May 2001

Utica

If you are traveling through upstate New York, especially into the Adirondacks, you should visit Utica, one of the most picturesque regions in the state. The Utica area, with its surrounding suburbs, offers an affordable living opportunity and some of the best schools anywhere in New York. The community is waiting for an infusion of venture capitalism, and there are many developments under way, including the transformation of old industrial complexes into business technology parks. We are known nationally as a good area to raise a family.

Small business owners and nonprofits make up the predominant clientele of Utica’s public accounting firms, and the area is increasingly providing opportunities for CPAs working in private industry. While the Utica Chapter is the smallest of the New York State Society of CPAs chapters, we can be proud of our many accomplishments this past fiscal year. We can also proudly boast that we lay claim to the Society’s “gavel” with the recent election of Jo Ann Golden as NYSSCPA president-elect.

We started our year on green pastures with our annual golf outing. This event is one of our most popular social outings, and as anyone who has played golf here knows, we have some of the best manicured courses anywhere and at very affordable prices. The event, thanks largely to our private sponsorship, has taken on a life of its own and was well attended by our membership with plenty of food and prizes.

At the end of August we held our annual tax and accounting conference. This dual education event was our first attempt to update our membership on newly enacted tax laws and bring them up to speed on predominant accounting issues. The event was well received, and we hope to continue this type of conference presentation in the future.

As evidenced by the unprecedented number of people who volunteered this year for the annual Boilermaker 15K road race and the active participation in the American Heart Walk and Run, Utica is nationally regarded as a very giving community. The Utica Chapter has taken a page from the city, and continues to be a very generous organization. This year, the chapter contributed to the United Way and participated in the Toys-for-Tots campaign. On behalf of the area accounting firms, we were able to provide more than 50 toys to needy families this past Christmas.

Continuing professional education for our membership continues to be our most important goal. Because of their busy schedules, we have found that breakfast events work best for our members. These events offer our members a fresh assortment of tax and accounting entrées, and there is plenty of humor and unusual personalities to go round—and all before 10:30 a.m. Our members leave these morning get-togethers well nourished and informed.

We had a very well attended presentation on how businessess can apply for Empire Zone tax credits, and Eugene Parrs also delivered a popular and insightful presentation on estate and income tax planning for retirement distributions. We continue to offer new and intriguing seminars to our membership, seeking out nontraditional topics that will provide a new perspective to our profession.

Our Young CPAs Committee has been working hard on developing events that will attract young CPAs and potential accountants to our profession. We will continue to work closely with our surrounding colleges to get the word out on the Society as well as the benefits that the CPA designation offers.

But in the midst of all this work, we like to let loose occasionally, and social events seem to come easy with this chapter. We had a happy hour and a Christmas party this year that got a little wild at times, especially for a bunch of CPAs.

In February, we ended a busy season of Society-sponsored events by hosting our largest gathering—the annual meeting of bankers, lawyers, and CPAs. We had more than 120 people attend, and despite the six inches of snow, all were able to arrive in one piece. The meeting featured a very special guest speaker, proud local do-gooder John Zogby of the Zogby International Polling Group. His appearance was a special treat, captivating the audience with little-known accounts of events surrounding the presidential election. Zogby is a frequent guest panelist on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and has been interviewed on ABC and CBS. He is best known for being the only pollster that accurately called the presidential election of 1992.