President's Corner: CPAmerica's Quick Pivot Thanks for getting to page four and the President’s Corner of this special edition of CPAmerica’s Advantage newsletter. This column is normally a chance for me, Alan Deichler; our Vice President of Alan Deichler Services, Grace Horvath; President our Consultant/Director of A&A, Art Winstead; or our Director of Services/CPAConnect, D’Yãn Davis, to share some thoughts, observations, or musings on a rotating basis. In this time of coronavirus and COVID-19, I caught myself a bit down in the dumps, reflecting on my “lost” year and working from home in Gainesville. Generally, starting in May, I am on the road. With 17 events, 15-20 Visitation Improvement Program meetings at host firms, trips to meet prospective member firms, our board meetings, Crowe Global board meetings (David Mellor, CEO of Crowe Global, is a visitor at our board meetings and I am a visitor at Crowe Global board meetings), and a number of other related trips, it’s a lot
of travel. At times, all the travel is tiring, but I really do love the job and the opportunity to visit with so many members and other fine people. It is a disappointment that these opportunities are probably lost for the year. I suspect you may have an aspect of your job that you especially enjoyed and won’t have in 2020.
order to better get to know each other and explore the possibilities of you joining our association. Good luck and stay safe!
As I examined my disappointment, I began to realize that with technology, I would still be able to stay in touch and meet with many people that I was scheduled to see during the year. If you’re old enough to remember a time before cell phones, dial-up internet, or video meetings – if this had to happen, then I’m glad it happened with our current access to technology. I also started to see that I have a great job, we have a wonderful staff that is busy and employed, and that during this difficult time, our lives are pretty good. We don’t know what is in store for us in the coming months, but it is good to be in a position where we can help our members help their clients. I hope our paths cross soon, either in person or on a video chat, in
Testimonials, continued from page 2 Aside from the obvious value-add, the fellowship of members, one of the things that really stands out and explains why CPAmerica delivers on its promises to members, is its internal infrastructure. In order to follow-through on all promises and commitments, it takes a strong internal team to ensure promises and deliverables can be met. CPAmerica has just this – a phenomenal internal infrastructure. Every member on the team seems to serve a very specific role. They do this in such a positive, enthusiastic, and engaged manner. The results speak for themselves. Having spent 20 years in another association, I can genuinely attest there is no comparison to CPAmerica. We wish we would have made this move long ago. Thank you CPAmerica for being by our side." - Richard Crabtree, CPA, PFS, CoManaging Partner with Whalen & Company CPAs, Worthington, Ohio.
4
"Our alignment in CPAmerica has been invaluable in providing guidance in interpretation of audit standards, in supplying vital audit expertise when proposing on engagements in specific industries where we would have a need for knowledge, and in overall firm management best practices. We have completely updated our IT practices as a result of our membership, and we would have been at a disadvantage in working from home during the COVID-19 crisis had we not been introduced to CPAmerica. It has been so much better for our firm to have been associated with CPAmerica than before we came to them for membership." - Lisa Shuneson, CPA, PFS, Co-Managing Partner with Whalen & Company CPAs, Worthington, Ohio.
Contact us at:
7555 W. University Ave. Gainesville, FL 32607 (352) 727-4070 www.cpamerica.org
Send any questions and comments about this issue to: advantage@cpamerica.org
follow us on social