News from Your Accounting Association
CPAmerica Advantage December 2017 CPAmerica's 2018 A&A Conference P. 2 CPAmerica member firms understand the idea of building a strong brand in order to increase exposure in the marketplace and increase their recruiting and retention efforts. We spoke to Brenda Jacobs, CPA, partner with Brickley DeLong, PC, with headquarters
in the scenic shoreline city of Muskegon, Mich., about their firm’s recruiting initiative with Grand Valley State University (GVSU), namely, the West Michigan Local Advantage Leadership Day (LALD). LALD is a one-day event for the purpose of recruiting college accounting students for internship positions with local accounting firms. When we asked Jacobs how the participants initially came together to put together the LALD, she said, “In 2016, GVSU, the largest university in our area, connected us through their Career Services Office. One of the big frustrations in recruiting has been that we come against the instructors pushing the bigger firms to the students. We asked the people at career services what we could do to change that. It’s kind of hard to change what the professors are promoting, but they
came up with this idea of having sevMember News P. 3 eral local (West Michigan) firms band together. With LALD, there were just President's Corner - Alan Deichler P. 4 five of us. We actually got to get to know these students and they got to know us. Word has spread by those in attendance about what a great experience they had learning about our firms and the internships that were secured as a result. The university CPAmerica's 2018 Next Generation Conference set for was gracious enough to do some of the legDenver in May work and assemble a small group. For the CPAmerica's Next Generation events, they allowed us to utilize their faciliConference is set for Denver, ties free of charge and they even provided Colorado, in the center of the Mile afternoon snacks for [participants.]” High City. The luxurious Westin It wasn’t easy going at first. “When we started getting heavily into pre-recruiting at GVSU, we struggled. At the first prerecruiting event that I attended, we didn’t know what to expect and were surprised to see how elaborate some of the booths were. We got our game on after that,” said Jacobs.
Denver Downtown Hotel will host the annual event on May 16-18. Registration opens on Dec. 1, 2017; new attendees can choose the Intro Track and returning participants can opt for the Advanced Track. For more info on the CPAmerica website, visit and sign in at: https://tinyurl.com/ ybr77oed
“We invited one of the representatives of the Career Services Office to our Muskegon office to visit our firm. We are located on the shore of Lake Michigan; our offices look over
See Recruiting, continued on page 2
Since as far back as 2008, CPAmerica has been offering yearly subscriptions to First Research, a provider of market analysis tools, at a substantial savings over nonCPAmerica subscribers. An additional benefit available only to CPAmerica subscribers is that a firm’s subscription allows them to receive unlimited access to First Research. First, let’s go over the basics. What is First Research? This CPAmerica Preferred Provider prepares timely information on more than 900 industry segments
that cover your prospects’ niches and is written in helpful and current business
language that is constantly updated with economic data and industry news. At a one-year subscription price of only $1,595 (a savings of up to $8,395 over non-CPAmerica subscribers!), member firms can immediately receive the industry expertise they need to be prepared for their next prospecting call, client meeting, presenta-
tion or proposal. First Research is a great way to position your firm before you get in front of your clients or a prospect. In 2017, CPAmerica has already seen 25 member firms sign up for a First Research subscription; the majority of these firms use the service year after year because of its value and offering for enhanced client communications. Larry Cooper, partner with member firm Brickley DeLong, PC, of Muskegon, Mich., (and long-time subscriber) said about the service, “First Research is a great resource for learn-
See First Research, continued on page 2