Written by Allen Lloyd, Executive Director

Jim Galipeau, 2018 DSA Award Winner and Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, AICPA Board of Directors Immediate Past Chair

A few weeks ago MSCPA held our Annual Conference.  It was an amazing event with great speakers, awards, vendors, and sponsors.  If you have never attended an MSCPA Annual Conference I encourage you to come next years, 106th Annual Conference June 20-21, 2019 in Billings, MT!

As I watched Jim Galipeau receive the George D. Anderson Distinguished Service Award I started to wonder what it must have been like years ago when Jim was just starting out as a CPA.  Knowing today what he and his peers accomplished, how cool would it be to see them as new CPAs unaware of what lay before them.  If only I had a time machine!

Then while headed to Seeley Lake to go camping it hit me.  I do have a time machine and I can see what these leaders were like years ago.  All I have to do is look at the young people today.  This year we had 20 student members at the Annual Conference and 50 attendees under 40.  Our younger members were engaged and networking with others.  We even had a student member win a prize from one of the vendors, congrats again Major!

After the Annual Conference as I worked my way through my inbox I had a message from Dr. Theresa Beed.  She told me “Montana CPAs are a very special group of people, as you now know. The key is to get the younger CPAs to be as committed and involved as the last two generations of CPAs!”  I couldn’t agree more and based on my experiences they are ready.

This year MSCPA will help the Raising the BAR group discuss the issues facing the profession, our goal is to have sessions at the 2019 Annual Conference where you can hear how they would address these issues.  If you are a member under 35 and would like to participate let me or Molly know.  If you have staff under 35 who want to participate I encourage you to find a way for them to spend some time on this effort.

Accounting is a great profession built on the skills and knowledge of people like you.  To ensure it continues to be great we need to take some time to talk about the future.  As the Montana Society of CPAs it is our job to help you develop yourself and the profession.  If you ever have any ideas on how we can do that better please let us know.