Volunteering for Board Positions

CPAs get asked to serve on boards a lot.  Sometimes organizations want us for our technical expertise, but sometimes they just need someone at the table who is comfortable talking concretely about money.  I spent many happy hours volunteering as a teenager, and during college I looked forward to being able to use my new accounting skills for the greater good.  I’m a big believer in learning from other people’s experiences wherever possible, so once I passed the CPA exam, I took to questioning everyone I knew (including partners at my firm) about their volunteer board experiences.  The main advice I got was to hold off for a couple of years until I had enough professional experience to know what I didn’t know.  This was sound advice! I took it.  While I now have a couple of years of experience volunteering as Treasurer for my small Home Owners’ Association (HOA), I’ve continued to question others about their volunteer experiences.  I’ve gotten some excellent advice during this process, and want to share it with you.

Three crucial sets of questions to ask the organization:

1. Financial/Fundraising Commitment
   1. Are board members expected to personally contribute a minimum amount to the organization?
   2. Do board members have individual fundraising quotas?
   3. Sometimes board members get sued.  Does the organization have liability insurance that covers board members? If not, it’s worth looking into a personal umbrella policy, which is a way to add extra general liability coverage, including coverage for attorney’s fees, onto an existing insurance policy.
2. Time Commitment
   1. How often and for how long does the Board meet?
   2. Where are meetings held? Is it okay to attend via phone or computer when time is especially tight (i.e. busy season)?
   3. What other events are Board members expected to attend?
   4. How long is a board member’s term?
3. Job Description/Expectations
   1. What technical knowledge are they expecting you, as a CPA or future CPA, to bring to the table?
   2. If you’re signing on for Treasurer or another titled position, is there a job description? Is the most recent person who held the title available to train you and ease the transition?
   3. Does the organization already have a paid or volunteer bookkeeper, or are they recruiting an accountant because they need a volunteer bookkeeper?
   4. If it’s a larger organization or handles a lot of funds, do they have an annual audit?

Three crucial questions to ask yourself:

1. Are you passionate about the organization’s mission? If you’re not, is there some other factor that will make your commitment rewarding? (E.g.: a loved one is passionate about the organization; you’ll get peace of mind knowing your PTA/HOA is in good financial condition; you’re burning up with curiosity to get to know the inner workings of not-for-profits.)
2. If the organization were a person and it was ill, would you want to interrupt your life to bring it chicken soup? (All organizations will have crises that require board attention. It might not happen during your tenure, but you should be prepared.)
3. Do you like the people you would be working most closely with? If you’re not sure, find out if there’s an event or portion of a board meeting you could attend to get a feel for this.

Editor’s Note: The OSCPA posts volunteer service opportunities from not-for-profit organizations and governmental entities. Visit: www.orcpa.org/public/resource/26-not-for-profit_board_openings/ to view current opportunities.

Volunteer to Lead

The topic of my entry this time is Leadership and Volunteering.  This past weekend I had the honor of attending the OSCPA Strategic Leadership Forum in the beautiful Central Oregon city of Bend.  This annual event brings together all of the Leadership (new and continuing) of the OSCPA – ALL OF WHOM ARE VOLUNTEERS!!!! – for two days of programs meant to inform and connect those in attendance and set the ship (aka the OSCPA) on the right course for the new year. I’d like to think that all of us there walked away on Saturday afternoon with a renewed sense of commitment and excitement for the future of the organization.

Now, the OSCPA has an incredible staff without which the organization wouldn’t exist.  They are a tremendous group! However, the Board of Directors (11 directors), the Chapter councils (6 Chapters), the Strategic Interest Teams (9 SITs), the Project Teams (11 teams), Board Standing Committees (4 committees), and Knowledge Networks (3) are all populated by volunteers.  This group of dedicated supporters, together with the staff , allow the organization to meet the needs of its more than 4800 members. That is an incredible “machine”!

Currently, I am Chair-Elect.  Which means that next year I will be Chair – a little scary to be “in charge” but I know that the experience will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I got to this place over a number of years – first joining the Emerald Empire Chapter council and working through the officer positions to chair that group.  After that I joined the OSCPA Board of Directors and after being a director for three years, became Treasurer and have worked my way through the officer positions (Treasurer –>Vice Chair –> Chair-Elect) to where I find myself this year.  Meanwhile I have also been a member of the OSCPA Educational Foundation Board.  Now I don’t tell you this to brag or have you think that I am an “uber-volunteer” but it is rather to point out all of the opportunities there are within our organization to be more than just a member. If you are unfamiliar with the various volunteer positions within the OSCPA, please check out the website at www.orcpa.org.

My next suggestion is for you to consider volunteering outside the OSCPA.  If you look around, you will find numerous opportunities to lend your time and talents to others (outside of your job and families) – this is particularly true for accountants.  Most not-for-profits need someone with financial acumen on their board.  Volunteering can also allow you to do something totally different from your day to day, like walking dogs at the local humane society or dismantling donated electronics for recycling.  My point here is to get out and get involved in something outside yourself.  It is one of the more rewarding things you can do with your time and talents.  For those of you who are in “transition” volunteering can not only give you something to do with your time, it will allow you to meet other folks and who knows which one of them might be the key to the next door you need to go through.

So get out there – find a place to lend a hand or a head or a heart – it’ll be a good thing.

Survivor: Tax Season Edition

Before entering into my first tax season, I was forewarned about the need to “survive.” But what does that really mean? Let’s face it, we’re accountants not Samurais; no one is going to die from sitting in a cubicle staring at a computer for 60 hours a week.

So what does it mean to “survive” tax season? How about…being able to eat dinner with your family once in a while…or remembering to do laundry before you have no clean underwear…or having a mental breakdown once you get home, rather than in front of the partners…or compulsively hitting “save” just in case the network crashes…or refraining from going completely ballistic when discovering all the coffee is gone.

All joking aside, tax season is filled with colossal amounts of stress, which can be enormously toxic to the body. As research shows, stress kills.

Therefore, I think the most important part of “surviving” tax season is staying healthy by managing your stress levels.  As we all know, the two things in life we can be sure of is death and taxes, but nobody wants their epitaph to read “Death From Taxes.” Accountants aren’t the only ones feeling the pressure either; studies have show an increase in deadly car cashes on tax day. Perhaps, “surviving” actually denotes dodging the Grim Reaper after all.

I maybe wet behind the ears when it comes to accounting, but I’ve had my fair share of stress in the workplace. Here are some of the ways I’ve learned to combat stress:

•  Stay positive and use language to support it. Rather than saying negative words, such as “surviving,” instead tell people you are “enjoying” tax season. This may sound trite, but using positive words can actually make you feel better.
• Find humor in banality. Give yourself the liberty to laugh out loud. Open up your mind; you will be amazed at how entertained you can be by the most mundane situations. Laughing, giggling and guffawing can lift your spirits and melt away stress.
• Try to avoid junk food. Not only will refined sugar make you crash, it is bad for your brain.  Excess salt should also be avoided, as it can increase your blood pressure. Eating fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds are all healthy ways to curb the munchies.
• Get some exercise.  Humans weren’t designed to sit in cubicles and click away on keyboards for 10 hours straight. It is important to get up and move around once in a while. If you don’t have time to go to the gym, try walking or biking to work. You can even get exercise in the office by sitting on a yoga ball, taking the stairs or by doing 100 jumping jacks every time you finish a tax return.

Notes from the home stretch of busy season

The queue of returns that need to be touched before the deadline is shrinking. In-charges are finally telling clients arriving with their packets that their return will be extended. Files with hopelessly long lists of open items are being rounded up and extended. We’re emailing clients reminding them about that one last thing we need every other day instead of once a week. In other words: it’s April, and I am feeling reflective.

Some things about life during busy season are surprising to people who haven’t lived through one themselves. For example, you’d think spending your days (and your nights) with a bunch of tired, over-worked people who haven’t seen enough of their families and friends for weeks would be wholly grim. Instead, it’s mostly fun – I’ve heard people analogize it to Cycle Oregon and other long distance group sport activities. (I’m not sporty myself, but I can attest that it bears a certain resemblance to choral festivals.) A sense of team spirit emerges as everyone focuses on stretching their intellect and endurance to the max.

As CPAs, our job is to be up to the minute on tiny yet critical technical rules. But like marathoners, we’re also obsessed with the minute details that keep us moving forward. A half ounce of shoe weight isn’t that exciting until you’re lifting it for the 19,000^th time at mile 20. A 55 hour week is actually more like a 65 hour week once you add in time for things you have to do for work that aren’t work, such as: commuting, obtaining and eating meals for the two mealtimes you’re away from home each week day, loading and unloading your personal accoutrements, staying tidily groomed, etc. When you add tracking your work time in 6, 10 or 15 minute increments into that, you’ve got a population acutely aware of the quantitative effects of variations in routine. Public accountants: we want our coffee hot, our soda cold, the central office supply area well-stocked, and the staplers where they belong. We also want crummy weather until the deadline. The Pacific Northwest (versus, say, Texas) is the perfect place for this – during busy season here, it’s normally gray and damp and generally yucky. It’s easier to put your nose to the grindstone cheerfully when you don’t want to be outside anyway.

In sports, hydration is essential. In busy season, it’s all about balancing the caffeine load while still being able to sleep when you have time to sleep. Early on, people proclaim their desire to ‘keep the caffeine reasonable this year.’ By March, these resolutions are long gone, and conversations near the caffeine supply revolve around experimenting with dosage. Should you try to keep a steady intake throughout the day? Front load the morning to build a sense of momentum and then taper off by afternoon in order to minimize sleep disruption? Do it in bursts separated by a few hours so that its impact is as dramatic as possible? If you take a day away from the office each week, do you try to match your in-office caffeine schedule so you don’t get headaches? We’re not just obsessed with maintaining our routines; we’re obsessed with optimizing them.

There is an unexpected upside to this level of schedule intensity: there’s not a lot of time or opportunity to go shopping (even online) during busy season. This tends to function as an accidental savings mechanism. Things which tend to offset this effect: ability to obtain better-than-firm coffee without getting wet (coffee shop in the building); spouse or family bored without you; late fees from that one bill you didn’t or can’t put on auto-deduct. Me? I’m joining most of my colleagues, and using my too-busy-to-shop bank balance bump to take a vacation. Nothing fancy; just someplace where the coffee is always hot, the soda is always cold, and I can sleep as much as I want.

Touching lives…..

 

Who knew that choosing to be an accountant - you know, the eye shade wearing, cubicle dwelling, bean counter – would allow me the continuous opportunity to touch people’s lives. 

First, as a CPA, I am involved in all aspects of the financial lives of my clients – their jobs and businesses, their family dynamics, their retirement, and then their estates.  Sometimes the involvement takes place through tax planning and compliance services, other times it takes place through financial planning or just a friendly chat over coffee.  The greatest compliment that my clients ever paid me was to say “I feel so much better, knowing that you’re taking care of my ______ (fill in the blank with any of a variety of accounting services)”.  I am sort of like a human aspirin!  I have carried a CPA license for nearly 30 years.  I have had licenses in CA, NV, OR, CO, WA and then back in OR.  I have had the honor to touch hundreds of lives – directly and indirectly.  It has always been the people that give life to the numbers.

And then I was asked to consider teaching…..here would be a whole different opportunity to touch lives – young, impressionable lives – lives that could be directed to make the “right” choice – to choose accounting as a major; as a way of life.  I have been teaching for 25 years, at a variety of institutions – community colleges, 4 year teaching universities, research universities and professional development courses.  Thousands of students sat through my classes - undergraduate, graduate, accounting majors, pre -business students.  The one thing they all had in common was they had me as an accounting instructor – be that good or bad.  I hope it was good for them.  I know it was good for me.  Every class is new.  Every student is new.  Every student represents the possibility of another CPA, another accountant, another “follower”….

My life was, and continues to be, touched by all of these people – my clients and my students.  Accounting has given me that gift.

Learning: Diane Thiercof

Today we hear from the the last of our original bloggers, Diane, about what she learned during the past year writing for the OSCPA.

During my year of blogging I learned that I actually have something to share about my experiences as a new professional in the field of accounting. The questions I used to have as a student and new professional – I can now answer. I know what worked for me to pass the CPA exam, I know how to manage my stress during busy season and I know to juggle personal obligations with work. Three years ago I wasn’t in this position. I hope that through sharing my stories and giving advice I have helped others advance their careers and understand the field a bit more.

Sometimes it takes conscious reflection to realize what we’ve learned and how far we’ve come, even in a short period of time.

Confessions of a Newbie Accountant

I started my career as an accountant two months ago. I was thrown right into tax season (sink or swim) but I’ve been able to keep my head above water. Everyday I learn something new. I am fortunate to have wonderful mentors at work, who give me guidance, yet allow me to figure things out on my own. I agree with Benjamin Franklin who said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” It is very exciting to finally apply what I’ve learned in school and reinforce my knowledge through hands-on experience.

During my first week on the job, I created 1099’s using specially designed software. I know this may sound like dullsville to an experienced accountant, but until that week I never gave 1099’s much thought; for all I knew they were produced by the Form Fairy who snuck them into people’s mailboxes after dark. This task was particularly thrilling to me because of the fancy official IRS printed red forms. Before the amusement of the 1099′s subsided, I was on to bigger and better things.

I soon moved on to tax returns and have been immersed in them ever since. Call me a nerd, but I think this stuff is fun and surprisingly entertaining. To paraphrase Forrest Gump’s mom, sifting through people’s tax documents is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. They come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and strange odors. Sometimes a client’s handwriting is illegible or the documents are covered in weird dark stains or they have the appearance of being chewed by a dog. I find these nuances utterly delightful because they give the whole experience a humanistic character and helps create a painted picture far beyond the numbers.

On a less chipper note, I now have two nemeses at work. Soon after my start date, I was exposed to the evil nature of reconciling retained earnings. This can be a maddening process, which none of my professors warned me about. In my textbooks it was an easy piece of math, but in the real world it has yet to be that simple. But worse still, my biggest archenemies are the staples clients use to hold their tax documents together. At our office we scan all of our work papers, therefore each staple must be painstakingly removed. For some reason, many clients feel the need to load up their stack of Goodwill charitable donation vouchers with three to four staples. Removal of these tiny metal beasts typically results in wasted time and occasionally even a nasty paper cut.

My biggest adjustment has been the 10-Key adding machine, which I hadn’t used since 1985. In the university system we are taught to use scientific calculators, however no one in my office even has one of those but me. Sometimes I accidentally bump my 10-key, which sends off an array of alarming noises including a frightening, “Ahhhh!!!” from me as I jump out of my seat. I really am trying to embrace the 10-key, but I’m embarrassingly slow when using it. On the other hand, the lightning fast abilities of my coworkers makes my jaw drop; especially one, which I’ve nicknamed The Adding Ninja.

Like Sisyphus and his rock, those tax returns keep coming towards me in an endless avalanche; as I finish one, the next one comes rolling towards me. Despite all the stress and the impending, monumental deadline, I guess you can say I’m surviving. Yeah, the hours are long and I’m living on little sleep, but hey, let’s face it.. that’s what caffeine is for.