Meeting Recap
by Rick Osborn

Rick Osborn, Chapter President - opened the roundtable session with comments concerning the various plans that had been prepared by members of the board and emphasized the desire for and need to have membership involved in implementing the plans or assisting in modifying the plans to make them more workable.  Rick then introduced Lee Miller.

Lee Miller, AGA Sectional Vice President for Regional Services – provided a brief description of his duties to assist and support the local chapters in Section III and to answer questions.

The Association, as well as, other professional associations are encountering similar challenges to maintain relevancy, increase membership and membership involvement in the chapters.  Some of the reasons given for this situation are generational; busy lives, apparent disconnect between involvement in a professional association and ones’ career; and a lack of intentional support from local, regional, and national management for involvement in a professional association; “right sizing” of agencies.  Additionally, there is the requirement on the Association’s part to provide good programs and have fun in providing those programs.

The development of the Section Leadership Meetings to replace the Regional Officer Workshops has been a positive development.  The greater involvement of the national staff has provided the opportunity to “put faces with names” and enable a greater connection to the national office.

Attending a PDC provides excellent networking opportunities, enables the potential for the development of friendships and connections, and provides excellent training with multiple tracks, as well as, general sessions and specialty training.  It was also mentioned that members of the board attending the PDC and representing the chapter could obtain hotel scholarships and assistance with travel expense that the attendees agency might not cover.

Pat Bohan, Education Chair - talked about our regional partnership with the WSCPA and how the joint Governmental Auditing and Accounting Conference has been a benefit to both organizations and has enable both organizations to provided a higher level of training for the attendees than might otherwise have been possible independently.  The last conference in Tacoma was such a success that the venue will be changing and the sessions will involve video conferencing with a Spokane location.

Pat also mentioned the monthly meetings that are designed to provide an hour of qualified CPE and the entire board is involved in the process of identifying and obtaining speakers.

Bill D’Elia, CGFM Chair – noted the board plans and the opportunities those plans provided for members to become more involved in the implementation of the plans.  He mentioned the CGFM learning opportunities and the professional recognition that has been afford this certification.  He also talked about the opportunities he had to learn and expand his leadership skills as a result of being a member of AGA, as well as the chapter boards.

Brian Estes, board member and Northwest Regional Education Coordinator for AGA, and Director for the Pacific Northwest Intergovernmental Audit Forum – re-emphasized the networking opportunities not only available to members, but even more so to board members as they generally have broad contact with agencies and other chapters.

Finally, Rick re-emphasized several of the other plans including the membership plan combined with the early career plan to afford reduce membership fees and membership scholarships that were available to cover the entire membership fee.  He also talked about the public service plan and the planned chapter involvement in KCTS phone answering, the Federal Toy Drive, and the participation in the San Antonio chapter's Baby Food Drive Challenge.

Rick brought the meeting to a close with the reminder to attend the November 5th with topic of financial fraud.