Focus...

Well, the Annual Meeting is now history, the bylaw amendments have passed, and our new board of directors is getting ready for their first meeting of the year.

GSCPA Trivia question: who was the last person to be elected President of the Georgia Society of CPAs?

Answer: Stewart Carlin. The office of President has now (with the bylaw amendments) become Chairman. The second trivia question is who was the first Chairman of the GSCPA? Answer? Newly installed (at the annual meeting) Bob Prator. Lastly, who was the first CEO of the GSCPA? Well... that’s me. My title changed from Executive Director to CEO.

Doubtful that those questions will pop up on Jeopardy, or at your next dinner party; but if they do, you’ll know the answers.

At the annual meeting, Barry Melancon spoke and did his usual excellent job. He not only spoke on trends and professional issues, he also talked about the economy and recent legal dealings and ramifications of Madoff and others. On the topic of the economy, Barry mentioned that so far, $780 billion dollars have been approved by Congress in the Economic Stimulus package. He mentioned that for $880 billion (only an additional $100 billion which used to sound like a lot of money) we could have completely paid off every existing mortgage in America. Amazing. Obviously, that would never be a proposal, but it does put the $780 billion in perspective.

Question: whatever happened to millions? Going the way of the penny?

I hope your summer is going well!

GJ