November 2000

Rochester Chapter

The Rochester Chapter kicked off the new year with its annual clam bake and officers visitation. The chapter’s first core event, which took place at the Monroe Country Club, was very well attended and well received by the membership.

Society President Gerry Sokolski, President-Elect Nancy Newman-Limata, and Executive Director Lou Grumet spoke at the event, each giving a great presentation. They specifically addressed the recent challenges to our profession, including the Cognitor concept.

The chapter also prepared for its second core event, that took place on Nov. 21 at the Midvale Country Club. The theme for this has traditionally been a federal and state tax update; however, this year’s event also included a presentation by Robert Fox, chair of the New York State Board of Accountancy, on current issues facing the profession, including the Uniform Accountancy Act (UAA), cpa2biz.com portal, Cognitor concept, and declining enrollments of accounting students and CPA candidates.

We all learned a lot from this event. The chapter feels that it has a duty to learn as much as possible about the new proposals to our professional status.

In addition to the core events, the CPA Candidates have been very busy visiting the local colleges and distributing scholarship applications. The CPA Candidates recently sponsored the Rochester Chapter’s annual mock interviews, hosted this year at the local Arthur Andersen office. Volunteers from 17 CPA firms performed approximately 45 interviews for college students preparing for their fall campus interviews. The students found the mock interviews very helpful, and they looked forward to having them before their first “real live” interviews. The committee receives numerous thank you’s from the local colleges for holding this event every year, and the chapter is grateful to all of the members that volunteer their time to participate in the mock interviews. We couldn’t do it without them.

The Young CPAs have been very busy, too. This fall, some of the board members managed to make the trip to Buffalo to volunteer with the Buffalo Chapter Young CPAs at their annual winefest. Our members had a great time, and we look forward to doing it again next year.

The Rochester Chapter Young CPAs are planning two fall events and a spring golf outing. The objective of the Young CPAs is to offer casual networking opportunities for members whose careers are just beginning. Our chapter likes to promote networking events with young bankers, doctors, and lawyers because these relationships are beneficial to all that attend.

The Rochester Chapter is very proud to have one of its members, Gerry Sokolski, serving as NYSSCPA president this year. Gerry is a great mentor for young CPAs that want to be involved with the state Society. He also helps us with the challenge of providing as much information and education as we can to our membership.