State of the Association

Organizational Assessment Report

One of the most important action items assigned to me when I was hired was the development of an Organizational Assessment Report after six months on the job. I presented the report at the August Board of Directors (BOD) meeting in closed session. To recap the report, the following are my conclusions in pertinent areas excluding the contracted support services provided by Smith, Moore and Associates (SMA):

• CSMFO’s governance is strong and extremely protective of CSMFOs core mission of providing excellent and relevant educational programs to the various generations of municipal finance officers. It also recognizes the importance of the finance officer regional communities/chapters, mentoring, and networking with friends at the annual conference.  CSMFO does a great job balancing the educational mission with the communal opportunities it provides.
• The financial condition is in excellent shape, and we must endeavor to keep it that way.
• CSMFO’s daily and monthly operations are improving and contingent on the ongoing relationship between the Executive Director and SMA support staff.

My assessment included recommendations to improve operational efficiencies and others that I will not include at this time. I am working with the Finance Committee to develop policies and update others to modernize how we do business and follow best practices.

WFOA Conference

In mid-September, former President Steve Heide and I attended the Washington Finance Officers Association (WFOA) annual conference in Tacoma, Washington. Our WFOA hosts were very hospitable to us along with our counterparts from Oregon and Alaska. I thought the conference was very well done and similar, but significantly smaller, then our annual conference.

Bylaw Updates

We recently held an election on the update to the Bylaws approved by the Board of Directors in August. The update generally increased flexibility for the appointment of Directors and the President-elect under limited circumstances. The bylaws update passed with a 52-3 margin and went into effect for this nominating season.

2023 Annual Conference

Registration for the 2023 Annual Conference in Sacramento opened in early October. The theme of the conference is “Back to the Capital”, a play on the infamous Back to the Future movie from 1985. Several fun events are planned for the week and I hope as many members as possible avail themselves of the event.

New Membership Rates

Upcoming member renewal and new member drive started at the beginning of the month. Our new membership tiers are as follows:

2. Management (M) – $125
   The management category is for those who have municipal management and supervisory roles.  There should be at least one management membership for each agency.  The manager category applies to municipal finance officers who are directors, managers, supervisors or others with responsibility and oversight of direct reporting staff.
3. Professional (P) – $50
   The professional category is for non-management/supervising positions.  This category is likely to include Accountants, Analysts, Specialists, Technicians, and other non-management positions without supervisory authority.

Annual Strategic Planning

In early October, I attended my first strategic planning session held in Monterey. It was a great opportunity to network with CSMFO leadership and to develop strategic direction for our organization. President-elect Rich Lee and the infamous David Garrison did a great job orchestrating the planning session and I look forward to finalizing the strategic goals at the December board meeting.

Annual Audit Report

Finally, CSMFO’s audit report for the period ending December 31, 2021, was presented to the Board at the October board meeting. The audit was extremely clean with only 2 minor audit adjustments and no management letter.

Thank you CSMFO membership. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year.  See you in 2023 at the Annual Conference and for my next quarterly State of the Association update!