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Highlights
CPE
Opportunities
Reports Due to
CEAR Program December 15
Be a part of the AGA's Certificate of Excellence
in Accountability Reporting Program!
Demonstrate your agency's commitment to excellence by
participating in the next CEAR Evaluation. Your agency will receive
valuable recommendations for improving your report's structure and
content. Fiscal Year 04 PARs are due to AGA by December 15, 2004. Click here for more
information or contact Craig
Galloway at 800.242.7211, ext.212.
Call for
Performance Reports!
Publicly Reporting Performance
Information in State or Local Government? Reserve Your
Space NOW for participation in the AGA's Certificate of Excellence in
the Service Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) Reporting Program's
Implementation Phase (October 2004 through February 2005).
Limited space available.
Click here for more information about participating in
the SEA Program.
Spotlight on AGA
Professional Corporate Partner Audimation Services, Inc.
Audimation Services specializes in consulting, training, and
software tools including IDEA Data Analysis Software. Audimation is the
sole U.S. distributor for IDEA.
IDEA is a powerful, easy to use data analysis
tool that can quickly and accurately read, manipulate, sample, or
extract data files from almost any source, including reports printed to
a file.
IDEA gives auditors the power to do more with
less. With unlimited file size capabilities to access large volumes of
data, IDEA can read through millions of records in only seconds. The
Search function and Action fields allow analysis to occur on multiple
documents, and an interactive file explorer permits substantial
drill-down capability. A new report reader simplifies importing print
reports. The import assistant supports ODBC and can access SAP data in
the AIS. IDEA incorporates a visual-basic language for the
development of standard routines for continuing monitoring and more
efficient analysis of large data sets.
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TOPICS is brought to you by Treasury Agency
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Internal control has never been optional, and now an easy-to-read
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Holiday Schedule
TOPICS & AGA Today will be on vacation December 27 &
January 3. We will resume publication on January 10. We wish you all a
happy & healthy holiday season!
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Volume
43: Issue 24, December 6, 2004
TOPICS
is brought to you by AGA Corporate Partner
Grant
Thornton Global Public Sector delivers financial, technology
and performance
management solutions to federal, state and local government
clients, and
international organizations. Call us to see if we can help your
agency manage
its resources more efficiently and effectively at
703.637.2750.
From the National President
Bobby A. Derrick, CGFM
As I visit our chapters, I am continually
impressed with the number of volunteer leaders and committee members
who work diligently to provide quality programs and education events. I
know how busy you are in your everyday work environments and know that
putting together these monthly programs, meetings and educational
events requires a lot of time and most often takes away from your
personal time. Your efforts are validated over and over with your
successful programs, educational and chapter service events. I want you
to know on behalf of all the members and potential members who benefit
from your services, how appreciative we are that you were willing to
take the time and energy to make a difference. Your efforts are what
make AGA such an outstanding Association.
Click here to read more from President
Derrick.
 AGA's
Third Annual National Leadership Conference—Improving
Government Performance: Financial Managers Take Center
Stage
Earn 14 CPE hours at AGA’s 2005
National Leadership Conference (NLC), February 7 – 8, Washington,
D.C. This conference is a must for top government leaders and private
sector professionals who work to keep our governments fiscally sound.
The NLC is an extraordinary educational and networking event designed
for government financial managers by government
financial managers.Get ready to take center stage—register today!
Click here to view the conference
brochure.
Click
here for more information about the conference.
Low-Cost CPE for Chapters
How can your chapter offer some
high-quality, inexpensive CPEs and help CGFM candidates study for the
CGFM Examinations?
Sponsor AGA's Government Financial Management
(GFM) training program! Worth 48 CPE hours, this unique onsite program
provides a foundation in all areas of government financial management
and deals with all levels of government—federal, state and local.
It also helps candidates prepare for all three CGFM Examinations.
This Program consists of three courses:
- Course 1: Governmental
Environment: 1 day, 8 CPE hours
- Course 2: Governmental
Accounting, Financial Reporting and Budgeting: 3 days, 24 CPE
hours
- Course 3: Governmental
Financial Management and Control: 2 days, 16 CPE hours
For most locations in the US the entire
six-day GFM Program could be sponsored for $15,000, which includes
instructor fees and travel expenses as well as course materials for up
to 30 people. For AGA chapters that only want to sponsor one or two of
the courses, the price breakdown is usually as follows:
- Course 1 alone (one day): $3,000
- Course 3 alone (two days): $5,000
- Course 1 and 3 held back-to-back (three
days): $7,500 (save $500!)
- Course 2 alone (three days): $7,500
For more detailed information please contact
Katya Silver at 800.AGA.7211,
ext. 313. Click
here for GFM Program course descriptions.
TOPICS is brought to
you by AGA Corporate Partner
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Click here to learn more. Enroll today!
 Share the
Gift of Career Advancement Through AGA
Refer a Colleague or Friend to AGA Membership
Today!
What better time than the holiday season to share
some good fortune with colleagues and friends by sharing with them the
value of AGA membership? You might receive some good fortune in
return!
We need your help to ensure
that the AGA network remains strong and continues to grow to reach all
accountability professionals! AGA is the ONLY
professional association that boasts a membership across
ALL levels of government—federal, state
and local. Plus, AGA also has members who work for tribal governments,
academic institutions and private sector organizations. This means that
there are thousands of thoughts, ideas and solutions right here within
the AGA network—as a member you have No. 1 access!
So what are we asking for
from each of you? A little bit of your time to share with a colleague,
a friend or an associate how AGA can work for them
too—we’re talking about a quick call, a conversation at a
meeting or an email. A little investment of your time will go a long
way toward helping to strengthen AGA.
We know your time is valuable, but in as
little as five minutes, you can help a colleague or friend achieve
their professional goals by sharing the AGA advantage. We’ve made
it so easy to recruit new members…click
here for a membership application, print it out and walk it over to
a colleague. Or even faster, just forward the link via email!
We are offering incentives and
prizes…just a little something extra to give you that little
push. Click here
to check out the campaign details.
So, share the value of AGA membership
this month—start recruiting today!
Give the Gift of
Volunteering
As the holidays approach, there are many opportunities for AGA
chapters to give back to the community. From hosting a toy or food
collection site to organizing groups to help out in the community, here
are some examples of how AGA chapters are volunteering this holiday
season:
The Indianapolis Chapter is hosting a billiards
tournament made up of teams of two including chapter members, family
and friends. Proceeds from the tournament benefit a needy family in the
Indianapolis area for the holidays.
The New Orleans Chapter is collecting items for the
Marines’ Toys for Tots annual toy drive.
The Central Coast Chapter is collecting items such
as cell phones, toiletries and stuffed animals for the Women’s
Crisis Center of Salinas.
The Boston Chapter is sponsoring its fifth annual
food drive to fill a Thanksgiving basket for the New England Shelter
for Homeless Veterans.
At November and December membership meetings, the
Oklahoma City Chapter collected nonperishable food items for the Hope
Center of Edmond.
At the November membership meeting, Baton Rouge
Chapter members picked gift tags from the Salvation Army Christmas
Angel Tree. The chapter will also be accepting items for the Baton
Rouge Food Bank and Homeless Shelter.
In addition to helping those less fortunate, many of
these activities can earn your chapter credit towards the Chapter
Recognition Program. Don’t forget to take pictures—the
Community Service Photo Contest details are coming soon! |