July 1999 Issue

President's Commentary

By Alan E. Weiner, CPA

Today's take-home pay is hardly worth the trip. -- Henny Youngman

As of July 1, I have completed 720 hours of my presidential term--but who's counting. It has been hectic to say the least. It used to be that one would say, "Keep those cards and letters coming." But these days, you can add telephone calls, faxes, and e-mails (president@nysscpa.org).

The major event this past month (in addition to my daughter Cindy receiving her PhD in clinical psychology and my daughter Robin becoming engaged to Barry) was the NYSSCPA Annual Conference. It was great from all aspects--leadership, technical, and social. The four state Society divas (as James Kinney named them), Lorrie Lamazor, Xiomara Fox, Sheila Griffiths, and Nellie Gomez, outdid themselves in their caring and nurturing of your leaders and the other CPAs who opted to attend. Next year the conference is scheduled to begin June 3, 2000, at the Seaview Marriott Resort in Absecon, N.J. (10 minutes from Atlantic City). As with this year at the Equinox, the Seaview Marriott is within driving distance from all points in New York state.

As for this year's conference, the session on the euro presented by Bernard Garra and Frank Nusspickel (see page 6 article) was outstanding and fit the vision of helping CPAs keep current and learn about future additional services. On the lighter side, we had the dynamic duo of Peter Frank and Eric Cohen ending their Internet update break-out seminar with an original ditty entitled "That Thing Called Y2K," sung bluegrass style with guitar and banjo.

The traditional "President's Sunday Morning" show was based on two ideas that I envisioned more than a year ago.

From the time we started to plan the annual conference, I was told that Sunday morning was the president's to structure and that I could spend two hours speaking about my plans for the future. While that might have been important, it was not what I wanted for the meeting participants.

First, I pronounced 1999­2000 the "Year of the Spouse" for our wives, husbands, and significant others. Spouses are critical to the success of CPAs. They must be understanding of our hours. At times, the non-CPA spouse must be both mother and father to the children and a social butterfly for entertaining those important clients. At the conference, I asked that all of the CPAs who were there with their spouse or significant other stand and applaud these wonderful, integral--but often unsung--heroes of ours. To you, the CPA reader, go home this evening and tell your special someone how much he or she is appreciated for being part of your success.

As for the program at the Equinox, I wanted to provide education of interest and importance to all of the conference attendees. I started with wanting them to have background on their Social Security benefits and long-term care. That evolved into "Your Elderly Parents and You." Spouses normally stay at this joint breakfast session for one hour, but I alerted them ahead of time that this was a special session that they didn't want to miss and encouraged them to stay for the entire morning.

This CPE-qualified presentation had professional speakers but, to be successful, I wanted audience participation with real-life experiences that people had with their parents or for themselves. I alerted the professional speakers that they had an extra 45 minutes to fill if no one participated. Not to worry! From the get-go, the CPAs and their spouses gave all of us novices a taste of the frustrations, techniques, and successes that they had with nursing homes, health insurance plans, physicians, and hospitals.

If you are interested in a FAE session of this nature for you and your spouse or significant other, contact Director of Education Frimette Kass-Shraibman at fkass@luca.com. If there's enough interest, it will be arranged.

June 5 was my first board of directors meeting as president. About 23 (of 36) board members attended. I am pleased to report that all of your representatives behaved themselves and much was accomplished, which you'll be reading about elsewhere in The Trusted Professional.

One topic worthy of a special note is the spirited discussion on the experience requirement as proposed under the Uniform Accountancy Act (See the June issue of The Trusted Professional). After the pros and cons were thoroughly discussed, the board reaffirmed its February vote as to what will qualify for the experience needed to obtain the CPA certificate.

My thanks to George Foundotos and Raymond Nowicki for being the true leaders that they are in presenting the facts to enable the board to reach a decision.

My name is Alan Weiner. Any questions? *