2022-2023 Year In Review
By DeLynn Deakins, Today’s CPA Managing Editor
At the beginning of the 2022-2023 year, TXCPA Chair Sheila Enriquez, CPA-Houston, issued a challenge for TXCPA’s leadership and members to commit to be BOLD.
Be intentional about how we attract and welcome the next generation of accounting professionals and ensure we have an inclusive environment for everyone who wants to be part of this profession.
Optimize and protect the value of your CPA license by advocating strongly and consistently for this amazing profession.
Lead by example and keep honing our leadership skills while identifying and supporting future leaders within TXCPA, the profession and the business community.
Drive growth in our professional community. We must be agile, flexible and constantly evolving to ensure we are delivering relevant offerings for current and future members.
As 2022-2023 comes to an end, we take a look back at the goals and accomplishments of the year. The highlights show that we have risen to the challenge and are adopting BOLD thinking in our work under the three pillars of success that form the foundation of our current Strategic Plan: Community and Connection, Professional Excellence and Advocacy.
You can see the plan on our website at this link.
Evolving Our Governance Model
A new governance model for role clarification for the Executive Board and Board of Directors was approved this year. The change was made to update the leadership structure to help make TXCPA nimble to meet ever-changing member needs and to provide additional opportunities to add new and diverse voices to our leadership.
The Governance Committee worked on the proposal for the changes, as well as updates to the TXCPA Bylaws. The proposal was approved at the Midyear Board of Directors meeting in January. The Bylaws changes were then sent to all voting members for review and approval, and the changes were approved.
In the new structure, there are 15-20 members on the Board of Directors (formerly the Executive Board). They continue to be elected by TXCPA members from a slate of candidates. The nominations are solicited from TXCPA chapters and members.
The new Leadership Council (formerly the Board of Directors) will include all past TXCPA volunteer presidents and chairs, current members of the Board of Directors, the presidents of each chapter, 45 members-at-large, one additional member elected by each chapter for each complete unit of 200 CPA members (a minimum of one per chapter), and the chairs of the Strategic Planning Committee and Accounting Education Foundation (AEF). The chair of the Board of Directors will also chair the Leadership Council.
Due to the timing of TXCPA’s nominations and elections for leadership for 2023-24, some of the composition of these groups will have a transition period through next year. Nominations will open for all positions in May for service in 2024-2025. The full slate of nominees will be voted on by all members in November/December.
Leveraging Technology to Better Serve Members
We continued to make progress to move TXCPA and the chapters to common technology platforms and better serve our members. To date, all 20 chapters have nested career centers, 19 chapters have websites hosted by TXCPA, and 17 chapters are utilizing TXCPA’s Association Management System (AMS) NetForum for event registrations and engagement tracking (with all 20 chapters having access).
Growing the Profession and Our Community
A new CPA pipeline strategy was developed and publicized beginning last summer. The strategy focuses on growing the profession. TXCPA, our 20 local chapters and our member volunteers are working to provide student outreach and support accounting career education. We had a goal to reach at least 10,000 students in Texas this year and we anticipate coming very close to reaching our goal, with outreach to 8,600 students recorded as of the writing of this article. Click here to learn more about our pipeline strategy.
We hosted two CPA Weeks in 2022-2023. With the two efforts, we reached nearly 4,000 students. We plan to continue building those important relationships with schools and educators to increase our visibility.
As we continue to focus on being an inclusive community, we’ve shared members’ stories in our communications to show future CPAs the diverse opportunities in the profession and the diverse backgrounds of our membership.
We’ve also updated and branded our resources for outreach to Texas students and schools. Our new materials include collateral for high school and college students. All of these are available for download on the TXCPA website. The high school materials are also available in Spanish, to include non-English speaking parents in the important decisions students are making.
All members can become involved in this outreach. Contact TXCPA or your local chapter for more information or complete a volunteer interest form.
We continued the focus on growing our community with the addition of new members. The goal this year was to add 2,500 more members. As of April 15, we have nearly reached this goal with 2,000 members added so far.
Expanded Learning and Networking Opportunities
With the improved pandemic conditions, we are again hosting in-person CPE programs, providing attendees with opportunities to network and enjoy some great destinations across the state. Digital learning opportunities remain an important way we provide value to members. To extend the reach of our programs, all in-person conferences this year have a webcast option available.
We’re also introduced our all-new Women’s Leadership Conference on May 18 in Houston and via webcast. This one-day event provided valuable strategies, techniques and insights from a lineup of accomplished women leaders who inspire and encourage members to thrive in the accounting profession.
Protecting and Promoting the CPA License
TXCPA drafted a legislative agenda focused on protecting the value of the CPA license and advocating for changes to help impact the CPA pipeline.
TXCPA’s 2023 legislative agenda included:
- 120 hours to test legislation – Allowing testing to begin at 120 hours to give students more flexibility in the path to 150 hours for certification; legislation has been introduced – SB 159 (Perry)/HB 797 (Button).
- Expanding the fifth-year scholarship – Expanding the State Board’s fifth-year scholarship to make funds eligible to accounting students with at least 15 hours of upper-level accounting; legislation has been introduced – SB 951 (Perry)/HB 2054 (Button).
- Sales tax on professional services – TXCPA opposes sales taxes on professional services.
- Proper regulatory oversight of the CPA license – TXCPA will defend against any legislation that in any way limits, diminishes or affects the importance and rigor of the CPA license.
- Monitoring tax legislation – TXCPA will monitor, review and analyze all tax legislation (tax proposals, property tax, tax deadlines, new/repealed taxes) to ensure that all issues and concerns that are vital to the accounting profession are addressed.
Please see the Capitol Interest article in this issue of Today’s CPA for more details on the legislative session. For all the latest updates, including our Legislative Tracker, visit TXCPA’s Legislative Action Center.
Mark Your Calendar
TXCPA’s Annual Meeting will be held June 23-24 at the Worthington Hotel in Fort Worth. See below for more information about the meeting. We’ll have a full agenda of topics and opportunities for you to shape the future of TXCPA and your profession, as well as a fun social event at the Fort Worth Stockyards for members and their guests. You'll learn about our plans to continue our BOLD thinking in 2023-2024. We can’t wait to see you in Fort Worth!
