AGA TOPICS Newsletter

Why Travel? Follow Richmond’s Lead and Bring Courses to You 

AGA’s Richmond Chapter shows that it’s no trick to do many things at once: provide high-quality CPE at a low cost while helping chapter members prepare for the CGFM Examinations.

In May the chapter sponsored AGA’s Government Financial Management (GFM) Training Program, worth 48 CPE hours, providing the site for the courses and the attendees, while AGA provided the instructor and the materials. The GFM Program consists of three courses: Governmental Environment (8 CPE hours), Governmental Accounting, Financial Reporting and Budgeting (24 CPE hours) and Governmental Financial Management and Control (16 CPE hours). Read a description of the courses.

This year, Richmond joined chapters in Guam and Washington, D.C. in bringing all three classes in the series to their chapters. Richmond plans to sponsor the program again this coming May. In addition, AGA’s Baltimore, Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington D.C. Chapters are working to bring the GFM Program for its members next year. In the past, Austin, Nashville, N. Utah, Portland, Baltimore, New York Capital, Maine, Washington D.C. and Wisconsin chapters have sponsored the entire program or one of the courses.

Alfred (Fred) Washington, CGFM, CTP, who coordinated the Richmond Chapter review course held in May, said the benefit of sponsoring the classes locally was a significant price reduction for the attendees, as compared with traveling to D.C. to take the course. “We only charged enough to cover our expenses,” Washington said. "Our AGA chapter sponsored all three courses at a total cost of approximately $22,750. This cost includes instruction fees, study guides for all exams, facility rental and refreshments for the six-day program and other incidentals. These cost were recouped by enrolling 35 people in the class for $650 each, with little to no additional travel expense for the participants."

This year's program was so successful that the Richmond Chapter has already begun preparing to offer the full course in May of 2008.

Candace Hall, CGFM, a higher education specialist with the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts, took the three courses offered by the Richmond Chapter, then went further and sat for the three CGFM exams. When she successfully passed all three parts of the CGFM exam, she received a bonus and is now eligible for a promotion.

“We have to be certified if we want to be able to advance in our jobs,” she said, adding that the courses covered certain types of transactions that she deals with every day while also clarifying how all the pieces of puzzle fit together.

Government agencies, including Commonwealth of PA, NASA, Government of the District of Columbia, Office of the Public Auditor in Saipan, U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Geological Survey have taken advantage of bringing the courses to their workplace, along with private-sector companies, such as Cotton & Company LLP, Deloitte Consulting, Grant Thornton LLP, Kearney & Company, KPMG LLP and Reznick Group, P.C.

AGA has branched out tremendously when it comes to making education as convenient and specific as possible. In addition to the GFM Training, AGA can bring a number of courses to your chapter, agency or workplace, and they can be tailored to meet the needs of the staff. The courses are: Internal Controls for Auditors, Internal Controls for Managers, Internal Controls in the Federal Government, Single Audits, Federal Financial Management, Fiscal Anatomy of a State or Local Government Program, Ethical Decision-Making, Transitional Leadership, Contract Auditing and Fraud Detection and Prevention.

To schedule the GFM Training or any other AGA-sponsored course, contact Julie Sanders at 800.AGA.7211, ext. 309.