Board — Meeting Notes

The meeting was held downtown Portland. We are considering alternative meeting sites due to growth of our group.
Design changes have been made to the All Star Accounting Professionals website. The website lists the members in our group and has space for a head shot photograph. It is vitally important that we receive a head shot soon if you wish to be included on the website. Speak to Kim if you need someone to take a headshot for you.
December 1 is our next meeting and it will be a holiday luncheon at the Stock Pot restaurant from 11:30 – 1 PM.
No meeting in January. We will resume again on the first Thursday of February.
The All Star Accounting Professional officers were introduced and their roles explained.

President: Kim Boaz is our President and the founder of our group. She often runs the meetings, sends out E-vites before our meetings and keeps us organized and on track.

Treasurer: Linda is our treasurer. Dues are $60 per year and can be paid online or by check. A receipt will be provided for your payment.

Speaker Coordinator: Summer is our speaker coordinator. It was decided to continue with internal speakers from our group at this time. Please contact Summer if you wish to be a speaker at one of our meetings in 2017 as we need five more speakers

Event Coordinator: Our event coordinator is Terrie Marsh. She will help plan the holiday lunch, the “Grow our Membership” event in late October as well as other events throughout the year.

Secretary: Diana Chung holds the office of Secretary. She takes meeting minutes during each meeting, types them into the formats of long form and bullet points and will be posting the minutes to the blog section of the website in the near future

New Member Coordinator: Renee is our new member coordinator. We have All Star Accounting business cards which advertise our group and have a space for each member to include “referred by” on the back. There are links on the ASAP website to Facebook and Linked In.

Vice President: Melissa holds the title of Vice President. Her role is to be the backup for the President, help run meetings and update the database for our group. If you wish to be listed as a member on our website, we will need your photograph within 30 days of joining. This new policy starts December 1.

Kim lead a group discussion about how ASAP has helped members.
The group reflected on the past couple of years regarding the meeting topics we enjoyed and the topics we would be interested in for the future.
We compared ASAP to other similar organizations. There are groups that concentrate just on QuickBooks Online Accounting, some that are “Lunch and Learn” or social and learning meetings.

FULL TEXT:

The meeting was held downtown Portland in an effort to consider alternative meeting sites due to growth of our group. President Kim Boaz opened the meeting and mentioned the latest updates made to the design of our All Star Accounting Professionals website. The website lists the members in our group and has space for a head shot photograph. It is vitally important that we receive a head shot soon if you wish to be included on the website. Speak to Kim if you need someone to take a headshot for you. Our group currently has 30 members.

December 1 is our next meeting and it will be a holiday luncheon at the Stock Pot restaurant from 11:30 – 1 PM. When you check in, mention All Star Accounting to the restaurant staff. As January is such a busy month for all, we will skip our meeting in January and resume again on the first Thursday of February.

Next, the All Star Accounting Professional officers were introduced and their roles explained.

President: Kim Boaz is our President and the founder of our group. She often runs the meetings, sends out E-vites before our meetings and keeps us organized and on track.

Treasurer: Linda is our treasurer. Dues are $60 per year and can be paid online or by check. A receipt will be provided for your payment. We will be formalizing our budget for the year in the near future.

Speaker Coordinator: Summer is our speaker coordinator. It was decided to continue with internal speakers from our group at this time. Please contact Summer if you wish to be a speaker at one of our meetings in 2017 as we need five more speakers. Summer will help the speakers with any equipment needed (Wi-Fi, white board, etc.) and can assist in determining a topic as well. Being a speaker does not require that you talk in front of the group for the bulk of the meeting but may mean that you help facilitate a conversation about a subject.

Event Coordinator: Our event coordinator is Terrie Marsh. She will help plan the holiday lunch, the “Grow our Membership” event in late October as well as other events throughout the year. Part of this planning will include determining the event location, date, time, refreshments, agenda, etc. Possible events for the future include a team building exercise after tax season, charity event, community event such as talking to students about the career of accounting and bookkeeping and being a mentor for high school or college students in accounting.

Secretary: Diana Chung holds the office of Secretary. She takes meeting minutes during each meeting, types them into the formats of long form and bullet points and will be posting the minutes to the blog section of the website in the near future. Scans of meeting handouts and important documents should also be available on the website.

New Member Coordinator: Renee is our new member coordinator. We have All Star Accounting business cards which advertise our group and have a space for each member to include “referred by” on the back. The cards were passed around at the meeting. We may have a competition to see who can refer the most members to our group. Members should feel free to use the All Star Accounting Professionals logo to their own business websites. There are links on the ASAP website to Facebook and Linked In. We are talking about getting T-shirts with our ASAP logo on them as well. Part of the T-shirt sale proceeds would benefit our group.

Vice President: Melissa holds the title of Vice President. Her role is to be the backup for the President, help run meetings and update the database for our group. If you wish to be listed as a member on our website, we will need your photograph within 30 days of joining. This new policy starts December 1.

After officer introductions, Kim lead a group discussion of how ASAP has helped members. Some mentioned having another professional to talk to who understands our business, especially when they operate as a sole proprietor. Others liked the educational component and having members to reach out to for questions. Interaction with group members is also helpful. Our Facebook page is a great way to reach out to others.

We next reflected on the past couple of years regarding the meeting topics we enjoyed and the topics we would be interested in for the future. Topics included sharing apps, technology, business entity organization, job costing, prevailing wages, billing, payroll solutions, how to evaluate accounting professionals, communication between CPAs and bookkeepers, legal issues for accounting, employee vs. independent contractors, communicating value to clients and offering advisory services. In reflecting on prior activities, we encourage members to get to know one another through one on one meetings and will consider recommending this once per quarter. It is also good to hear testimonials from our members.

As we were wrapping up our meeting, Kim asked how ASAP compared to other similar organizations. There are groups that concentrate just on QuickBooks Online Accounting, some that are “Lunch and Learn” or social and learning meetings. Anita Robinson has a group that meets outside Battle Ground, Washington. She also answers questions via a national tax hotline. The Sleeter Group is QuickBooks focused, is nationwide, has good educational resources and offers certification. Sherry is going to the Las Vegas convention. Alicia mentioned the QuickBooks Connect Conference which is a several days conference in San Jose, California. It features 8 keynote speakers.

Alicia mentioned she would be teaching a QuickBooks Online class November 17 from 2 to 5 PM and she would post this class to the website.