Building Member Participation: Committee Chairs Sketch Blueprint

By Kim Patterson, Industry Member Relations Coordinator

Wanting more industry members to get involved, the Industry Oversight Committee, chaired by Richard E. Piluso, recently hosted an exchange meeting to provide helpful information and discuss methods for energizing the New York State Society of CPAs’ 21 industry committees.

Industry members are the second-largest group of members at the Society, comprising close to 10,000 CPAs. There are 14 industry committees on the state level and 7 within the 17 chapters. Currently less than 40 percent of industry members participate on a committee at the Society.

Held on Oct. 11, the meeting also included industry committee chairs from the state and chapter level, who discussed incentives that could help generate greater industry-member interest and participation in the committees. The chairs shared different approaches that have been successful in realizing this objective, and spoke of challenges they currently face.

Several of the chairs noted that guest-speaker events with free continuing professional education credits available have been particularly effective in drawing more attendees to the meetings. This especially appears to be true for the Not-for-Profit Organizations Committee, which, according to David Ashenfarb, committee chair, has 80 registered members and averages 40 attendees at each meeting. Developments in the not-for-profit community occur so often, Ashenfarb said, members look to the meetings and the guest speakers as a valuable resource for the latest information.

The chairs also emphasized the need for continued partnering with other organizations as an effective means to invigorate committee participation and provide members with additional education and resources. The Cooperation with Bankers and Other Credit Grantors Committee held a panel with the Commercial Financial Association, New York City Chapter, on Oct. 3 at the Cornell Club, and the Society partnered with the National Association of Black Accountants on Oct. 24 to host the seminar “Designing Your Audit to Detect Fraud,” which took place at the Society’s offices in Manhattan and was free to NYSSCPA and NABA members.

Encouraged by the discussion, Chief Financial Officers Committee Chair Mark Ellis reiterated the importance of committee meetings to industry members. “CPAs in industry need a place for knowledge networking. Chairs have to become proactive and get involved to find out what members want,” he said. To that end, the Chief Financial Officers Committee is sponsoring a Dec. 5 evening seminar on ethics for industry CPAs, with guest speaker H. Stephen Grace, incoming chair of the Financial Executives Institute.

The meeting also included Society staff members, who informed the chairs of resources that are available to them and could be of use for increasing industry member involvement. NYSSCPA Executive Director Louis Grumet recently addressed this issue during the officers visitation and ethics CPE presentations that took place at chapters across the state. Though he has witnessed some promising developments, Grumet made it clear that the Society would like to do more for its industry membership, and asked those members for their feedback.