President's Commentary

October 1999 Issue

President's Commentary

The IRS has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.--Henny Youngman

Travelin' Man ("I'm a travelin' man, I've made a lot of stops all over the world...") was a hit record by Rick Nelson (Tracy's dad) in the early '60s. Well, it hit home with me because September was the month I (together with President-Elect Gerry Sokolski, Vice President for Chapters Nancy Newman-Limata, and Executive Director Lou Grumet) hit the trail to stop, in a seven-day period, at the Suffolk, Northeast (Albany), Syracuse, Rochester, and Utica chapters (five down, six to go) to meet with about 300 CPAs regarding their concerns about the future of the profession, their likes and dislikes about the Society, and whatever else was on their minds. This was a very positive experience. The complaints were few and the suggestions are being followed up on. I encourage those of you in the chapters that we'll visit soon to come meet and greet us. It's a different presentation from prior years and it includes a demonstration by Nancy of the NYSSCPA website's features and improvements, of which you may not be aware.

If the 300 attendees at the officers visitations so far are a representative sample, a significant number of CPAs will be applying for the new New York state CPA license plate, and they all have or will be writing letters to the AICPA expressing their interest in fiscal year reform. My thanks for the hospitality and enthusiasm to Chapter Presidents Bob Peare, Katie Doran, Joe Schlegel, Steve Solimano and John Savage (who, I found out, is a singing CPA).

Let's talk public relations! The Society was on page 1 of The Wall Street Journal two weeks in a row (September 8th and 15th). I met with Tom Herman, the writer of the Journal's weekly Tax Report column. Tom covered a number of topics and on September 8th we appeared in a humorous piece about the New York state CPA license plate. ("A gift for the CPA who has everything.") Well were we surprised when a week later we were quoted in a piece about a survey that the Internal Revenue Service had commissioned. But that wasn't all. Newsday (Long Island) liked the license plate story so much that it sent a photographer to my office to snap the picture of my partner Beatrix McKane (the first CPA to apply for the Society-sponsored special plate) and me. That story (photo included) ran at the end of September.

The Professional Liability Task Force has been reviewing proposals and interviewing companies interested in becoming a provider of malpractice insurance. It was coming to a head. The finalists had been chosen and, ultimately, the Society's Executive Committee (and subsequently the board of directors) would have to ratify (or not) the task force's recommendation. To cover this important consideration as an agenda item at the September 28th Executive Committee meeting would not do. Videotaping and conference calling Executive Committee members, as an alternative to pulling all of the committee's members into NYSSCPA headquarters (which would have been dollar-costly to the Society and time-costly to the Executive Committee members), was my answer.

It worked beautifully but not without Sue's (my spouse) help. You see, after I arranged the procedure to be followed, when I went to view the tape on Sunday, it was jammed in that little black plastic holder that has become part of our daily lives. The conference call was the next day. Sue was not deterred. The Tim Allen of our household went to the workbench; removed all of the screws; straightened out the tape; inserted it into the VCR; and I was "off and viewing." Whew! In my July column, I declared 1999-2000 to be the year of the spouse. I didn't envision this at that time but, thanks to Sue, I was able to be fully knowledgeable on the interviews of the malpractice carrier finalists and the meeting of the task force itself. It helped make up my mind but you'll have to wait until next month to read about how the saga ends.

My name is Alan Weiner. Any questions?