wed., Aug. 18, will be a good opportunity to do this. They will spend a few minutes during the CPE session that day to provide us an overview.

Please see the preliminary schedule of events we have outlined for the upcoming year, and mark your calendars. We look forward to increased participation from all Syracuse Chapter members.

Please contact me with any questions, suggestions or comments. I hope to have something for all of our members over the upcoming year, but would certainly welcome any/all suggestions.

I would also like to congratulate Michele Dickey on the birth of a healthy baby girl on May 30!

Thank you all for your support.

Lauren Kincaid can be reached at 315-472-7045 or lkincaid@fmfecpa.com.

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