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Page 1 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
O c t o b e r 2 0 1 2 , C h a p t e r U p d a t e
A s s o c i a t i o n o f G o v e r n m e n t A c c o u n t a n t s B a l t i m o r e C h a p t e r
The Baltimore Ledger
J a n u a r y / F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 5 , I s s u e 5
Inside This Issue
Upcoming Events
January Training
January 15, 2015
Dave and Buster’s
February Training
February 18, 2015
Overhills Mansion
President’s Message 2
January Training Information 4
January Speaker Bios 5
Chapter Kudos 6
TSP Rates 7
2014-2015 Upcoming Training 8
CEC Meeting Minutes 9
Audio Conference Schedule 10
Welcome New Members 11
National Training Events 12
CGFM Corner 14
Board Member Directory 17
A s s o c i a t i o n o f G o v e r n m e n t A c c o u n t a n t s B a l t i m o r e C h a p t e r
w w w . a g a b a l t i m o r e . o r g
AGA Baltimore Wishes You a Happy New Year!
Page 2 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
Sincerely,
Kristina AGA Baltimore Chapter President 2014-2015
President’s Message Dear Members -
As we ring in the new year, many of us set resolutions to accomplish goals and plan for change, we need to ask
ourselves, “How is this change going to occur?” It is easy to reflect on the past, evaluate what has happened, why it has happened, and to have an opinion on those events, but even more difficult to predict. This year I challenge you to “be the change” and become an integral part of both your profession, your professional society, and improve your own personal development. These are all things that can make a difference for you in 2015 as an active member of AGA.
Over the past years that I have served on the Baltimore Chapter Executive Committee (CEC), I have witnessed a handful of people doing the work for over 200 members. Our volunteer numbers have been declining over the years. I have seen our survey response percentages returned from as low as 8% to a high of 20%. I ask again, will this be the year you get involved? We are always looking for new faces and new ideas to join our CEC.
In addition to leadership opportunities within our chapter, AGA National offers opportunities for national level leadership. Keep an eye out in the Topics newsletters for information.
Who will be the next National Leader? Who will be the next Chapter Leader? Will it be you? Will you be the change?
Wow! What an exciting first half of our program year! We ended 2014 with a bang at our December training. We had two amazing speakers, a lot of door prizes, delicious food, beautiful venue, and excellent company with ISACA at our annual joint meeting. We are looking forward to our January meeting at the new location of Dave and Busters at Arundel Mills Mall. January is as well a joint meeting
with ASMC. The details are in the newsletter so check it out.
AGA National is offering an exciting opportunity for young professionals. If any of our young members (under 30) would like to attend the 2015 PDT, apply for the scholarship, click here for more information. You have to be a first time attendee to apply. This scholarship includes 5 nights hotel accommodations, registration, CPEs, and opportunities to meet and network with AGA leaders.
Speaking of national events, there are quite a few events planned in the coming months. AGA is hosting the Federal Financial Systems Summit in January. The National Leadership Training (NLT) is in February in Washington, D.C. Do not forget all the CPEs you can accumulate with National’s audio conferences offered throughout the year each month.
We did some amazing things in 2014. The chapter donated $125 to the Maryland Food Bank as a result of our November Virtual Food Drive. In December, we held a 50/50 raffle, $75 was donated to the Maryland Food Bank as part of the collections. Our chapter made matching contributions for both November and December. We have a lot to look forward to 2015. Our monthly newsletters will provide details for volunteer opportunities and chapter membership events as well as early career activities. The Early Careers committee is planning a happy hour event this winter, please plan on attending. We would like to see more members participate.
Do not forget, we have the updated study guides available to check out for a designated period of time. If you are interested, please contact Kristen Schnatterly, the CGFM chair. The study guides were just updated over the summer.
Let’s make 2015 a good year. I am excited to see what the has in store for all of us!
Page 3 January/February 2015
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Page 4 January/February 2015
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January Training Information
Register Online
3 CPEs
Thursday, January 15, 2015
11:30am - 4:00 pm
Dave and Buster’s 7000 Arundel Mills Circle, Hanover Maryland 21076
Topic
Update on the Do Not Pay Business Center
Speaker: Jenny Rone
DoD-Wide Managers’ Internal Control Program
Speaker: Steven Silverstein, Department of Defense
Cost $35 Members
$65 Non-Members
Reservations: www.agabaltimore.org
**Sorry—No Refunds for Cancellations**
Map of Dave and Buster’s
Page 5 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
Ms. Rone was hired as the Do Not Pay Business Center Director of Operations and Outreach in September 2014. Prior to her joining Do Not Pay, she served as the Assistant Director of Data and Performance Metrics and as the Senior Advisor to the Director of Accountability at the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. Specifically, Ms. Rone developed the enterprise data management process and performance metrics for the Recovery Board’s Recovery Operations Center. She also served as the subject matter expert for disaster relief funding oversight and transparency working closely with the Office of Management and Budget and the Hurricane Sandy Task Force.
Ms. Rone has over 20 years of experience working with the Federal Inspector General community both as a public employee and private sector employee. As such, she also served as a key liaison between the Inspector General (IG) community and the Recovery Board. In particular, Ms. Rone developed, in collaboration with the Government Accountability Office and the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), a federal and state forum and subsequent white paper exploring Data Analytics for Law Enforcement and Oversight.
Prior to joining the Recovery Board in 2012, Ms. Rone worked as an independent contractor for individual IG offices and the CIGIE performing a range of duties including business process reengineering, systems design and website design, served as both the Special Assistant to the Inspector General (IG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and as the first Chief Information Officer in the IG’s office, held positions at the Department of Labor and with the (then) U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Operations.
January Speakers
Page 6 January/February 2015
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Chapter Kudos
AGA Baltimore raised
$400 for the Maryland
Food Bank!!
Thank you for the
donations!
Page 7 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
Close
L Income 17.4435
L 2020 22.9127
L 2030 24.8266
L 2040 26.4004
L 2050 14.9773
G Fund 14.6061
F Fund 16.7382
C Fund 27.1816
S Fund 35.9458
I Fund 24.5082
CPE Training Events
CGFM
Have you been waiting for updated study guides to take the
CGFM examinations? If you are interested, please contact
Kristen Schnatterly, CGFM Chair, at (410) 965-0433, or
For the requirements to maintain your CGFM certificate click here
Page 8 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
2014-2015 Calendar of Events
Journal CPE Quiz Sale
If you need CPE’s by the end of the year, you can purchase a subscription of four Journal Quizzes and earn up to 12 CPEs. Just $89 dollars. Must be purchased by
Dec 31. Find out more here!
Page 9 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
Date: Nov 6, 2014 Time 1:30-2:30pm Location: Social Security Administration
November Chapter Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Call to Order
Approval of prior meeting minutes
Committee Updates
Budget Review
The treasurer was able to collect all forms from last year’s meetings to reconcile the books. The board purchased a clicker
for the laptops and needs to be reimbursed by the treasurer. The November meeting will be held at Rolling Road.
Committee Updates
Accountability
The President requested the committee to reach out to local colleges/universities to do a CCR for a local organization.
Activities
The next report is due December 31st. Please review the guidelines and see where points are available for each committee.
CGFM
The committee purchased 3 sets of study materials. One has been checked out by a member so there are 2 sets available.
Community Service
The committee is waiting on contact information for Holiday Eagle. The committee will be having cards signed for the
troops at the November and December meetings. They are also doing the virtual food drive again at the November and
December meetings. The committee is also looking into purchasing the wreaths for the troops again this year.
Early Careers
The committee held the event downtown on October 18th. There were some Towson students, GT employees and SSA
employees.
Education and Programs
The November meeting will be held at Rolling Road. Johnny Ramsey will be speaking at the meeting as well. An updated
plan was sent to the board prior to the meeting. We still need a speaker for the awards luncheon. The National President will
be speaking at the Fraud Conference along with providing opening remarks.
Webmaster
The committee added the registration for the next meeting as well as the next newsletters.
The committee will also add a link through paypal for the virtual food drive.
Page 10 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
AGA WEB CONFERENCES
Federal agencies spend over $500 billion in grants and cooperative agreements annually. The issuance of the “Super Circular” by OMB in December 2013 capped a multi-year effort to make government more efficient and transparent, and its grant and
cooperative agreement recipients more accountable by standardizing and streamlining audit, administrative, and cost reporting requirements. This panel will review this major restructuring of grants management, its significance to state and local
governments, and other efforts to improve oversight of federal grants.
Speakers:
Thomas Salmon, CPA, CFE, Assistant Inspector General for Audit Services, Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
Denise Wu, CGFM, CPA, Partner, Federal Government Services, CliftonLarsonAllen LLP
January 28th– Strengthening Grants Management
Looking for a way to stretch your training budget? AGA Web Conferences make earning CPE hours easy and affordable. This cost-effective educational tool is only $289 per phone line and attendance is unlimited.
Web conferences feature experts on a variety of government financial management and performance topics. Further, the last 20 minutes of each program is devoted to call-in questions, which provides interaction between the listeners and speakers.
The web conferences are held on Wednesdays from 2–3:50 p.m. ET.
AGA NAGA NAGA NATIONALATIONALATIONAL 201420142014---2015 WEB C2015 WEB C2015 WEB CONFERENCEONFERENCEONFERENCE SSSCHEDULECHEDULECHEDULE
Jan. 14 Auditing/Internal Controls
Jan. 28 Strengthening Grants Management
Feb. 4 Potholes on the Path to Performance Management
Feb. 18 Fraud Prevention
Mar. 4 Government Financial Management
Mar. 18 Put Internal Control Principles into Place
Apr. 15 Performance Management
Apr. 29 Fraud Prevention
Page 11 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
The AGA Baltimore Chapter would like to welcome 12 new members that have joined the 2014-2015 program year. We look forward to showing you what this chapter has to offer in the upcoming months. Please feel free to
contact any of the board of directors, contact information located on the last page of this newsletter, if you have any questions or wish to get involved
further in this very active chapter.
Mr. Antonio Denicolis,
Dept of Veterans Affairs
Ms. Janet M. Faust,
US Army Corps of Engineers
Mr. Christopher Featherstone,
GAO
Mrs. Janet N. Jagdhane,
GSA Special Services
Ms. Lashunya C. James,
St. Michael's Incorporated
Mr. Brian K. Karpe,
Social Security Administration
Mrs. Briana Long,
Social Security Administration
Ms. Gwendolyn K. Montgomery,
KPMG LLP
Mr. Marlon D. Rock,
Dept of Homeland Security/CIS
Ms. Tiffani Niccole Bryant,
T. Rowe Price
Mr. Afonagnon Amen Azondekon, CGFM, Maryland Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene
Mr. Allan J. Kim,
Grant Thornton
Welcome New Chapter Members
Page 12 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
AGA National Training Events
Federal Financial Systems Summit (FSS)
Jan. 8, 2015 | 6 CPEs Available | 8:30 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. ET Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, DC The Federal Financial Systems Summit (FSS) unites federal financial managers and private sector executives to discuss the near-term and future prospects of fed-eral financial management systems in a budget-constrained environment. The summit will provide new insights into the burgeoning federal financial systems modernization strategy over the coming decade – and beyond. Live audience participation! Attendees will actively participate in the conversation throughout the day using their cell phone (both in person and virtual attendees). Summit speakers will post questions and attendees can text their response allow-ing for real time results.
Welcome to AGA’s NLT!
This event is for you – as an experienced senior executive or a leader of tomorrow! The NLT sessions will help government financial professionals excel as leaders in today’s competitive and complex environment. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear best practices, find solutions to shared challenges, network with your peers, and learn from top government financial management leaders and industry experts. Each session will provide actionable steps you can take to help improve your or-ganization. For the first time at NLT – attendees will have the opportunity to ‘join in the conver-sation’ by using our new NLT App to pose questions to the panelists, and see how your views compare with colleagues’ opinions, by leveraging polling capabilities. This training offers 14 hours of continuing professional education (CPE)
2015 National Leadership Training
Page 13 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
News
OMB to require agencies to measure risk at the enterprise level
By Jason Miller
Source: Federal News Radio.com
A chief risk officer (CRO) may be the answer to how agencies manage potential and real dangers. But whether or not agencies add another to the ever-growing list of CXOs, the White House will expect you to consider all the possibilities that may im-pede the mission success of individual departments.
The Office of Management and Budget recognizes there is a growing need for agen-cies to look at risk from across their entire portfolio.
"We have begun talking about how do we think about risk more broadly than just fi-nancial risk? I think when you look at [Circulars] A-11 and A-123, those were all borne out of the CFO Act. So everyone is narrowly focused on 'well, it's about financial risk and it's about internal controls.' What we are doing now is stepping back and thinking isn't there really a way to take the lessons learned and what we've accomplished with A-11 and A-123 and broaden that perspective across the entire organization, particu-larly around mission programs," said David Mader, the controllerat OMB at OMB, dur-ing a panel discussion Wednesday sponsored by the Association of Government Ac-countants and Grant Thorton. read more
How to Avoid the Disaster of Leadership Vertigo
By Scott Eblin
Source: Goverment Executive
Is there a gap between how you view the impact of your leadership and the way others view or experience it? If there is, then you’re suffering from what leadership expert, speaker and author Tanveer Naseer calls “leadership vertigo.” That’s actually the title of a new book that Naseer has co-authored with S. Max Brown. As Tanveer explains it in a recent conversation he had with me, leadership vertigo occurs when your brain tells you one thing and the facts tell you another. Just as vertigo can lead to disaster in the rest of life, leadership vertigo can lead to disaster in organizational life. read more
Page 14 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
CGFM Quiz
True or False These acronyms are used in the CGFM examinations: DCAA, ERP, OPEB, RSI, and SEA.
The Value of CGFM
Since its inception in 1994, the Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM) has become the standard by which government financial management professionals are measured. Its education, experience and ethics requirements have served to elevate the most seasoned financial professionals.
More than 15,000 individuals have received the designation so far. Now it's your turn. Experience the benefits of certification first hand—the CGFM is the mark of excellence in your profession. We look forward to adding your name to our distinguished list of Certified Government Financial Managers.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the employment of accountants and auditors is expected to grow 22 percent between 2008 and 2018, which is must faster than the average of all occupations. Accountants and auditors that hold a college degree or certification will have the best job prospects.
For more information, click here.
Did You Know…?
Did you know that some private sector/not-for-profit professional experience could count towards the CGFM experience requirement to earn the CGFM designation? To see all the professional experience requirements, visit www.agacfm.org.
True. If you aren’t sure what these stand for, it may be a good time to brush up on them! You can find the full list of acronyms used in the exams right on AGA’s website. See http://www.agacgfm.org/AGA/Documents/Certification/Acronymlisting2008.pdf.
CGFM Corner
Page 15 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
T HANK YOU
FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Chante
Brady for more information.
Page 16 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
Requests for Newsletter Submissions
or Suggestions
Do you have any submissions or suggestions for the newsletter? Do you have an article you would like to see in print? Have you traveled to any interesting places?
Suggestions
If so, email Andy Matts or Katie Benson.
Page 17 January/February 2015
The Baltimore Ledger
Officers:
President Kristina Poist SSA, (410) 597-1977 [email protected]
President-Elect Kelly Stankus, CPA, CGFM SSA-OIG, (410) 966-2279 [email protected]
Secretary Lori Lee, CPA SSA-OIG (410) 966-4294 [email protected]
Treasurer John McLain, CISA, CDFM Earnst & Young, (410) 300-2748 [email protected]
Immediate Past President, Johnny Ramsey,CPA,CGFM KPMG (202) 533-3292 [email protected]
Directors and Board Members:
Accountability
Afonagnon Azondekon, CGFM Maryland Department of Health & Men-tal Hygiene (410) 767-5770 [email protected]
Activities
Milton Wolinski, CPA, MPA, CGFM, CFE* City of Baltimore, (410) 396-1172 milton.wolinski@ Awards
Mark Silvestri, CGFM* SSA, (410) 965-0017 [email protected]
CGFM
Kristen Schnatterly, CGFM* SSA-OIG, (410) 965-0433 [email protected]
Communications
Moyo Oluyinka (410) 965-0433 [email protected]
By-Laws & Procedures
Steven Schaeffer, Attorney, MS, CPA, CGFM * SSA, (410) 965-9701 [email protected]
Sponsorship
Chante’ Brady, CGFM, CPA Kearney & Company (571) 334-2961
Education and Programs
JoAnn White Burnett, CPA*
City of Baltimore, (410) 396-4783 [email protected]
Paul Geraty KPMG, (202) 533-3006 [email protected]
Meetings
Briana Long SSA (410) 965-9278 [email protected]
Garima Khanna SSA (410) 966-5241 [email protected] (Brian Karpe SSA-OIG (410) 966-1029 [email protected]
Membership
Berhanu A. Wurseno, CGFM Baltimore City Health department (717)586-4279 [email protected] Jonny Ramsey, CPA, CGFM KPMG (202)533-3292 [email protected] Webmaster
James Switzer Grant Thornton (703) 0373-8741 [email protected] Masoud Najmabadi* Grant Thornton, (703) 562-6656 [email protected]
Tamekia Davis Grant Thornton (703) 637-2893 [email protected]
Community Service
Susan DeLabio* SSA, (410) 965-5661 [email protected]
Lori Lee, CPA SSA-OIG (410) 966-4294 [email protected]
Early Careers
Jamila Webb, CPA, CGFM* Grant Thornton, (703) 637-3027 [email protected]
Geoffrey Luiz, CPA Grant Thornton, (443) 622-3507 [email protected]
Jacob MacDonald Grant Thornton (703) 837-4496 [email protected]
Allan Kim Grant Thornton (804) 385-8342 Allan.kim.us.gt.com
Aleks Ivanovski Grant Thornton (703) 637-4328 [email protected]
Editorial
Katie Benson SSA (410)965-4544 [email protected]
Patricia Mooney SSA (410) 966-8213 [email protected]
Tasha Brown, CGFM< CPA< CFE Grant Thornton (202) 533-6771 [email protected]
*Director
Thank you to all of our volunteers and
board members. The Baltimore
chapter’s success would not be
possible without your dedication.
AGA Board Members 2014 -2015