Ready to Join

Reuel Matthew

I am a first-year associate at Ernst & Young LLP, and I recently read Joanne Barry's article about the importance of professional associations, and the growing generational gap in groups like the NYSSCPA (“Mending the Gaps in the Generational Bridge,” The CPA Journal, July 2012). I just wanted to reach out and say that the article has inspired me to be more proactive in joining professional groups. I have colleagues who are young professionals like myself who have passed the CPA exam but have not continued the process of submitting the necessary paperwork to join these professional groups because they view it as just a formality, rather than a “collective society”—as Barry referred to it—that can accomplish great things. There is also not much of a push from baby boomers to invite professionals from the younger generation into these professional organizations—using means like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook—or promoting early exposure through student accounting organizations, such as Beta Alpha Psi, ALPFA, or the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA), which is what our age group responds well to. Hopefully, a solution can be found so that there's a steady succession within these professional groups.