Alaska Society of Certified Public Accountants



Alaska Society of CPAsBoard of Directors Meeting – MinutesApril 21, 2015Members in attendance: Irina Morozova, Steven Pence, Lisa Turner, Joshua McIntyre, Lance Bodeen, Kara Moore, Chris Houde, Linda Plimpton, Crista Burson, Amy Cooper, Jason BontragerMeeting called to order at 10:03 amApproval of prior meeting minutes: Minutes of January 20, 2015 were accepted as written with no edit changes. New BusinessWelcome Crista BursonCrista Burson was introduced by Linda and welcomed by the Board. Crista started 3/16 training with Linda March 16, 2015 preparing to begin as new Executive Director of the Society.Treasurer ReportJason provided copies of the balance sheet and budget to actual profit and loss report as of March 31, which the Board reviewed. Jason pointed out CPE revenues are up slightly from budgeted. Overall income and expenses are generally tracking with budgeted amounts.AICPA Regional Council Meeting Report3/20 – Lance traveled and John Rogers attended the March 20,2015 meeting. The Council discussed the peer review policy and significant issues identified with employee benefit plan audits. The statistics indicate there is a 70% audit fail rate, with a significant portion attributable to audit firms who typically do one or two pension plan audits annually. The AICPA is looking for ways to improve these audits.Another topic at the Council meeting relates to interactions between the AICPA and state CPA societies. The AICPA would like to establish more compatible relationship with the state societies. For the Alaska society, for example, there is currently not much interaction with AICPA leadership. Part of this discussion included possible shared revenues for AICPA sponsored CPE based on which state the attendees reside in. The Council discussed concerns affecting the profession in tax practice matters. Some issues mentioned include speed (or lack thereof) of responses to inquiries at IRS. The AICPA would like Congress to provide for special allocation of funds for taxpayer service from IRS. AKCPA Board members discussed personal experience with the lack response at IRS, including the practitioner hotline. AICPA Spring Meeting Of CouncilThe meeting is in Washington DC and one more key person is needed to attend the meeting and discuss Alaska specific issues with Senators. Per Linda typically the Board President elect attends. Josh is available during that timeframe and a motion was made and accepted for him to attend. The AICPA will pay for the trip. Former senator Mark Begich is an at-large board member starting in May.Nominations for Public Service and Distinguished Service AwardNone were mentioned. The Board discussed putting out requests earlier in the fiscal year, in the fall, and chosen recipient at the Board’s annual meeting. Committee ReportsAccounting – The Board needs a chairperson as the position is currently vacant.CPE – Completed for FY15Ethics – 4 hours of ethics CPE are required this year. Ethics CPE will be available at the annual meeting. By the next renewal period it is expected the Alaska specific requirement will be eliminated.Financial Literacy – Craig Decker put together information available from the AICPA for presentation up north and Josh will follow up to see how that worked and if the materials are relevant for promotion purposes of the committee.Investment – Revisions to the investment portfolio composition have been suggested. The account advisor recommended moving 15-20% of investment funds to a more progressive investment mix to potentially increase earnings. We want to keep some cash in money market funds in anticipation of needing some leasehold improvements when a new office location is obtained at the end of the current lease in December. It has been a few years since funds needed to be drawn from the investment portfolio.Leadership – There were 11 applicants for the next cycle of the Leadership conference. All were accepted. This is compared to 5 applicants in the previous conference. This is a good result and planning for this is to some extent already underway.Legislative – No meeting to report.MAP – Nothing to report.Meetings – (see below)Nominations – Nothing to report.Relations with Education – Bill Balhoff did a video presentation geared to students to promote/educate about the profession. Amy discussed the UAF accounting awards ceremony. Anchorage had their spring function on Friday 4/17/15. AKCPA board members were not notified. It would be good to have some notification to be able to provide a presence and opportunity to promote membership.Tax – The legislative tax guide issued in March.Technology – Nothing to reportBoard of Accountancy – (see below)Annual Meeting UpdateThe annual meeting has been planned. Crista will send a reminder to members to attend. Eight people have registered to date.Membership ApplicationsThe Board approved the following new members:Full: Carl Horn, Heather Kephart, Samuel ThompsonAssociate: Inez Garner,Candidate: Arianna HainesStudent: Katrina Bergstrom, Shelley Christopherson, Katherine Galang, Elyce Hackley, Courtney Maillet, William Mitchell, Heather Porter, Tatiana Prokofieva, William WilmothInactive: Alvin HymesRound Table Discussion:Lance spoke at the Young Professionals Network and there was lively discussion.Amy discussed the experiences of the VITA program this year. One person came to the UAF VITA program with questions about what caused an increase in the amount of their taxable social security income in 2014. After attending an AARP VITA session where the AARP VITA folks couldn’t answer the question the IRS referred her to the UAF VITA group.The AKCPA Society will do a mailing to CPAs in Alaska who are not members, to reach out and attempt to increase membership.State Board of Accountancy ReportRevised regulations are now out for public comment. If there are no comments/changes, the BOA will approve them, and then changes go into effect shortly thereafter. The State of Alaska is updating their website and the BOA expects changes will be made to the CPA application process, Also dues are expected to increase significantly. Part of this is related to a large volume of CPE audits in the past two cycles which has been expensive due to the number of issues identified. An increase of $90 is expected. Rebecca thinks the BOA is approximately $150K in the red and has been running deficit for past three years. Some of this is due to the CPE audit costs being borne by the BOA, which doesn’t receive a corresponding share of any fines collected in the process. There is a bill out now to address this so fine/fee can be matched to the revenue source (fines for CPA violations, etc.).The public comment period closes 5/4/15. The revisions can be adopted as written or changes can be made. Next the regulations go to the Department of Law (if no changes this process has already been completed), then to the lieutenant governor for signature at which time they become effective.Linda Plimpton closed the discussion by thanking the Board and the Society, and welcoming Crista who she said will take good care of the society.Meeting adjourned at 11:52Next Meeting: June 17, 2015 ................
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