Thursday, September 17, 2009

Chapters, their role in the Mission?

I’ve always thought of chapters as being squarely in the Community portion of the society’s mission (ACE, Advocacy, Community, Education). They are the primary place for peer group networking. The place to meet with fellow professionals and discuss the things that they are dealing with in their everyday routine; chapters are where we answer the questions, “Have you dealt with this yet”? “How did you handle that”? “What do you think will happen with”? They are the place to satisfy our need for personal interaction.

As I muse over various issues that land on my desk it occurs to me that many of our members may not understand all the aspects of the GSCPA and know how we have evolved over the years. I thought it might be good to include some of my thoughts in this and future blogs. This is not intended to be a history lesson, or even an organized description of GSCPA structure and organization, just observations based on 37 years of involvement with the Society.

Years ago chapter meetings centered on social interaction and informative programs with a community, political or general business orientation. They sponsored special events such as bankers’ and attorneys’ nights. There has been a universal shift of focus toward qualifying all chapter meetings for one or two hours of CPE. This grew, at least partially, out of the need to attract attendance at chapter meetings. The generally accepted belief seems to be that CPAs will not attend chapter meetings unless the program qualifies for CPE. In addition to focusing meetings on CPE, some chapters are in the “CPE business,’ sponsoring large blocks of programming.

Is community now a minor part of a chapter’s role? Is community even important to younger generations of CPAs? Is the primary function of chapters to provide CPE? What do you think?