Industry CPAs Offer Advice on Society Services

By Frank Pagani

In its ongoing effort to improve services to CPAs in industry, the NYSSCPA connected with members from The New York Times Company and Colgate-Palmolive who offered ideas about how the Society could help meet the needs of this membership segment.
Stuart Stoller, controller of The New York Times Company, which counts 22 Society members among its employees, and Michael J. Nicholson, associate director, finance of Colgate-Palmolive, which employs 19 members, are the designated NYSSCPA industry coordinators for their companies. They recently discussed their ideas with Membership Committee Chair Barry Doll and Society staff. The industry coordinator program is a new initiative created by the committee to strengthen ties between the NYSSCPA and companies with a large number of Society members.

For Stoller, who does a lot of business air travel, completing CPE credits using a laptop or though self-study courses is a good way to make use of travel time, and is a service the Society should develop more fully. He also said that the Society would meet an important need of young staffers by providing courses on public speaking, effective writing, and people skills.

"It would be more cost-efficient for companies like mine if the Society provided more of these staff training services in our backyard rather than our incurring the cost and time of sending the staff to geographically distant sources," he said.

Stoller, who has served on the NYSSCPA Publishing and Printing Committee, said that the Society would better meet the needs of top management industry CPAs by offering courses and conferences that show how their companies can save time and money in their operations.

Participation on Society committees and programs is important to the career development of young CPAs, from Nicholson's perspective. He plans to communicate the Society's membership benefits to other staff members, especially those services tailored for industry such as the multidisciplinary committees and FAE's industry-focused conferences and seminars. (See ads at right and on page 24 for upcoming FAE events specifically for industry members.)

Both Stoller and Nicholson plan to survey their members via e-mail about NYSSCPA programs and benefits and will provide feedback to the Society's membership services department.

The NYSSCPA wants to expand the industry coordinators network and build on this important initiative. Members at large companies who would like to be industry coordinators and help the Society better define services for their employees should contact NYSSCPA Manager of Membership Services Frank Pagani at (212) 719-8374, (800) 633-6320, or fpagani@nysscpa.org . *