January 2003

A Pleasant Surprise

By Peter T. Morris

As chair of the New York State Society of CPAs’ Management Tools & Techniques (MT&T) Committee, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at the series of events that recently culminated in a successful meeting concerning performance measurement.

In the course of my three and a half years with MT&T, the committee has not been too successful at growing membership or increasing attendance at meetings. However, I believe that the meetings have always resulted in useful discussions on a variety of topics, including financial modeling, cash management, forecasting, information technology governance and financial software selection, to name a few. I also have always been impressed with the members who do attend, representing a mix of professionals in both public practice and private industry. Up to now, presenting helpful information for those interested enough to attend has fulfilled the committee’s purpose. Not anymore.

Our new expectations for the MT&T Committee began this fall when I asked NYSSCPA Executive Director Louis Grumet to give a presentation to the committee on the impact of recent legislation on CPAs in both public practice and private industry. The presentation was beneficial but only five committee members attended. Noting the poor turnout, Mr. Grumet offered the Society’s help in growing the committee’s membership. I accepted his offer, not really thinking that much would change. In the past, I had heard grumblings about how the Society often fell short when supporting the efforts of its members, and I also didn’t think there was much interest in elevating the committee’s function and boosting its membership. I found neither situation to be the case.

Following Mr. Grumet’s offer, I met with Bill Pape, NYSSCPA associate director of member relations, who created a database of Society members who might be interested in the MT&T Committee. He then helped prepare an e-mail invitation for the next meeting, and sent it to thousands of members—all within a matter of days. Nellie Gomez, NYSSCPA committees manager, took it from there, setting up a meeting room, securing video and teleconferencing equipment, making copies of presentation materials, and following up after the meeting to send out materials to those members who were unable to attend. The Society staff took care of all the continuing professional education information and needs as well.

In the ensuing days it became clear that the meeting would be the most heavily attended MT&T discussion since I have been a member. I called the presenter, David Einhorn, a partner with Eisner LLP, to let him know about the response. Mr. Einhorn was prepared regardless of the number of people attending, and gave a knockout performance. In total, 90 people participated in the meeting, 55 in person and 35 by teleconference. A good number of them expressed interest in joining the committee.

As with anything done for the first time, there is room for improvement. However, I am very encouraged by the strong turnout, and know that we can continue to raise the bar for the MT&T Committee. Thank you to everyone who attended. And please feel free to join the committee and get involved with our monthly meetings.