IMA Planning - Done

The last IMA board meeting of the summer is over with and I get a month off before the 2008-2009 program year begins. I’m not too much more involved than past years with planning and execution of meetings. I prefer sticking to what I know and not committing myself to anything that requires me to call people I don’t know. Heh. In any case, we’ve got a good mix of topics and some interesting speakers lined up. We even have a tour of the Post Office planned in April. Fun. We’re going to only one new venue this year so that makes that part of my job easier. I do plan to track things more closely this year though so my budgeting process is smoother and I can spout off relevant information about attendance and how much money we’re losing each meeting. Heh again. Hopefully we can drum up some interest in the community with our big awards ceremony in October and our ethics workshop in January. We’re also always working on trying to convince UWO that the CMA matters. *sigh* It’s an uphill battle.

There’s a core group of dedicated IMA board members and we have a good time together. I just wish other people would see it’s more than boring accountants sitting around talking about taxes. That hardly ever happens. For national CPE purposes we have to plan a certain amount of educational content, but I’d say at least half of each meeting is for mingling, networking, and talking to associates within the business world – and not necessarily about business. There have been many dinners where the table conversation never even gets close to boring accounting talk. Like the meeting where we talked about nothing but Tupperware and the benefits thereof. Good times. It’s a shame that so many of our members choose to miss out on these meetings. We have over 200 members. Average meeting attendance is 30. That’s depressing.