Midnight Sum. President s Message. Calendar of Events

Transcription

1 Midnight Sum Volume 92 September 2008 President s Message Calendar of Events 09/06/08 Saturday Seminar UBS Building 9:00 1:00 09/12/08 IMA Board Meeting Sea Galley Noon 1:00 Please RSVP 09/13/08 Saturday Seminar Wasilla Chamber of Commerce 9:30 1:30 09/18/08 Luncheon Meeting Ron Peck Alaska Travel Industry BP Energy Center 11:30 1:00 10/04/08 Saturday Seminar UBS Building 9:00 1:00 10/11/08 Saturday Seminar Wasilla Chamber of Commerce 9:30 1:30 10/16/08 - Bill Popp, President and CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (ADEC), will be speaking on Only four months left in 2008 and, for those of you who need to meet CPE requirements for your professional licenses, time is running out. Anyone with a CMA license is required to complete 30 credits per year and at least two of those hours must include a course on Ethics. The IMA puts a huge emphasis on ethical conduct and four of the nine pages on the booklet entitled The Rights and Responsibilities of a Certified Management Accountant are dedicated to a Statement of Ethical Professional Practice, guidance on resolving ethical conflict and information on contacting the IMA Ethical Hotline when additional help is needed in dealing with professional ethical dilemmas. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be part of an organization that puts a huge emphasis on ethical conduct and provides training and several avenues of resolution to employees impacted by questionable conduct. I have not always worked in such situations. Many years ago I was employed as an accountant for a psychologist s office. One patient was usually seen once per week but I started receiving documentation to bill his medical insurance for four visits per week. A red flag went up so I asked my employer about it. I was told that this person would be losing their medical coverage in the next month and they wanted to pre-bill as many sessions as possible for the visits that would not be covered in the future. I explained in so many words that this was a fraudulent activity and that I would not bill the sessions. I had already been asked two months before to adjust a 1099 so that some income could be pushed into the next year. I refused to do that also. It became apparent that I really couldn t continue to work under these circumstances and I was lucky enough to be financially able to quit immediately. Not all situations that challenge our professional ethics are that clear cut or that easy to leave behind. Listen to a whistle blower from the Enron scandal and you ll find that the path to obvious unethical conduct was littered with small requests for a journal entry here and an accrual there that seemed innocuous at the time. Every unethical request that was complied with got a little easier to support and justify. And what about the employee who knows that an action is wrong and will compromise their ethical standards but has a family to take care of and lives paycheck to paycheck. It can take a lot of courage and support to do the right thing in the face of economic pressures and loss of security for self and family. The IMA Ethics Hotline is always an option but I recommend that we build strong ties with other professionals who can provide us with guidance and support when we encounter doubtful situations that could damage our professional integrity and send our business and personal lives into a tailspin. I had an accounting professor that made herself available to colleagues and ex-students facing ethical issues in their professions for advice and moral support when the difficult decision had to be made. I believe that the professional ties we build with IMA members and other professionals in our communities are the support that we need to make good decisions when there doesn t seem to be an acceptable choice and to pursue our careers with unshakable integrity and credibility.

2 PAGE 2 MIDNIGHT SUM VOLUME 92 Monthly CPE Seminars Anchorage, September 6th Wasilla, September 13th The Monthly CPE Seminar in Anchorage will be held on Saturday, September 6 th, between 9:00 and 12:30 PM at the UBS offices located at 3000 A Street, Suite 100. Reserve your seat with a call to Cathy Taylor at or by at taylorc@alyeska-pipeline.com if you will be attending. We will hold the same seminar September 13th, between 9:30 and 1:00 PM at the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce located in the old Wasilla Train Station. Reserve your seat with a call to Dianne Woodruff at or drop her an at: dianne32@mtaonline.net 1. Fair Value Accounting and Writedowns: Cause and Effect? Field of Study: Accounting The leaders of financial services firms are continuing to blame their sector's troubles on the use of fair value accounting in general and on the dictates of FASB's SFAS No Colleen Cunningham, regional managing director of Resources Global Professionals, argues that the subprime meltdown was due to poor lending practices, not bad financial reporting standards. 2. Employment Litigation: Reducing the Odds Field of Study: Business Law The U.S. Supreme Court recently expanded the ability of employees to bring retaliation claims against their employers. Assessing the implications of the Court's decision, Catherine Asaro, assistant vice president in Beecher Carlson's executive liability practice, explains how you can minimize the likelihood of litigation through the use of employment practices liability insurance. 3. Protect Your Intellectual Property and Leverage Its Value Field of Study: Management Advisory Services The International Trade Commission is an increasingly popular venue for businesses that want to protect their U.S. intellectual property (IP) rights against infringing imports. Sughrue Mion PLLC's James M. Hall analyzes the success of those efforts as well as other strategies that allow companies to unlock the value of their patents and other IP assets. 4. Payment Card Security Standards: How They Affect You Field of Study: Business Management & Organization If you want to transact business with credit cards, you must now follow a new set of rules: the payment card industry (PCI) security standards. Anthony Hernandez, managing director at the accounting firm of SMART, details the wide applicability of this new regulatory system as well as the steps you must take to be in compliance with these new PCI standards.

3 VOLUME 92 MIDNIGHT SUM PAGE 3 ALASKA CHAPTER BOARD of DIRECTORS President Cathy Taylor TaylorC@alyeska-pipeline.com President-Elect Judy Moose Judy.Moose@providence.org Dir of Communications Ginger Shoopman (907) ginger.shoopman@ubs.com Secretary Nilar Thein thein_nilar@hotmail.com Treasurer Ed Rutledge erutledge@anchorage.net Assoc. Dir Historian Ted Lemaire ted-donna@gci.net Dir Educational Meetings Paul Foutz fam-foutz@att.net Program Roster OPEN Dir of Attendance OPEN Dir of Meetings OPEN Dir of Employment - Cheryl Fullerton cfullerton@alaskatia.org Dir of Student Activities Yaso Thiru yasot@alaskapacific.edu Pacific Northwest Council Delegate Mike McLean (650) michaelmclean329@hotmail.com Newsletter Compiler Arthur Solvang ak_ima@hotmail.com UAA classes have started and the Accounting Club has invited our IMA Chapter to make a presentation at the first Club meeting on Tuesday, September 9 at 11:30 am. The presentation will include information on the benefits of the CMA designation, how to obtain it and an update on our local Chapter activities. Our Chapter will host a Meet and Greet session on the UAA Campus in the Business Building for Accounting Club members on the following day Wednesday, September 10 from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm. This will provide a great opportunity for students and Chapter members to meet, network and ask and answer questions. Please plan to participate as an IMA member and representative to get to know our upcoming generation of accountants and encourage them in their career goals. Contact Cathy Taylor at taylorc@alyeska-pipeline.com if you would like to participate.

4 Chili Verde Winner Former IMA Chapter President Wayne Ronsman has retired from watching over the books and gone whole hog into cooking. Well maybe I shouldn't phrase it quite that way, after all I wouldn t want you to get the idea that he has been cooking up the Fair-Value in order to meet the needs of G.A.A.P. and please his corporate investors with magical numbers. I digress Wayne, who now resides part of the year in Phoenix, spends his summers visiting Alaskan friends and relatives. He has organized and participated in a variety of Chili Cook-offs and accounting for his prizes. Did you enjoy his work at Mulchahy Stadium this summer? How about sampling his second-place win at the Alaska State Fair? Well step aside for the best is yet to come. In the greatest out-of-state win since Hillary Clinton declared she was a New Yorker, Wayne took first place in the Hawaii Chili Cook-off with his Chili Verde. Hawaiians, known for their Polynesian Barbeque were green with envy at his entry. However, he will be representing them at the Championship Chili Cook-off in Las Vegas, October 10 through 12th at the Tropicana. Here is his published winning entry. I am not sure if he has any allowances that have not been published and there are not detailed notes as should be required. Nonetheless, this should make you appreciate entries of pork and their never depreciating uses. Medium Hot (the chili, not Wayne) Wayne Ronsman (Red Hot) 2 pounds pork 3/4 pound chopped mild green chilies (Anaheim preferred) 1/2 pound cubed hot green chilies 1/4 green bell pepper, chopped 6 medium green onions, white end only, finely chopped 5 medium tomatillos 7 large Serrano peppers, finely chopped, seeds removed 2 ounces finely chopped garlic 7 ounces green chili sauce 14 ounces chicken broth 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste 1 teaspoon cumin, or to taste 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (optional) Touch of cigar ash (optional) Brown meat and drain fat. Add all ingredients through salt, but reserve half of the hot chilies. Simmer 30 minutes; add cumin. Continue simmering 1-1/2 hours more. Add remaining hot peppers and up to 1 more teaspoon salt, if needed. Cook on low simmer for 1/2 hour. Add cilantro, if using. After 5 minutes, add cigar ash. Serves 8. Approximate nutritional analysis, per cup (not including cigar ash): 210 calories, 6 g total fat, 2 g saturated fat, 80 mg cholesterol, 1,200 mg sodium, 13 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 5 g sugar, 27 g protein.

5 Vote Early; Vote Often It s your right and your responsibility As the Political Season goes into full swing we are admonished to understand the issues and vote at the appropriate time. There are those who will tell us that they know what we need, as we are not as intelligent as them, and (once we ignoramuses vote for them) they will take care of us. Adolf Hitler said the same thing and after his Legislature disbanded he entered into genocide and a World War. This is an accounting newsletter and our failure to get involved in the decision making process has led us down an interesting path. The newest rules require Fair Value Accounting to be utilized widely in our Financial Reporting. Was this a good idea? Statement of Financial Accounting Concept Number One reads, in part: Financial reporting is not an end in itself but is intended to provide information that is useful in making business and economic decisions. The information is but one source of information needed by those who make decisions about business enterprises. The information is provided and used at a cost. The objectives state: Financial reporting should provide information that is useful to present and potential investors and creditors and other users in making rational investment, credit, and similar decisions. The information should be comprehensible to those who have a reasonable understanding of business and economic activities and are willing to study the information with reasonable diligence. Financial reporting should provide information to help present and potential investors and creditors and other users in assessing the amounts, timing, and uncertainty of prospective cash receipts from dividends or interest and the proceeds from the sale, redemption, or maturity of securities or loans. Since investors and creditors cash flows are related to enterprise cash flows, financial reporting should provide information to help investors, creditors, and others assess the amounts, timing, and uncertainty of prospective net cash inflows to the related enterprise. Financial reporting should provide information about the economic resources of an enterprise, the claims to those resources (obligations of the enterprise to transfer resources to other entities and owners equity), and the effects of transactions, events, and circumstances that change its resources and claims to those resources Statement Number Two goes on to state that the most important role is usefulness in decision making. Other important aspects are Relevance, Reliability, Comparability and Consistency. Recent Articles in Strategic Finance as well as Reuters have questioned the usefulness of the new Financial Statements. It becomes impossible to compare one company against others as the assumptions utilized to prepare their Fair- Values are not consistent. In fact, most of the write-downs taken by early adopters of the new rules have been non-cash. Presumably these could be reversed if those non-cash assets recover their presumption of collection but who is to say that the same assumptions will be used when the recovery takes place? Take a financial bath today and write it back up tomorrow to look like a great investment. One old story reads of a widow who was being told how great a stock was doing. The woman left and when she returned she issued instructions to sell that stock. When asked why, she said she went to the store and there were no customers. Users of Financial Statements have an obligation to understand the limitations of the reporting framework and seek other means to determine value. One size was never intended to fit all and the jury is out on Fair Value. Watch this carefully and if you see more downside than benefit, contact FASB and urge then to eliminate the ruling. Its your right and responsibility.

6 Institute of Management Accountants Alaska Chapter Cathy Taylor, President PO Box Anchorage, AK We re on the Web The Economic Impact of Tourism in Alaska The Chapter s first technical meeting for the 2008/2009 year will be held at the BP Energy Center on Thursday, September 18 th at 11:30 am. We are pleased to have Ron Peck, President and COO of the Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) as our speaker for this meeting. Ron will be speaking on The Economic Impact of Tourism in Alaska in This topic is very timely in light of the tourist season that is just winding down amidst the economic downturn and high fuel prices. tial and diverse background in travel and tourism of 31 years. His career began as a reservations and customer service agent for Alaska Airlines in Juneau in He served in a variety of Sales and Marketing capacities in Anchorage, Juneau and Seattle. He climbed the ranks in Seattle to eventually become Director of Marketing for Alaska, Russia and Canada. In 1996 he went to work as Director of Sales and Marketing for Princess Tours and Princess Alaska Lodges. Immediately before coming to ATIA, Peck Ron has been President and COO for almost six years and has a substanserved as Director of Sales and Marketing for Alyeska Resort. Ron also is a member of the Public Advisory Committee for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC), a member of the Taiwan Alaska Trade Investment Corporation Council (TATICC), and serves on the Board of Directors for the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA). The luncheon and presentation will be $22 for members and guests, $11 for students and free for students that are attending for the first time. Please send your RSVP to Judy.Moose@providence.o rg by Monday, September 15th if you plan to attend.