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Akron Chapter IMA Newsletter |
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Dear Members:
Please join your fellow members in welcoming
students from the University of Akron and Brown
Mackie College to "Students' Night" February
21, 2007 at the Martin University
Center. Shirley Calvin
Sincerely,
Dean C. Hull II
Dave Gustafson is a principal in Moore Stephens Apple’s business valuation and litigation consulting group, completing over a thousand valuation engagements in his nearly twenty years in the profession. He has worked on projects in a variety of industries for firms with revenues ranging from under $1 million to over $1 billion. Valuations have been provided for Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), estate and gift taxes, mergers and acquisitions, divorce, litigation, buy-sell agreements, S corporation elections, blockage opinions, pre-IPO stock transactions, recapitalizations, charitable contributions, stock bonus plans, and trust administration. Interests valued include entity value, common and preferred stocks, options, partnership interests including family limited partnerships, limited liability corporation interests, and interests subject to various contractual restrictions. Dave received a BS degree in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University with majors in Finance and Business Pre-Law. He received a Juris Doctorate from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law and is licensed in the State of Ohio. He has presented numerous seminars on valuation, estate planning and ESOP issues for the ESOP Association, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, and other industry organizations. A member of the ESOP Association, Dave serves on its Board of Governors and has served as Chapter Officer for more than ten years. He is also a member of the National Center for Employee Ownership and the American Society of Appraisers.
Mike Lehr Mike Lehr, President and Founder of Omega Z Advisors, LLC, is a Human Resources Advisor with over twenty years of problem-solving and talent- assessment experience. In addition to helping businesses and individuals through his own firm, he derives his experience from many integrated roles with three major corporations. His forte is maximizing people’s effectiveness at minimal cost by making the most of existing resources. He is the creator of the unscientific, allegoric business method to training and coaching in which the focus is on the integrated wholeness and power of our personalities. He is the author of The Feminine Influence in Business, a guide to identifying and developing business talent with implications for hands-on leadership, organizational change and problem-solving. The keywords in his work with people are effectiveness, innovation, change, documentation and training. He has been recognized for making people think, employing intuitive approaches, tapping the power of the individual and applying creative training diagrams, analogies and metaphors. Tonight’s presentation will emphasize that business is personal, and the key is the deployment of your personality. Yet, conventional business practices often encourage the devaluation of our personalities. Learn how to diagnose this and to apply techniques that maximize your effectiveness in helping your firm move upward. Your most valuable asset was free – are you maximizing the return on it?
Some of the benefits you should derive from tonight’s
presentation include:
The price for the 2006/2007 Tech Session Dinner Meetings will be $25.00 per meeting. The Pre-Tech Sessions will remain at $10.00 per session. Pre-Tech Sessions will begin and end promptly at 5:25 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. respectively.
The Certified Management Accountant (CMA) designation provides corporate management and individual Members with an objective measure of knowledge and competence in the field of management accounting.The CMA is an invaluable credential for professional advancement and for broadening professional skills and perspective.
The Board of Directors has decided to form a
Committee to assist in continuing to improve and
develop the CMA Review Courses offered by the
chapter. For further information contact: E-mail Steve Law (at Home) or E-mail Steve Law (at Work) or phone (330) 666-8395.
Leland Hilton of Sealy Mattress transferred into the Akron Chapter from Member-at-Large status.
All Regular Meetings
are on the third Wednesday of the Month
Thursday, April 26, 2007 Preconference
Workshop
Afternoon Session (1:15 – 4:15
PM):
Friday, April 27, 2007,
Conference
Keynote Luncheon Speaker (1:00 PM)
Afternoon Session (2:30 – 4:35 PM)
SAVE THE DATES – April 26th and April
27th (Yellow flyers coming in March)
Recruiter
Please contact Roy Howarter if you have a job
available or are looking for an employment
opportunity.
Roy Howarter
- Akron IMA Employment Director, 1-
800-321-5583
Looking for a great way to combine management
accounting and fun this summer? Start planning (and
saving) and arranging your vacation time now to
attend the IMA’s 88th Annual Conference &
Exposition at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge resort in
the spectacular Sonoran Desert near Phoenix, AZ
from June 16-20. In addition to exploring the beauty
of a desert resort (including playing in the Sunday
morning IMA/MEF Golf Classic at the Faldo
Championship course), you can earn up to 30.5 CPE
credits plus five pre-conference sessions. Here are
some of the particulars:
Early registration discount. Register by April 6, as
rates go up $100 after that date. Member rate for
the full Conference package is $945 (includes all
Conference sessions Sunday through Wednesday,
access to the Solution Showcase exhibit hall and
networking reception, 3 Conference breakfasts, 3
lunches (including a Brown Bag discussion group with
70 to 80 possible topics), and the Annual Dinner and
After Party). If your non-accountant spouse/friend
would like to accompany you but enjoy Phoenix on
their own during the day, their only IMA cost is $75
for an exhibit hall guest pass and/or $95 for an
Annual Reception & Dinner guest ticket.
Daily CPE sessions end by 5:15 PM, giving you plenty
of time to enjoy the Arizona nightlife.Attire for
the Conference sessions is business casual (slacks,
polo shirts, sweaters, blazers, blouses, and
comfortable shoes). The IMA Annual Dinner on
Wednesday evening is formal attire optional.
To ensure proper CPE credit, attendees will scan in
and out of each session, covering twelve keynote
sessions, 25 concurrent sessions, seven general
sessions, five concurrent tracks, and –new this year –
a learning track panel discussion to facilitate
dialogue between attendees and experts. Featured
speakers include FASB Chairman Robert Herz, former
IMA Chair and Controller of the State of Nevada Kim
Wallin, and our own Ron Riebe, VP of KeyBank.
Lodging at the Marriott is at a special conference
rate of $149/night. The resort features wildflower
gardens, swimming pools, lakes, waterways, and golf
course or mountain views.
Register soon for a fabulous time in June. For more
information, contact Susan Bender
.
Today’s accounting job candidates are in the driver’s
seat. The combination of business growth and a
reduced labor pool is fueling demand for their
services. In fact, management accountants
possessing the right mix of skills are receiving multiple
employment offers.
This may be good news for candidates, but to remain
competitive in this tight job market, hiring managers
should consider putting more emphasis on the
negotiation process. Top candidates with the most
in-demand skill sets and certifications may already be
evaluating other offers by the time you have the
opportunity to make your initial pitch. Therefore, it’s
important to be prepared to make an attractive
counteroffer. Following are tips to help you improve
your chances of securing the talent you seek:
Securing management accountants today requires
time and flexibility. But by taking a thoughtful
approach to counteroffers, you can give your firm a
leg up on the competition.
Accountemps is the world’s first and largest
temporary staffing service specializing in the
placement of accounting, finance and bookkeeping
professionals. The company has more than 350
offices throughout North America, Europe, Australia
and New Zealand, and offers online job search
services at
www.accountemps.com.
Fifth Annual Symposium on Information Systems Risk,
Security & Assurance
This year's theme is Information Security and
Regulatory Compliance Beyond SOX.
The two day-event includes:
Both events will be very informative for those who
can benefit from risk, assurance, and security
concerns in organizations. This annual event brings
together professionals, managers, users, faculty and
students with interests in the design, implementation
and assurance of information risk and security, and
share ideas.
Besides the four-hour workshop on XBRL planned on
Thursday, February 22, the Friday sessions at the
Symposium include:
Speakers at the Symposium are highly acclaimed and
experienced professionals with outstanding national
and international reputation in their fields.
Due to inclement weather, the January 25 quarterly
meeting of Ohio Regional Council was held via
telephonic conference call (from 5:05 to 7:05 PM).
Participating in the meeting from Akron chapter were
13 Board members – Ken Bechtol, Tamra Emmett,
Gary Floyd, Chris Guest, Roy Howarter, Dean Hull,
Doreen Kuster, Steve Law, Becky Price, Ron Riebe,
Doug Rinearson, Nick Sucic, and Atanas Zarkov.
Akron chapter constituted 41% of the 32 Council
members connected during the conference call.
Nick Sucic kicked off the meeting with a description
of the speakers confirmed for the Friday April 27 KSU
Meonske Conference: Cecil Jackson (USC Professor
of Clinical Accounting and author of “Business Fairy
Tales: Grim Realities of Fictitious Financial Reporting”)
uses real-world scandals (like Enron, WorldCom and
Sunbeam) to illustrate the top 20 methods used in
fraudulent financial reporting. Next will be the
Financial Reporting panel (including Susan Markel,
Chief Accountant of the SEC’s Division of
Enforcement, and representatives from the FASB and
the SEC’s Office of the Chief Accountant). Our
luncheon speaker will be Anthony Alexander,
President & CEO of FirstEnergy Corp., who has an
accounting and legal background. The afternoon
session on internal controls under SOX Section 404
will include presentations by Jeff Thomson, IMA Vice
President of Research and Applications Development,
and, hopefully, a representative of the PCAOB. The
Thursday April 26 Workshop will include an Excel
presentation (including Excel 2007) by Bill Jelen and a
presentation on Ohio Professional Standards and
Ethics (including ethical dilemmas) by Dr. Norm
Meonske. Nick mentioned that the KSU Planning
Committee can always use volunteers and that we
tell our speakers that their waived speaker fee is a
commitment to student scholarships. Nick will have a
teaser about the Conference available in mid-
February.
Getting into the Council agenda, Ken Bechtol had a
few corrections (mostly spelling errors) to the
minutes of the November 9 Council meeting in
Cleveland, held in conjunction with the annual
Student Leadership Conference (attended by 360
students, 92 from Ohio). The Treasurer’s report was
approved with a motion made to take $3,000 unspent
on the student conference ($17,605 was spent of
the $20,000 budget) and add it to the Council
Norman Meonske Scholarship Fund (a restricted fund
with a current balance of $18,000). The Council had
checking and restricted funds of about $97,000 at
12-31-06. The income statement showed receipt of
a $2,000 MEF (Memorial Education Fund) grant from
IMA National. Chair-Elect Stacey Stratis discussed
the reporting deadlines for the 2007-08 Council slate,
planning for the International conference next June in
Phoenix, and status of the annual Form 990 tax
filings and the audits by Jerry Isler. Re the May 11,
2007 Leadership Training Workshop and May 12
Council meeting in Dublin, Patty Fonzi discussed some
prices for the meeting site and overnight lodging.
Ron Riebe and Atanas Zarkov discussed the next
issue of the Council newsletter and the importance of
updating chapter websites with current chapter
information. Various representatives from the
chapters represented discussed what’s going on at
their locations (including Dean Hull’s review of our
December PD seminar). Council Chair Larry Cox
discussed the problem with IMA logo sweaters
(although Land’s End has eliminated minimum order
quantity requirements) and how they were on hold
until a new Ohio Council logo is approved (IMA was
sued on the globe logo). We mentioned that we
needed a logo decision soon as February 23 is the
printer deadline for changes to the yellow flyers
promoting the April KSU Conference. Before the
meeting adjourned, Ken Bechtol asked if the agenda
and minutes of this meeting could be distributed for
review much sooner than the day before the May 12
Council meeting – Stacey Stratis said she would
issue minutes in early
February.
While reading through the Ohio Society of CPAs
January 22-26, 2007 Weekly Bulletin, I noticed that
Akron chapter IMA member Benjamin R. Dabbs (who
works at Abacus Consulting in Westfield Center) won
the 2005 OSCPA "Technology Advocacy Award".
Congratulations, Ben! |
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