By:
William A.
(Billy) Morehead, Ph.D., CGFM, CPA, CPM
Think Big! Act Courageously! Make a Difference!
Greetings from Mississippi! This is my first article to you as your
National President. Over this next year, I look forward to working along
side you, our members, and our national staff. A year from now when
we gather at the PDC in Orlando, I hope we can all look back as I
say “thank you” for the best year of my life and as I hand over a
better AGA and the presidency to Lisa Casias, AGA’s National
President-Elect.
First, let me give a big hearty “Thank You” to our immediate Past
National President, Sam Mok, CGFM, for a successful year. It has
been privilege and honor to serve under his leadership. Also, I must
give a HUGE “Thank You” to the technical and host committees as well
as the National Office staff for their roles in the PDC in New
Orleans—what a tremendous SUCCESS! You have set the bar high for the
PDC 2010 in Orlando!
I have chosen “Think
Big! Act Courageously! Make a Difference!”
as my presidential theme for this year, and I believe it
comes at a critical time in our nation’s history as we tackle our
uncertain economy. The many individuals who make up AGA’s membership
have and will continue to have an extraordinary impact on our
country’s future. AGA is the thought leader for Advancing Government
Accountability. We must think big regarding what we can accomplish;
we must act courageously to champion the cause of accountability,
transparency, performance management, integrity and trustworthiness;
and, we must guide our efforts to make a difference in the lives of
the citizens who rely upon our respective governments through
effective government financial management.
AGA is an organization made up of people—our members, chapter,
regional and national leaders, who along with our National Office
staff, join together to make AGA the wonderful organization it
is—“Team AGA,” as I like to say! As your National President, I will
work tirelessly to lead the way in policy setting issues affecting
our organization while allowing the National Office staff to run the
organization’s operations. Furthermore, I believe it is vitally
important for the President to be the chief “cheerleader” for AGA
and be visible among our membership, the accounting
standards-setting community and leaders in financial management at
all levels of government throughout the United States and around the
world.
The continued development and improvement of AGA is a journey, not a
destination. During this next year, I will facilitate our efforts to
examine how we do things; how we grow and develop our chapters and
leaders; and, how we change. AGA is looked to and known as the
organization at the forefront of government accountability.
Continuous improvement and development are necessary ingredients to
maintain this trend.
AGA should continue a self-assessment of its governance and the
programs and activities it offers, examining them for performance,
efficiency and effectiveness. The National Executive Committee, at
its June meeting, approved the establishment of a Governance
Committee, chaired by Past National President, Jeff Hart, CGFM, to
assist the NEC in this process. AGA must remain sensitive to its
spending practices and it should examine everything thoroughly,
especially those areas that may be viewed as unnecessary or
inappropriate. National Treasurer Mary Lechner, CGFM, and the
Finance and Budget Committee will ensure that AGA continues to lead
by example as a good steward of its resources.
We must work hard to broaden the use of Citizen Centric Reporting.
With roughly 80,000 governments in America, only 50 have produced a
Citizen Centric Report. Now, there is a heightened focus on
accountability and transparency brought on by the current
administration and the passage of the Recovery Act. As the only
organization bringing together federal, state and local government
financial management professionals, AGA is positioned to “make a
difference” in these areas during the next twelve months.
Finally, I would be remiss if I, as the first National President
from academia, did not focus on some aspect of education. AGA has
done a tremendous job of including education as one of its strategic
objectives over the past 60 years. Much of our focus has been on the
CPE financial management professionals are required to obtain
annually.
In the last 10 to 15 years, AGA has further explored and implemented
several aspects of education, including launching the CGFM Program
and the GFM training courses; hosting leadership, fraud and internal
control, performance management and audio conferences; and
sponsoring applied research through the CPAG and empirical research
through the Academy. All of these are great assets to AGA and each
adds value.
In addition to these areas of education, a major issue facing the
accounting academic community (and ultimately all of us who hire
accounting graduates) is the serious shortage of doctorally
qualified accounting faculty, especially those who focus on
governmental accounting. Both the American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants (AICPA) and the American Accounting Association
(AAA) have placed this issue high on their agendas, and I believe
AGA should do the same.
To take a holistic look at what AGA is and what we should be doing
in the area of education, I am appointing a diverse task force,
chaired by Past National President, Sam McCall, Ph.D., CGFM, to
review the many educational products and services we offer. They
will work to answer questions such as: Has AGA deployed its
resources wisely? Should we add e-books, streaming video, podcasting
and HD video conferencing to our educational product mix? Will these
efforts enhance or detract from AGA? What will these new initiatives
cost? And, will the benefits and value exceed the costs?
The Education Task Force will further assess whether our different
educational components work together or against each other. It will
examine the faculty shortage issue to determine what role AGA can
and should play. It will also explore whether AGA is as efficient
and effective as it can be and whether we are properly raising
awareness of the educational issues facing our profession.
Serving as AGA’s 60th National President is both a
privilege and honor! My goal is to lead, develop and challenge our
organization to “Think Big. Act Courageously. Make a
Difference.”
We have a busy year ahead of us! Join me as we continuously improve
our AGA!
Billy