Pre-Conference Sessions – Tuesday January 28, 2020
Adventure Land of “Finance”
Each time you enter Disneyland, a cast member offers you a Guidemap. This gives you the lay of the land and allows you to plan your day around the various attractions, restaurants, stores, shows, parades, and fireworks. Before you enter the world of 2020 CSMFO Pre-Conference options, we, too, want to provide you a “map”.
Your map includes three and one-half different ride options in the vast Adventure Land of “Finance” and will include amazing speakers, food options and most important, lessons learned and take-home tools for everyday use. If you can join us on Tuesday for the pre-conference sessions, you will be amply rewarded. There will be 3 all-day sessions, running from 9:15 am to 4:00 pm. These Adventure Land sessions will be held in the Disneyland Hotel Adventure Tower. In addition to these three all-day sessions, there will be a fourth pre-conference session starting at 1:00 pm and ending at 4:00 pm on Tuesday and you will head off for your Mark Twain River Adventure in the Frontier Tower, Mark Twain meeting room.
Choose one of the following Pre-Conference Finance Adventure Land and Mark Twain River options:
Ride Option A: Oh No, Another Grant! Now What?
Given the growing complexity of grant reporting and compliance, it is no wonder that many people have this reaction. “Free” money is wonderful – but we all know nothing is ever truly free. This session will cover the processes and best practices for grants/loans in the pre-award phase, as well as post-award administration and finance-related post-award support.
The excellent team of Wilma Garriz, Controller, Eastern Municipal Water District; Rania Odenbaugh, Engineering Project Control Manager, Eastern Municipal Water District; Bonnie Wright, Grants and Loans Manager, Eastern Municipal Water District and Ashley Zellmer, Water Resources Control Engineer, State Water Resources Control Board will cover a long list of topics. The list itself looks overwhelming, but these seasoned pros with a remarkable track record for obtaining and administering grants for a local special district will lead you through the puzzle that can be the grants world. When you leave this session, you will have the tools and confidence you need to help your organization obtain and successfully administer a well-coordinated grants management program! This is definitely an “E” ticket ride.
Ride Option C: Money Talks: The Art of Speaking About Government Finance!
The world of government finance is getting more complicated every day. Government finance officers are required to communicate with boards and citizens on a regular basis. This course will help refine those much-needed public speaking skills to help government professionals overcome their fears while exceling at communications. This course will add on to the skills provided in the 2019 pre-conference session titled, “The Art of Public Speaking for Finance Officers: Can You Hear Me Now?” True public speakers build on their skills to achieve an enhanced ability for speaking in front of audiences of many sizes. Whether you attended last year’s pre-conference session (NOT a pre-requisite for this session), or this year will be your first dive into the public speaking waters, attendees will gain real world experience on how to be effective communicators. Your chosen cast members for this exciting real world adventure is none other than the premier public speaker, Phil Bertolini, Retired Deputy County Executive/CIO, Oakland County, Michigan.
Ride Option B: Building a Better Budget: Best Practices and Insightful Perspectives for the Budget Practitioner
CSMFO’s new core course covering budget fundamentals provides both new budget analysts and seasoned senior managers with a comprehensive review of the budget process and related issues. In this pre-conference session, the first two of four modules of this new core course will be offered, covering “Foundations of Budget Management” in the morning and “Building the Budget” in the afternoon. Key concepts to be covered include types of budgets, the relationship between the accounting and budget functions, the importance of accurate forecasting and long- term financial planning, best practices for the budget process, personnel budgeting, and key concepts in non-personnel budget management. Attendees will leave this session with useful best practices, practical exercises and examples, and valuable perspectives from budget practitioners. Modules three and four – “Budget Documents and Reporting” and “Advanced Budget Concepts” – will be offered in alternating locations in northern and southern California in the upcoming year and then regularly in the future. Your ride facilitators are Ken Brown, Principal, HdL Companies, and David Cain, Retired Finance Director, City of Fountain Valley, both seasoned public sector budgeteers’.
Special Half-Day Ride Option D: Doing the Right Thing When it is Hard: Living Your Ethics in Tough Situations
Knowing the right thing to do is not that hard. Doing the right thing in the face of pressure to do the wrong thing – or at least look the other way – can be very hard. In fact, ethical tragedies are often the result of people who sit silently on the sidelines, afraid or uncertain of what to do about a transgression. In this session, you will work through real-life scenarios of ethical challenges that have occurred in governments. You will learn a distinctive new approach to deal with these situations, called “Giving Voice to Values,” which is focused on how to enact the values we already know. Think of it as a “self-defense class for your soul.” This ride adventure will be hosted by Mary C. Gentile, PhD, Creator/Director, Giving Voice to Values.
Mary C. Gentile, PhD, is Creator/Director of Giving Voice to Values, Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Senior Advisor at the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program, and a consultant on management education and leadership development.
Giving Voice to Values, a pioneering business curriculum for values-driven leadership, has been featured in the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and McKinsey Quarterly, to name a few, and piloted in over 1,125 business schools and organizations globally. The award-winning book is Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right (www.MaryGentile.com). Gentile has authored numerous books and articles and launched six online interactive social cohort-based modules around Giving Voice To Values, which is a 4- week online course on Ethical Leadership. This will be a ride that will provide many valuable take away tools for both you and your organization.
Check out the CSMFO 2020 Conference website – “Guidemap” for more details about each of the pre-conference Adventure Land ride options and then pick one before the limited seating on your selected ride fills up. A separate registration fee applies for the 4 pre-conference sessions, in addition to the regular conference registration fee. There is no Fastpass options for these adventures, other than your signing up on the CSMFO website TODAY!
We hope you will join us for “Yesterday, Tomorrow and Finance”! All told, attendees will have the opportunity to earn 24 CPE credits over the 4-day period of this adventure.
David Cain is a member of the 2020 Annual Conference Host Committee & Senior Advisor – Communications Committee. Retired Director of Finance – Adjunct Professor CSUN & CSULB. David is married to his wife of 42 years and have two grown children. David and his wife Loralyn enjoy spending time with two grandkids, traveling and “Going to Disneyland”.
Harriet Commons, a CPA, is the retired Finance Director/Treasurer for the City of Fremont and is a consultant to support the CSMFO conference. She is a past CSMFO Board member, as well as past Chair of the Professional and Technical Standards Committee. Since her retirement, she has continued to be an active CSMFO member, participating on both the Career Development Committee and the Annual Conference Program Committee.
