President's Message

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Jay niederhauSer, Cpa

The year 2020 was a memorable year, but not necessarily in the way that we may have anticipated. I had looked forward to 2020 as the centennial year of the UACPA and a year of fun and celebration. However, it turned out to be very different. It was a less-thansubtle reminder of something that I recently read in the book "On Fire," by John O’Leary. He says, “You can’t always choose the path that you walk in life, but you can always choose the manner in which you walk it.” I have thought a lot about this quote and realize the importance of the way we choose to react to unexpected events and circumstances.

There has been a lot of discussion this past year at the AICPA as well as the UACPA about the importance of diversity and inclusion in our profession. If you were like me, you may have found yourself thinking, “My firm is diverse. After all, we have both University of Utah and BYU fans in our office!” Or you might even have a token graduate from one of the other in-state universities!

All kidding aside, I want to focus more on the concept of inclusion. I think we understand the concept of diversity, but have we thought about the importance of inclusion? At one time, I was quite proud of the fact that our firm had a rather diverse population based on gender, ethnicity, educational background, and country of origin. Sometime later, however, I was asked whether they all felt included. That really caused me to think, and I had to admit that some of them probably did not. We can all think of times in our lives when we did not feel included. I recently overheard a conversation between my youngest son and my 5-year-old grandson, his nephew. They were discussing friends and my son asked, “Can I be your friend?” My grandson’s reply was an emphatic “No!” My son inquired, “Why not?” My grandson’s simple response was, “Because you’re not my age!” How many times have we rejected someone, either intentionally or otherwise, because they are different than we are in some way? After I graduated from Utah State University, I spent the first portion of my career in Salt Lake City, Utah; Houston and College Station, Texas; and Great Falls, Montana. When I first returned to Utah, my family was still in Montana. On weekends that I did not go to Montana to see my family, I visited various church congregations where I tried an interesting experiment. The first week, I slipped in the back of the congregation and sat quietly by myself. By the end of the services, no one had spoken to me or acknowledged that I was there. I had to admit that I did not feel at all welcome or included. The next week I arrived at the services early and stood by the back door greeting people as they arrived. People responded warmly and, by the end of the services, I had met and talked with a number of people who all made me feel welcome and included. I realized that inclusion is a twoway responsibility — it is up to us to include and to be included.

As we approach this new year, I hope that we all have learned something from 2020 that will improve our lives and the lives of those around us. Let us all make a conscious effort to be more tolerant and inclusive and to be included. n