And the winners are…

First, we want to say thank you to all who supported CSMFO News by completing our online survey. We were happy to see a balance of feedback between long-time CSFMO’ers (46%) and those with 2 years or less in CSFMO (32%). While we are thankful for the support from those early in their professional careers, we hope to see more participation beyond the 16% who responded this time.

It was interesting to see that most respondents “first” rely on their peers and internet searches to find information to help them in their daily duties. CSMFO News and our Listserve did do very well as a secondary source. This might show CSFMO has room to grow with being the preeminent resource to support our members.

We appreciated feedback about CSFMO News content that most respondents were interested in articles supporting training content, career growth & advice columns, strategic planning, and technical categories of Accounting, Budgeting and Pensions. We also saw a theme of suggested articles around how to create a culture where employees want to stay, learn, & grow, and how to connect with and support your finance clients.

Finally, our entire Communication Committee was humbled with the very positive feedback about CSFMO news. All respondents rated it excellent in all categories from quality of content, imagery, ease of reading and an overwhelming high credibility level. We also were grateful to see 83% of respondents were dedicated to reading it monthly with 11% reading all articles (woo hoo!).

We’ll cover some other findings in October as we move into our next theme of creating a positive culture for your finance and administration families at work and supporting their career aspirations.

Now… (drum roll)… congratulations to the following August survey prize winners who were randomly selected by the online “Wheel of Names.Com” site. They were the ones who completed the survey on or before the end of the day on August 28th.

Our four winners of a $5 Starbucks Gift Card were:

Stephanie Cuff, City of Moreno Valley
Grace Castaneda, City of San Mateo
Arwen, City of Sacramento
Elizabeth Martinez, Southern California Regional Rail Authority

And, our six winners of an AMC Movie Ticket/Gift Card were:

Carolina Yuen, City of Brisbane
Serena Ng, Orange County Transit Authority
Kim Scott, City of Victorville
Joan Michaels Aguilar, City of Dixon
Alex Barber, Southern California Regional Rail Authority
Susan Giangrande, City of Newport Beach

12 Essential but easy tips for preparing your home for an emergency

1. Take pictures of all your house furnishings, equipment, passports, and other essential documents.
2. Store pictures with a cloud service provider or a copy in an alternate physical location.
3. Show all your family where to turn off power, gas, and water.
4. Review your evacuation and relocation location with your family.
5. Keep three days’ worth of food and water (at least a gallon per family member).
6. Battery powered (or hand crank) flashlights and radio.
7. Extra batteries.
8. First aid kit.
9. Whistle to signal for help.
10. Trash bags and duct tape, along with a dust mask.
11. Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities.
12. Manual can opener for food.
13. (baker’s dozen) Keep a bank account reserve equal to your disaster insurance deductible(s).

For the resources to put together (tips 5-12), store these in several large bins next to each other and at a height of at least 1 foot but not higher than 3 feet (if you have small kids at home who might need to grab them). The last thing you want in an emergency, and perhaps in the dark, is to hunt around for all of these or let them be damaged or picking them up off the floor if they fall out of their place.

Our Baker’s Dozen “bonus tip” is an often overlooked element of your emergency preparedness plan, how to survive financially from a disaster. Most insurance plans have very high deductibles, that, in a time of an emergency, the last thing you need is a financial barrier to using your insurance.

For more tips and suggestions, stay tuned to more September CSMFO News features, go to your own agency’s emergency resources, and definitely be familiar with the Department of Homeland’s Security “Prepared, Not Scared” resource page. Be sure to share this resource page with your family, friends, colleagues, and community, especially their Week 1 tips for “Save Early for Disaster Costs”.