Highlights

Growth, Acquisition and Retention Reports (GARs) are a monthly summary of membership numbers by chapter. In the Chapter Recognition Program, up to 3,000 credits are available in the membership section in the areas of base growth, new member acquisition and retention.

The GAR lists chapters by size (Group A = 300 or more members; Group B = 150-299 members, etc.). We also publish a GAR by region. It may be useful to see how individual regions compare. Don’t remember what the columns and numbers mean? Read a detailed explanation of the GAR Reports.

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Members Only Site Tutorial

NEW! AGA Speaker Database
In response to member and chapter requests, the National Office has designed an online speaker database. Here’s how it works:

If you have heard a great speaker and think that person has something of value to share with other AGA chapter members, fill out the online form. All submissions will go to Joe Jozefczyk, AGA’s Director of Education, who will add the speaker to the database. This information will remain on an internal database housed at the National Office and will not be publicly listed on the website.

If your chapter is planning an event and you need to find a speaker that discusses a particular subject area or lives in a certain location, contact Joe at 800.AGA.7211, ext. 307, and he will find a speaker from the database. It’s that simple!

Attention Newsletter Editors: Find all the Latest News in One Spot
Communicators looking for news items for their newsletters can now find all the latest information from the AGA National Office—including downloadable images for upcoming conferences—in one convenient location. To gain access to the page, you will need to log in to the Chapter Communicators site and click on the "New at AGA" link in the tan box on the page. Check out all the News You Can Use! Tell us what you think. Contact Chris Camara.

AGA Deadlines and Events
Feb. 19: Chapter Recognition Program third quarter credits due.

Feb. 28: Audio Conference, “Practical Guidance for Auditors and Management in Effectively Assessing Risk and Controls”.

March 30-31: Section IV Sectional Leadership Meeting (SLM) in Lexington, KY

April 6: PDC hotel scholarship RSVP deadline

May 25: Early registration deadline for PDC (June 24-27, in Nashville, TN)

Looking for CPE Hours?
Check out AGA’s Training Opportunities. Formerly known as AGA’s Events Calendar, this online listing is where you can find CPE events to help you retain designations like the CGFM.

February 2007, Volume 2, Issue 2

2007 PDC Hotel Scholarships
AGA is excited to offer each chapter two hotel scholarships for the 2007 PDC. As in the past, the hotel scholarship will cover five nights stay during the PDC in Nashville, TN. Hotel scholarship participants will be housed in one of the overflow conference hotels, not the Renaissance. Any reservations made at the Renaissance will not be covered by the scholarship program.

Official details on the program and RSVP forms were e-mailed to chapter presidents last week. The RSVP deadline for this program is April 6; no changes will be made to reservations after June 1 and no onsite substitutions will be accepted. Please keep this information in mind as you start to plan who from the chapter will attend the conference. Questions? Contact Jessica Jones.

Chapter Community Service Photo Contest
Winning a free AGA conference registration is just a click away! Submit as many photos as you’d like of chapter members involved in a volunteer activity along with a detailed description of the event and the participating members. The deadline for submissions to Jessica Jones is Friday, April 6. The winning entry will receive a free registration to an AGA national conference. Good luck!

Declare March CGFM Month in Your State!
Thanks to the initiative and dedication of AGA regional and chapter leaders, several states and local governments have declared March 2006 a CGFM month. Let's continue this tradition and make this project even more successful in 2007! Contact your governor and ask him/her to declare March 2007 (or better yet—March of EVERY YEAR) a CGFM Month. Contact your local government as well.

View a sample proclamation or a sample request letter. To avoid duplicate efforts, contact your CGFM Regional Coordinator to volunteer or to find out who is handling this project in your state. For more information on this initiative, contact Katya Silver.

It’s Time! It’s Time!
Renewal season is here! Annual Membership and CGFM renewal packets should be arriving in mailboxes the second week of February. Members don’t have to wait that long, though. You can renew online today! Please encourage members to use this quick and easy renewal method.

How to Renew Online: Access the AGA website and click on ‘Members Only’ on the left palette. Login using your membership ID number and password (your first initial followed by your last name—no spaces), click on the gray ‘billing’ button above your name. All you have to do is input your credit card information and hit ‘Submit.’ The transaction will automatically process via our secure server and the renewal information will be automatically updated in AGA’s in-house membership system. While you are logged into the Members Only section, be sure to take a look at your contact information and make any updates as necessary (especially your e-mail address).

Grow Your Chapter Membership!
As the Reach for the Stars membership campaign continues, the national office is full of membership prospects from AGA’s audio conferences. Non-member audio conference attendees make great prospects, as they have just recently sampled the fine educational opportunities that AGA offers and have shown interest in enhancing their careers. Don’t let these potential members get away! For a list of recent audio conference attendees in your area, please contact Kim Ferguson.

State of Oregon, City of Saco, Maine and City of Portland, Oregon—Pioneers in Citizen Reporting
We are pleased to announce that the State of Oregon, the City of Saco, Maine and the City of Portland, Oregon have all signed on to produce four page ‘annual state of the government’ reports to their citizens, as part of AGA’s Citizen Centric Reporting initiative! These reports will be easy to understand and will tell the citizens what they need to know about their government and how their tax dollars are being spent. “This little bit of information will go a long way toward jump-starting citizen involvement in government,” stated AGA Executive Director Relmond Van Daniker, DBA, CPA.

Each report is scheduled to be complete by early spring and AGA will work with local media, civic leaders and elected officials to promote the reports as a good government tool that allows citizens to better understand their local government and to facilitate meaningful debates around fiscal priorities.

And this is just the beginning. With 88,000 governmental entities in the U.S., we will be reaching out to them one by one!

Please let us know what you think about this initiative. Contact Susan Fritzlen at 800.AGA.7211, ext. 314, with your comments. Why not be on the cutting edge and add your government to the list?With a template now available and a tool kit in the works, we have made it so easy for you to develop a four page report! Read about the entire initiative including an actual report.

More Chances to Win in AGA’s 2006-2007 Member-Get-A-Member Campaign—Reach for the Stars
Reach for the Rising Stars and You Could Be a Star in Nashville!

That’s right, recruit new AGA members this program year and you could win roundtrip airfare and registration to AGA’s 2007 Professional Development Conference & Exposition in Nashville, TN, June 24-27!

This year we are focusing on recruiting the rising stars—we call them early career and tomorrow’s professionals—individuals just starting out in their careers, with less than 3 years of experience. Finding and developing AGA leaders of tomorrow is so very important to AGA’s future as well as to the future of our profession! Now is the time to reach out to these ‘up and comers.’ Maybe you could even think about becoming a mentor!

Why you? We have found that the majority of new members join AGA because a colleague recommended AGA membership to them. You probably do this frequently, maybe without even realizing you are officially "recruiting." Just be sure to have handy an AGA membership application or know the AGA website address (www.agacgfm.org). And don’t forget to include your name in the ‘sponsor’ line on the membership application to receive credit!

Now back to that trip to Nashville…Recruit 10 or more members by March 31, 2007 and have your name placed into a fishbowl drawing for roundtrip airfare and registration to AGA’s 2007 Professional Development Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Recruit 10 members, get one chance at the drawing, recruit 16 members, get seven chances and so on. The more members recruited, the more chances to win!

A $500 American Express gift card will be awarded to the AGA member who recruits the most Early Career members during the campaign, which runs May 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007.

Show off your enthusiasm with firsthand accounts of how your AGA membership has been a great investment in your professional development and career! Start recruiting today!

Click here for all the details and prize information.

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Register Now for AGA's 56^th Annual Professional Development Conference & Exposition, June 24 – 27, 2007, Nashville, TN