Changing Times - President's Message

After almost 30 years in CPA firm administration, one of my greatest challenges is successfully keeping up with the lightning speed of the changing times.   It’s no coincidence that I hear the same comment from my AAA peers.  “How do we stay current, continue to educate ourselves, and put into action Best Practices for running our firms - all while we’re so busy, actually running our firms.”

Like so many of you, as my career progressed, I found myself taking on greater responsibilities within my role.  Sometimes these increased tasks have been outside of my comfort zone “getting uncomfortable”.  Sometimes taking on these new challenges was uncomfortable because I didn’t always know the exact answer. At one time or another, I’m sure we’ve all experienced “getting uncomfortable”.

I have had to “get uncomfortable” as my firm continues to experience growth.  The way I once ran a 50 person firm is completely different than currently running our 90 person firm.  But, that’s what stretches us; that’s what helps us grow.

AAA has been there for me….helping me to become more comfortable in my role, giving me resources to not reinvent the wheel, and being there for me along the entire path of growing and learning, both individually and for the firm.

We expect our accounting professionals to have the ability to “get uncomfortable” and embrace the changing times, so why not us? 

As part of this year’s conference planning committee, we are working very hard to ensure that the educational content includes ways to address the “uncomfortable” and “make it comfortable” with something for everyone, and for firms of all sizes. 

I will use our AAA network and this year’s conference to gather ideas and learn from many of our industries highly respected educators and you, my peers, to deepen my knowledge and enable me to comfortably continue to contribute to my firm’s growth.

Here’s to our continued success and “being better than we are”, Janine.