10 Percent Dues Increase in 2005

10 Percent Dues Increase in 2005–2006 Budget
First Since 2001

By Bill Pape, Director of Member Relations

The Society’s Board of Directors last month approved the 2005–2006 budget, which includes a 10 percent increase in the annual dues of most members. This is the first dues increase in four years. Depending on the member’s dues category, this increase could result in an additional $5 to $35 in dues.

By the time this issue went to press, most members should have received a letter, along with their dues invoice, from incoming NYSSCPA President Stephen F. Langowski about the increase. As Langowski noted in his letter, the last member dues increase came in 2001. While the board is sensitive to the effect that the new dues structure could have on some members, it strongly believes that the increase will help the Society maintain its current level of high service and help it to continue to seek ways to better meet the professional concerns, interests and needs of its entire membership.

Among the ways that the Society has sought to contain cost was the completion of the lease negotiation for a new headquarters in midtown Manhattan. The rental rates we have contracted for are significantly below market price. Costs, however, will still increase by almost 23 percent over our previous lease, negotiated 10 years ago.

Bang for the Buck

There is perhaps no clearer indication of the value that the Society brings to its members and to the public than the far-reaching and influential advocacy role that the NYSSCPA plays. The state’s accountancy statute has not been updated in more than 50 years, and the Society is actively working on behalf of all New York CPAs to make certain that meaningful reform that reflects today’s practices and businesses will get passed. Similarly, we have spent many months over the last year working with State Comptroller Alan Hevesi to get legislation passed that will implement a better system of internal controls and audit policy in New York’s school districts. At the same time, the Society is taking strong stands on other proposed legislation that could have a detrimental impact on the profession, our clients and the public.

Advocacy also comes in the form of countless papers and proposals by NYSSCPA members and committees, which are crucial to helping set important policy at the state and federal level. In recent months, the Society has been instrumental in helping shape the Social Security and tax simplification debates that are so prominent right now.

Of course your membership also entitles you to savings on quality continuing professional education (CPE) offered through the Foundation for Accounting Education. Member-only discounts are available for individual seminars and conferences. By far the most economical member-only discount is the Pay-One-Price, or POP, program. This volume purchase brings down the cost of our FAE courses to about $15 a credit.

Membership further makes possible significant group benefits that are available, including many group life insurance products, car rental discounts and consumer product discounts. In fact, our member discounts are almost too numerous to mention, so I hope you can look at the brochure that was included in the invoice mailing. Noteworthy additions to this package were made this year, including discounted long-term care insurance through Metlife and new CPA review courses. Information on all these benefits can be found online at the NYSSCPA homepage www.nysscpa.org under the “Member Resouces” banner.

Membership in the Society also pays a huge dividend through the relationships and networking opportunities with fellow CPAs and other business professionals it affords. The Society’s 60 statewide committees serve as virtual reservoirs of knowledge and expertise that active members can and do look to for assistance with their own business affairs and questions, seeking out the opinions of other qualified individuals or just looking to chew the fat with them on different accounting and tax matters. The Society’s 17 chapters offer members a similar setting, and they also function as unique social and professional outlets, with each offering many different CPE seminars, informative presentations and expert speakers, as well as fun networking engagements, from golf outings to dinner receptions. The chapters also ensure that all members’ interests are satisfactorily represented at the statewide level.

Finally, the Society attempts to keep the membership as informed of professional issues and Society developments as it possibly can through The CPA Journal, a publication that greatly enhances readers’ technical proficiency, the NYSSCPA twice-monthly newspaper The Trusted Professional, and the increasingly popular and convenient Society Web site.