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What’s In Store

By Dave Herman, Rockland Chapter President

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came to our Golf Outing and Election Dinner. No doubt, it has been a struggle keeping this chapter going this past year. We need volunteers from our membership to help. A handful of members have been largely responsible for scheduling and working on the events that the chapter has presented, but we need new people involved. Needless to say, we look forward to the continued support of all of you. It is because of your support that we have managed to maintain a viable chapter.

This chapter came into being four years ago and has been the fastest-growing and most successful new chapter of the three that were kicked off together. Our first president, Dave Evangelista, put a tremendous amount of time, effort and company man- (and woman-) power into the building of a strong foundation for us. Steve Kaplan followed and instituted several new programs, such as scholarship money for high school accounting students and 2–3-credit CPE events held locally for a nominal fee. All of this on top of spending a great deal of time continuing to build our chapter. Phyllis Graybow continued the CPE programs by packaging four together over the summer for a total of 12 credits for $100. She added our sponsorship thank-you dinner, held last year in April, also putting forth tremendous effort and leadership qualities to continue growing our chapter. My goal for this upcoming year is to try to emulate their leadership and continue many of the programs we previously had and perhaps add to them.

Coming up, we have the following events in store:

We are offering the first three CPE events at $25 each, all three for $60; sign up for all three for the discounted price and get the rainmaking course for free. The cost of the rainmaking course by itself is $20. This is an opportunity to pick up nine credits right before the deadline of Aug. 31 and attend a course on how to build your practice, all for the low price of $60. Take advantage of this.

Sometime in September we will have an outing to a Yankee game, and an additional CPE event. Of course, we will have our annual tax update in November and our annual visitation from the IRS and NYS in early January. In December, we will again have our young CPAs collecting toys at the annual Young CPA holiday dinner.

Other events are being discussed, and of course we always encourage and look forward to any suggestions you may have.

I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to both Dana Malley, of the Small Business Financing Group, and to Rich Reidy, of Smith Barney. Without the help from these two gentlemen, the golf event would have never happened. Their time, effort and concern for the success of this event have been much appreciated by us all, especially me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thanks to Mike Seidenberg, who filled the role of treasurer this past year. Thank you to David Friehling, who filled the role of secretary. Mike was especially instrumental in getting involved in every aspect of the chapter this past year, and I thank him for his support and efforts. Glenn Albin is our outgoing president, and I thank him for his efforts. Of course, it goes without saying that the continued involvement and support of Dave Evangelista and Phyllis Graybow has been greatly appreciated.

The upcoming slate of officers, for the term June 1, 2005, through May 31, 2006, is as follows:

I greatly appreciate these gentlemen helping out and look forward to having a great team effort throughout the term.

Finally, I would like to thank Steve Alexander, from 3rd Eye Technology, for his sponsorship of the photos given out to all the golfers; Citibank, and particularly Barry Powlishen, for sponsoring the beverage cart on the course for our golf event; Carl Capuano and George Cardona, from Provident Bank, for sponsoring our event’s lunch at the club; and, last but not least, Frank Armstrong and Frank Celantano, from Bank of New York, for sponsoring the dinner and cocktails at our event. Thank you to all the sponsors of holes on the course.

I once again ask and plead with you all to get in touch with the CPAs you know and encourage them to get involved in their chapter. It is not a lot of time, and we desperately need the help. Contact myself or Mike Seidenberg, David Friehling or Mitchell Gusler and find out how you can help.

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