Mississippi Valley Chapter

Transcription

1 Mississippi Valley Chapter WINTER 2015 NEWSLETTER BOARD MEMBERS AND NATIONAL DIRECTORS CHAPTER PRESIDENT S MESSAGE Board Members Board Members Chad Degenhart President chaddegenhart@mail.heritagefs.com (815) Emery Lewis Vice-President elewis@cobank.com (502) Andrea Rygelski Secretary arygelski@cobank.com (314) Jim Flaherty Treasurer jflaherty@cobank.com (314) Keith Jensen - Director keith@harriscpaonline.com (515) Ernie Verslues - Director everslues@mfa-inc.com (573) Glenda Postin - Director gpostin@sunriseagservice.com (217) David Schahl Director dschahl@agauditing.com (309) Sam Graber - Director sgraber@fbtlaw.com (502) Winter Greetings, I hope everyone is enjoying a successful start to the New Year. I am very much looking forward to warmer weather in the coming months, and on that note the board has been busy planning our annual chapter meeting to be held in June. By now everyone should have received the save the date for our annual meeting which will be held in St. Louis at the Hilton at the Arch June 14 th through the 16 th. In addition to some great learning topics, we have our annual golf outing planned for Sunday the 14 th, and the Monday evening social gathering (families are welcome!) will be held at Busch Stadium where we will enjoy food, beverages, and a baseball team. I hope you will plan to take advantage of the opportunities our chapter meeting will afford you to network with colleagues, earn CPE credits, and stay up to date with accounting and business issues in our cooperative industry. Regards, Chad Degenhart Chapter President National Directors Mark Feldman mark.feldman@crowehorwath.com (574) Mary Fortney mfortney@growmark.com (309)

2 NATIONAL DIRECTOR S REPORT by Mary Fortney and Mark Feldman Greetings Mississippi Valley Chapter members! I hope you are surviving the winter and getting geared up for spring season. The timing for our newsletter is perfect as we just held our mid-year national board meeting on February 13. Brent Hueth, Director for The University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, gave a high-level update to the board on results of the recent survey of NSAC member cooperatives. The response rate was not very good, which means the results are less useful for drawing any conclusions which is not uncommon for a new survey. Mr. Hueth described a new federal research center that will operate at U of W, which will give him access to more comprehensive data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The board discussed the potential value coming from future research, including awareness of cooperatives in schools. The board will continue to be open to partnering in future research efforts, but likely request a written proposal. The Canadian Membership sub-committee gave a report on communications in Canada to generate/gauge interest in NSAC. We were able to include notices of our annual meeting and conference in Canadian accountancy publications, with special highlights of interest to Canadian cooperative accountants. The board agreed to provide six free registrations (moved from the international budget), to be awarded by Daphne Rixon of the Center for Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Cooperatives (CEARC). This effort appears to be one that will evolve slowly. We reviewed the activities of the national education director, Bill Erlenbush. All were in agreement that he has done a great job developing & presenting a variety of interesting topics. If you get a chance, drop Bill a note and tell him how much we appreciate his efforts. The plans for combining our 2015 meeting with NRECA in Denver are coming together. We are reaping the best of both associations ideas and we are very excited about the future potential together. Note that the annual meeting name has changed to Tax Finance & Accounting Conference for Cooperatives (TF&ACC). Watch for registration information in the coming months. The board began discussing possible Silver Bowl nominees for It was agreed that in future years each national director should solicit recommendations from their chapter to make sure we have a representative slate. There was also discussion about possibly changing the chapter recognition program. Currently a free registration to the national conference is awarded to qualifying chapters to distribute as they deem appropriate. Should the program reward multiple members instead of just one (i.e. free CLNs?)? We were encouraged to discuss this within our chapter. NSAC continues to be on firm financial ground with $1.2 million in total assets at December 31, Our draft Statement of Activities reported slightly positive income of almost $30,000 compared to a budgeted loss of $55,000. This was primarily due to higher investment returns and lower than anticipated expenses. Please contact us with your questions or suggestions: Mary Fortney mfortney@growmark.com or Mark Feldman mark.feldman@crowehorwath.com

3 CHAPTER ANNUAL MEETING SAVE THE DATE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY CHAPTER ANNUAL MEETING JUNE 14-16, 2015 Hilton at the Arch: Room rates $139 single $159 Double Sunday Golf Outing; Monday evening STL Cardinals Baseball Monday Tuesday 7:00 a.m. noon; Breakfast/Program session MAKE YOUR HOTEL RESERVATIONS NOW HF&groupCode=NSAC Online reservation code = NSAC Or Call Hotel room reservation department or toll-free number HILTONS. Please request the group rate by the unique Reservations Group Code: NSAC Reservations must be made no later than Thursday, May 14 th, 2015 WATCH FOR MEETING REGISTRATION FORMS AND MORE INFORMATION IN APRIL

4 CHAPTER ANNUAL MEETING AGENDA Tentative topics are: Income Tax Update Agricultural Economics Accounting & Auditing Update Legislative Update Jean Payne Grain Industry Dan Mehochko R & D Tax Credits Michelle Page Internal Controls for Small Cooperatives Bill Erlenbush UPCOMING EVENTS 2015 NSAC TAX, FINANCE & ACCOUNTING CONFERENCE FOR COOPERATIVES SAVE THE DATE! August 2-5, 2015 Denver, CO Conference details and online registration coming soon!

5 OTHER TRAINING NSAC's group-live, educational teleconferences uniquely tailored for cooperatives Upcoming CLN Workshop(s): Economic Update March 4th, 2015 Washington Update March 10th, 2015 NSAC Three-Hour Advanced Co-op Accounting Course March 26th, 2015 Getting More Done in Less Time March 31st, 2015 COSO: From Treadway to the Cube, Fighting Fraud and Corruption in the Coop Environment April 21st, 2015 Visit the NSAC website at for additional details.

6 TREASURER S REPORT By Jim Flaherty, Treasurer