02 – M – 00

Call to Order

02 – M – 01

Minutes of October 10, 2002 Executive Committee Meeting and November 7, 2002 Conference Call

02 – M – 02

President’s Report

a. Bylaws Task Force

Mr. Woehlke reported that the task force expects to have a preliminary report by the January Executive Committee meeting. Mr. Hoops proposed that the Bylaws Task Force consider a process whereby nominations for AICPA Council members could be finally approved by the membership. Mr. Woehlke noted that the task force may propose that the Society formally approve protocols that the Nominating Committee can use in conducting its affairs rather than the present approach of passing customs from one committee to the next verbally.

b. Chapter President Conference Call

Ms. Golden gave a report on the conference call with NYSSCPA chapter presidents. Chapters that participated included Nassau, Westchester, Buffalo, Rockland and Manhattan/Bronx. Mr. Keiser and Mr. Pape also participated in the call. Mr. Keiser said that the next conference call was scheduled for January 30, 2003.

Ms. Golden noted that the largest concern was on the relationship between chapter courses and FAE courses.

Ms. Golden also expressed the view that a continuity of practice network be set up in each of the chapters.

c. Legislative Update

Ms. Golden reported that she met with the State Education Department and representatives of the Big 4 accounting firms, accompanied by Kevin McCoy, Lou Grumet and Jeff Hoops. The representatives of SED and the Big 4 agreed conceptually to five items on the NYSSCPA legislative agenda, during the meetings, (1) scope of practice, (2) extent of the jurisdiction to CPAs in private industry, (3) registration of all CPA firms, (4) the concept of temporary practice, and (5) mandatory CPE for all CPAs.
The Committee turned to a discussion of the Society’s legislative positions. Mr. Hoops expressed concern that the Society be careful not to espouse a legislative position that might hurt members. He was also concerned that new members of the Board and Executive Committee receive a more thorough explanation of the Society’s legislative positions. The Committee also discussed the background of certain positions currently taken by the Society.

Mr. Grumet suggested that discussion of strategy for the ensuing legislative session was premature because the leadership of the higher education committees of both houses of the Legislature was still undetermined.

d. Nominating Committee Report

Mr. Woehlke noted that the ballots should have been received by the membership, and that completed ballots were already being returned. He noted that the Westchester Chapter president had sent out an email supporting Westchester members on the ballot and the chair of the CFO Committee had requested a list of industry members so that he could communicate with those members about the Nominating Committee ballot. Since New York State law requires that a member who requests access to member lists be granted access, provided the use is for furtherance of a purpose of the organization, the staff, with the approval of the President, had temporarily expanded the CFO Committee Listserve to include all members-in-industry who had provided their email addresses to the Society to facilitate a communication by the CFO Committee chair. The Executive Committee ratified this action by consensus.

e. Peer Review and Ethics Task Force Update

Ms. Golden noted that she had asked past president Brian Caswell to serve as the task force chair. She said that the rest of the task force would probably be named in January.

f. Real Estate Task Force Update

Mr. Hoops noted that the task force had not formally met because the Society’s real estate agent said the market is falling again so he recommended that the task force delay further action.

02 – M– 03

Treasurer’s Report

Ms. Golden asked Mr. Aquilino, the treasurer, and Ms. Chambers, the CFO, to present a report on the Society’s financial position. Ms Chambers reported that FAE’s actual net revenue is $1 million ahead of last year. Last year’s loss was $1.4 million. She highlighted the favorable variance to budget of $63,000 noting that FAE was on target for its budgeted loss of approximately $600,000.

The combined program summary indicated that the Society was $250,000 ahead of budget for its combined operations which include FAE, COAP, and the scholarship programs. Cash and investments were reported as $800,000 over last year due to the improved performance of FAE and the increase in dues. Ms. Chambers noted that other liabilities of $118,000 under FAE included $53,000 in accrued expenses. She further pointed out that this is the first year expenses such as hotel, honorariums, and travel had been accrued each month.

Ms. Chambers reported that the cash flow statement showed a decrease in FAE interfund liability of $342,000 because cash coming in was being transferred over to the Society to cover operating expenses and to reduce the interfund balance. She noted that while cash and equivalents had been running at the same level as 2001, they had increased by $800,000 in November, reflecting the deferred registration, POP passes, and Fall registration monies received during the month.

Ms. Chambers distributed a handout with a number of performance measures for the Society. Committee members were appreciative of the new information, but asked that the scale of some of the indicators be expanded.

A discussion ensued on the recording of a dues receivable write-off of $400,000. The Executive Committee, by consensus, also asked that the moving fund money be segregated in the Opening Net Assets column.

02 – M – 04

Executive Director’s Report

a. COAP (Career Opportunities in the Accounting Profession)

Mr. Grumet reported on plans for an upstate COAP program. He noted that nothing was yet finalized yet, but that the Society would continue to develop the idea.

b. Managing Partners Outreach

Mr. Grumet reported that, working with Mr. Eassa, he had scheduled a visit, accompanied by Mr. Pape, to meet 18 managing partners in the Syracuse area. This was the third such meeting. These meetings were successful and allowed participating managing partners to speak out on issues that concerned them. Mr. Grumet reported that he was also working on a visit to the Suffolk Chapter.

Pointing out that 51 members who hold the position of CFO are part of the Westchester Chapter, Mr. Grumet said he was planning a CFO meeting in that chapter.

02 – M – 05

Membership Report

a. Membership Report

Mr. Pape reported that it was the time of the year to formally terminate members who had not paid their 2002-2003 dues. There were 1,633 such members. He noted that many of these members were out-of-state CPAs, with the largest group from New Jersey.

Mr. Pape then presented the full membership report, which included 149 new members (including 71 new associate members), 5 reinstatements, 7 deaths, 11 resignations and 1,633 terminations for nonpayment of dues. These changes reflected a total membership of 28,600 as of December 17, 2002. Mr. Love moved and Ms. Lapidus seconded a motion to approve the Membership Report. Following discussion, the motion passed unanimously.
One Committee member voiced concern over attrition of the Society members. Mr. Grumet noted that the Society’s membership has actually remained constant from one year to the next, which in this environment is a remarkable sign of health for a professional Society.

b. Advancing Career Proposal

The Executive Committee considered a proposal from Elliot Hendler, chair of the Membership Committee, that the Society authorize for a second year the Advance-a-Career membership recruitment project under the same rules as the first program. The program’s objective is 100 new associate members. Ms. Lapidus moved and Mr. Riley seconded a motion to accept the proposal. The motion passed unanimously.

02 – M – 06

Medical Insurance Employee Benefit

The Executive Committee next considered a new staff healthcare proposal for 2003. The proposal was developed after Aetna, the current health care provider, recently announced significantly higher rates for 2003 health care coverage. Ms. Chambers, Ms. Lawrence, the Human Resources Manager, and Mr. Woehlke spoke to several carriers and together with Mr. Grumet proposed a package provided by HealthNet, offering roughly the same coverage as the current Aetna package with a slight increase in premiums for the staff. Mr. Aquilino moved and Mr. Hoops seconded a motion to accept the new health insurance carrier proposal. The Committee unanimously approved the motion.

Mr. Eassa moved that in the future the Executive Committee be given more time to consider a package when a benefit like this will impact employees. The motion was approved by consensus. Society staff noted that it would normally present this type of a proposal with more time to consider it; however, the current carrier, Aetna, had just provided its quote the previous week.

02 – M – 07

Committee Update

Mr. Nelson reported that the number of members serving on committees increased this year to a total of approximately 2,000 committee positions filled by about 1,400 individuals. He noted that the use of conference calls during committee meetings has also risen. Mr. Nelson urged that the Society should continue to promote committee service, and suggested a marketing plan may help.

Mr. Nelson also reported that the Society has two new committees, the Global Accounting & Auditing Committee and the Relations with the Legal Community Committee. He also noted that, with assistance from Society’s staff, the Management Tool & Techniques Committee had greatly expanded its membership. It recently conducted a meeting with 45 people, 30 of whom participated via conference call.

Mr. Markezin reported that the Society had implemented new procedures that would facilitate the reenlistment of current members in all committees.

Ms. Golden suggested a committee structure organized to ensure the process of selecting vice chairs for committees is done around the time the president-elect is first nominated.

02 – M – 08

Report on FAE

a. Trustees’ December 18, 2002 Meeting

Mr. Schmelkin reported that during the Trustees’ meeting, staff reported that 3,100 registrants signed up for courses compared to only 2,550 in the prior year’s second quarter. POP sales for September through November of this year equaled 335 books for total sales of $459,000, which contrasted with entire prior year’s POP sales of 585 books, totaling $823,000.

Mr. Schmelkin also reported that the FAE Trustees plan to initiate a new “FAE University” on a trial basis, where attendees can attend multiple sessions and receive a large portion of their annual required CPE credit, at three locations throughout New York State. This program would be offered in addition to FAE’s traditional CPE programs.

Mr. Schmelkin reported that a meeting was planned for the following Friday with Chapter representatives at the Desmond Hotel in Albany. The meeting was to get suggestions from each chapter regarding CPE programs and to also see if there were any new venues or local members that FAE could use as authors of courses or seminar leaders at future events.

b. Chapter Pricing

Ms Golden noted that Mr. Schmelkin was developing a model for chapter CPE pricing and asked that the Executive Committee review the model once completed.

02 – M – 09

Executive Session

The Executive Committee entered into executive session. No formal resolutions resulted from these discussions.

02 – M – 10

Adjournment

There being no further business, the Executive Committee adjourned at 2:52 p.m.