By:
William A.
(Billy) Morehead, Ph.D., CGFM, CPA, CPM
Seasons Greetings! I hope you and your family had a wonderful
Thanksgiving holiday and are preparing
for the upcoming holiday season and New Year's celebrations.
It’s hard to believe 2009 is almost over and we are about to enter
the second decade of this millennium.
AGA continues to
thrive and I extend a hearty “thank you” to the many volunteer
leaders across our Association—you all do a tremendous job and I am
grateful. I have had the opportunity to visit several chapters in
the past few weeks and each has had a successful training
conference. As government financial management professionals, we all
need and benefit from continuing professional education. Many of us
need CPE to satisfy requirements for our CGFM, CPA and other
licensures.
AGA is a respected
CPE provider. Each year, several thousand individuals attend one of
the four national conferences AGA sponsors. This past February, the
annual National Leadership Conference was held in Washington, D.C.
with more than 800 attendees—a record attendance. Our annual
Professional Development Conference & Exposition (PDC) was held in
New Orleans in June. We topped 2,000 attendees—a record attendance.
In September, AGA held the Internal Control and Fraud Conference in
Washington, D.C. with more than 500 attendees—again, a record
attendance. The Fifth Annual Performance Management Conference was
held in Seattle during the first week of November with over 150
attendees. Each conference was a success!
Registration is
already open for two upcoming conferences—the
National
Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 18–19 and the
PDC
July 11–14 in Orlando, FL.
These conferences take substantial planning, staff coordination and
volunteer involvement. Much of this work is “behind the scenes” and
is coordinated by three AGA staffers. Let me introduce them to you:
Ada Phillips,
director of AGA’s Meetings & Expositions Department, joined the
National Office staff in December 2002. She is responsible for
managing the logistics for AGA’s national conferences, workshops and
special events, including the exhibit and sponsorship program.
Previously, Ada worked for Network Consortium, a nonprofit
organization that focused on work force development issues and
welfare-to-work programs. In her free time Ada enjoys movies, dining
out and spending time with friends.
Maria Lucas,
AGA’s meetings and expositions specialist, joined the National
Office staff in May 2005. She manages AGA’s audio conference
logistics, supports the Continuing Professional Education (CPE)
program, as well as assists with our annual conferences and events,
and the exhibit and sponsorship program. Maria was previously a
program assistant for the Member/Meetings Services Department at the
American Society of Clinical Oncology, a nonprofit organization
founded in 1964 with the goal of improving cancer care and
prevention. Maria is a native of Brooklyn, NY, and relocated to
Northern Virginia 10 years ago. She is a proud mother of four
children, Catherine Marie, 22, Matthew, 20, Amanda, 11, and Armand,
5. They enjoy their playful and loving dog Tonka.
Jennifer Varua
joined AGA in May 2008 as the meetings and expositions manager. She
oversees all conference registrations, maintains the database
systems for the conferences, and handles all CPE questions and
certificate processing. She worked for Marriott International for 10
years as a front office manager and an event manager before taking a
break to enjoy motherhood. Jennifer is married to Bobby Varua, a
Washington, D.C-area chef. They have a 2-year-old daughter, Sophia,
another daughter due in February, and an English bulldog, Munson,
named after Yankee great Thurman Munson.
AGA is fortunate to have
Ada, Maria and Jennifer on staff. The success AGA has experienced
over the past few years can, in part, be attributed to these three
staffers. As you enjoy attending our national conferences, audio
conferences or CPE events, remember to say a kind “thank you” to
these AGA staffers who help bring it all together.
Thank you, Ada, Maria and
Jennifer—you help AGA continue to “Think Big! Act Courageously! and
Make a Difference!”
Billy