AGA TOPICS Newsletter

From the National President
Sam M. McCall, MPA, CGFM, CPA, CIA, CGAP

I'd like to begin this month by taking a moment to thank each of you for supporting AGA, the professional government financial management organization involved in advancing government accountability at all levels of government.

It does not seem possible that this year as National President is more than halfway over. I have met so many dedicated chapter members and leaders in the profession. In January, I attended the Dallas - Ft. Worth Professional Development Conference. The program was excellent and the attendees represented a cross section of federal, state and local government, as well as the private sector.

Last week was a big week for our Association. The National Executive Committee met on Wednesday in Washington D.C. prior to AGA’s Fourth Annual National Leadership Conference. The NLC was held on Thursday and Friday and set a new record with more than 500 participants. The conference co-chairs put together an excellent program of speakers to address the theme, “Measuring Government Performance – Managing for Results.” In addition, we honored state and local government officials at our awards luncheon on Thursday and federal officials on Friday. There are so many deserving AGA members and this year’s honorees represented what each of us should strive for in government service. We are also very fortunate and grateful to our exhibitors and sponsors, and we thank them for their support of AGA.

On Saturday, we held the Annual AGA Leadership Workshop. This workshop provides your National Executive Committee the opportunity to meet with the Regional Vice Presidents and Regional Vice Presidents-Elect. We share ideas and listen to suggestions on how to better address the needs of chapters in the coming year. Our goals and expectations are high and the support provided by our Executive Director and the National Office staff makes the job much easier.

I am please to report to you that our membership statistics continue to improve. For the nine-month period ending in December 2005, AGA added 1,369 new members compared to 982 for the same nine-month period ended December 2004. I sincerely hope that each chapter member will invite a co-worker to a monthly chapter meeting. AGA has so much to offer to the financial management professional through our education and CGFM programs. Your actions to invite a fellow employee to a chapter event could help to open doors they did not previously know existed. I firmly believe that each of us has a responsibility to reach out to the young professionals of today that will represent us and our profession in the future.