Enrolled Agents of Northern California

MINUTES

Meeting Date:September03, 2014

Time:09:35am

Via:Meeting

Reddingand ChicoLocation:Holiday Inn Express

2810 Main St, Red Bluff, CA

Officers/Committee Chairperson Roll Call: (P-Present, A-Absent, E-Excused)

PresidentMichele Williams, EAP

Immediate Past PresidentRose Fulton, EAP

Vice PresidentRex Cerro, EAP

SecretarySandra Lamberson, EAP

TreasurerMary Ann Beguin, EAP

Director: Chico areaTracie Hannick, EAP

Director: Redding areaWilliam Reilly, EAP

State DirectorArdis Smith, EAP

Sub Committees:

MembershipChelsey Forseth, EAP

NewsletterSandra Lamberson, EA

PIA (ReddingChico)Karol ReadP

Web SiteKarol Read

Legislative AffairsRose Fulton, EA

ScholarshipBill Reilly, EA/Jenny Wettemann, EA P/A Awards Jenny Wetteman, EA A

QuickfinderJim Webster, EAP

SEE ClassRose Fulton, EA

Seminars

Event CoordinatorDarla Fraser, EA

RegistrationDenise Baker, EA

Registration AssistantsDarla Fraser, EAP Denise Baker, EA P

Vendors CoordinatorSandra Lamberson, EA

Roundtable Groups

ChicoDan Vincent, EAP Redding Gayle Batti, EA P

Young EA’s Task ForceChelsey Forseth, EA

Guest: Heather (CPA in training) from Chico, Dan Vincent’s office

Minutes:Secretary, Sandra Lamberson, EA

The minutes from the August06, 2014meeting were approved as submitted with one minor change.

President’s Report:Michele Williams, EA

Discussion took place regarding a response from a member we received voicing their opinion about our seminars.

Vice Presidents Report, Rex Cerro, EA

No report.

Treasurer’s Report: Mary Ann Beguin, EA

Financial reports including seminar statements through August 31st, 2014 were reviewed and accepted as submitted.

State Director’s Report: Ardis Smith, EA

I have been asked to serve again on the Scholarship Committee for the 2014-2015 Fiscal Year. This Committee reviews and scores the applications, and then makes recommendations to the CSEA Foundation whether or not to award the applicant a scholarship. There are two main scholarships awarded: First, to those taking the SEE Course to hopefully become Enrolled Agents, and, second, to Enrolled Agents who are furthering their education by taking the NTPI Classes. We had a short introduction Phone Conference a week or so ago. We have received 12 applications (11 for SEE Classes and 1 for NTPI). We will be meeting via Phone Conference this Thursday, September 4, 2014 to review our recommendations for the Foundation Committee meeting coming up. They will then vote on our recommendations and award the scholarships.

Next Monday, September 8, we have a phone conference regarding our Strategic Planning.

The Fall Board Meeting will take place October 22, 2014 via Webinar. All committee meetings will be held via Conference Calls prior to the Board Meeting.

Remember, all Committee and board meetings are open to all members so if anyone is interested in attending, contact me or Rose for more information.

Respectfully,

Ardis A Smith EA

Committee Reports:

Awards Committee: Jenny Wetteman, EA and Linda Dill, EA

No report.

Legislative Affairs: Rose Fulton, EA

Discussion was about Senate Bill AB2415, requiring tax agents to have authority in order to representclients before the county assessor. The question asked was “does our Enrolled Agents license give us the legal authority to represent clients in front of the county assessor?” The Bill has been amended several times and it’s primarily to negotiate property values.

Rose has packets for those wishing to join her for a visit to our local Legislators. The visits must take place before January 2015.

Membership: Chelsey Forseth, EA

Chelsey attended the NAEA annual meeting and NTPI courses in Las Vegas. They discussed for the first time making a change to NAEA’s Bylaws. The change involves term limits, and was voted down by 127 noes. Jean and Mike Nelsen discussed their new campaign called “Educating America”. They have proposed offering the SEE prep course at job fairs and at local colleges as an AA college degree program. If candidates pass all three parts, they would earn an Associates of Arts degree and become an Enrolled Agent. They also want to offer mentorship to new EA’s. Also we want to consider displaying our booth-n-a-box at career days at local colleges and offer tuition to teachers to teach the profession. These were all great ideas. CSEA is still running their “Just Ask 1 Membership Drive.” Each chapter will receive awards and prizes for the most new memberships made. The idea to hold a Family Event for after tax season to our members has been postponed until next fiscal year. We will bring up the idea then.

PIA & Website: Karol Read

Our first set of seminar flyers went out recently and they are all available on our website. We’ve also received 183 hits on our website of people perusing our website. A suggestion was made to add an order button to register and pay for our SEE courses. Karol will get on it soon.

Scholarship: William Reilly, EA and Jenny Wetteman, EA

Jenny is revising our outdated Scholarship application form. The treasurer was given the go ahead to payout scholarship funds to our two applicants.

SEE Class: Rose Fulton, EA and Jenny Wetteman, EA

Part III of the SEE course will begin in November. There are currently 4 new students for Part III and some of them are from out of state. All of the students who took the Part I exam have all passed. Yea! The students took a survey from CSEA and have turned them into CSEA. Mary Ann has volunteered to be a backup teacher for Rose and Jenny incase they are not present.

Quickfinders & The TaxBook: Jim Webster, EA

Jim made a proposal to round up Quickfinder prices to the next dollar figure. This will help offset shipping costs that have increased for the books. The board agreed to the small increase.

Seminars: Darla Fraser, EA and Denise Baker, EA

The contract has been signed and deposit made for the seminar at Rolling Hills Casino in Corning. The contracts for the Holiday Inn needed some corrections and will soon be finalized. The menu has not been settled yet as of today.

The Ethics issue for CTEC attendees has been resolved. If we post their Ethics hours on Oct 30th, they will receive credit before Oct 31st which is the deadline to get Ethics in 2014.

New Business:

Our November meeting will be via conference call. Karol Read will email board members the instructions.

Annual Chapter Dinner: need prizes from board members to hand out at our annual dinner. Rose won’t be there, but she has a prize to offer. Doug Pickford, 1st VP will speak and present awards at our dinner. We need to send him the dates, times and locations of the seminar on Oct 30th.

Spidell Webinar

FNCC Facebook page?

Adjournment: 11:08a.m. until the next meeting Oct1st2014, 9:30am, at Holiday Inn Express Red Bluff.

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