2000 - 2010
The new millennium
arrived with great fanfare and the big project for Dallas was to restore the
1920s rotating lighted Pegasus on top of the Magnolia Building. It had stopped turning years ago and they
had it working again for a while. Jack Truskett,
chapter president in 1970-71, died at the age of 82 on March 15, 2000. "Games Con Men Play" was a popular topic at
our October 2000 meeting when Detective Charles Grady from the Dallas Police
brought us up to date on new "cons".
The next month we would learn about "Working in a Disaster Environment"
- something a lot of us have faced at work. As regional vice-president, Jim
Turkett revived the San Antonio Chapter.
On April 25, 2001, GAO
was nice to invite us to their offices on Bryan Street for four hours of CPE in
a "Fraud Awareness Seminar" spearheaded by Jason Arrington (AGA Dallas Program
Director). In May 2001, the chapter
co-sponsored with the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and
Treasurers an all-day teleconference on GASB 34 implementation. Jack Carrington
who had opened the EPA regional IG's office in Dallas, and was president in
1988-89, passed away on July 19, 2001 at the age of 57. GAO hosted another four hours of CPE in their
offices on October 25, 2001 on "A New Audit and Investigative Approach is
Sweeping the Nation" and "Simply Being Your Best." The next month brought another four hours of CPE in Arlington
cosponsored with Fort Worth.
In February of 2002,
Elliot Smith, GAO regional director, spoke on "Increasing the Effectiveness of
Minority Outreach and Hiring". Walton H. Sheley Jr. (President in 69-70) passed
away on June 11, 2002 at age 75. Walton
was quoted in the New York Times in 1981 from his testimony before the Congress
about Defense matters. "The Fraud
Arena" was covered by Steve Wilson of the Blair FSI Group in September 2002 and
the next month we received two hours of CPE on "Homeland Security." Rick Griffith of the IRS returned with an
always popular subject "Income Tax Changes" in January 2003. This was followed in April 2003 by sixteen
hours of CPE in Irving at the Regional Professional Conference. James R. Martin died July 29, 2003 in
Richardson at age 85. He was the second
chapter president in 1957-58 and a WWII Army Air Corp veteran. Jim Trout, a CGFM, retired in October 2003
after 28 years of service with HHS. To
start the year in September 2003, Irene Zucker advised us on "Enhancing
Professionalism and Confidence in Oral Presentations". "Fighting Fraud in the 21st
Century" was the theme of a one-day seminar on November 7, 2003 co-sponsored
with Fort Worth.
Curt Carlson, a chapter
member, was profiled in the AGA Topics Newsletter in February 2004 when he
retired as Director of the Department of Energy's Dallas Regional Office and
stated that his membership was a significant part of his career. On March 18, 2004, Dr. Nita Clyde presented
two hours of CPEs on "Professional Ethics" for Texas CPA's, and Tony Aguilar,
Senior Auditor with the Dallas City Auditor, presented on "Security and Wireless
Networks." The Dallas and Fort Worth chapters jointly sponsored a two-day
conference on April 21-22, 2004 at the LaQuinta Conference Center in Arlington
with a theme of "Knowledge is Power."
AGA National president Jullin Renthrope discussed SAS No. 99 on fraud
standards at that meeting. In September
2004, Bob Willis was recognized as being a member of the AGA and the Dallas
chapter for over 40 years.
Michelle Philpott
recruited 8 new members in 2004-05.
Courtenay Thompson Jr., a nationally renowned trainer and a long time
Dallas resident gave the chapter his ever popular "Fraud Awareness for
Financial Professionals" at the City Club on St. Patrick's Day in 2005. A loyal and popular member and former education
director Cleofas "Cleo" Zapata passed away in 2005. In 2005, the National recognized Jim Burley, Dave Irwin, Pete Van
Der Veen and Don Whitteaker as 25-year members (the records must be wrong for
Pete since he was president in 1974-75 - over 31 years earlier).
In 2005-06, Malissa
Livingston edited the best Group B newsletter, which was awarded by AGA
National. In January 2006, the National
President Sam McCall attended the Dallas-Ft Worth Professional Development
Conference. Bob Hamsher (president in
1977-78) passed away in Laguna Beach, California on the 17th of
March 2006. Bob was 82 when he
died. One of our members, Randall
Mahaffey, volunteered to help AGA National in working with the Habitat for
Humanity in rebuilding houses in New Orleans in 2006.
The Chapter marked its 50th
anniversary in 2006 with fanfare and the event embroidered on a light blue polo
shirt sold to members. In the 2006-07
year, Michael Chambless of Ernst & Young became the first chapter president
not employed by a government agency.
That year, Alberto Garza and Malissa Livingston won an honorable mention
award (from AGA National) for our web-site.
"How to Create Balance in Your Life, Personally and Professionally" is a
goal we all have and Bryan Dodge gave us some tips on how to achieve that in
December 2006. Dr. Will Yancey provided
us with four hours of CPE on March 19, 2007 on "Auditing Large Data
Files." Dallas hosted a sectional
leadership meeting in May of 2007. Jim Turkett, former chapter and regional
vice-president, received a 2007 National President's Award for his outstanding
leadership as chair of the AGA Early Careers Task Force to attract and retain
new members.
When Jason Arrington
started his term as president for the 2007-08 year in September, one of his
goals for the year was to ensure that AGA Dallas members would find exceptional
financial value in their membership. By April, Jason noted that (for
fairly active members) membership had essentially paid for itself. Over
the first eight months of the year, AGA Dallas provided the following
for members: a practically free full-day training session (a $200 value),
three free meetings (a $45 value), free socials (a $40 value), a free holiday
luncheon (a $10 value), a free appreciation party for officers, $300 in door
prizes at our meetings/socials. Dallas
members only paid $5 in local chapter dues and to boot with a little effort got
paid another $25 for each new member recruited. In addition to being chapter
President, Jason Arrington received a free membership (from AGA National) by
recruiting 15 new members. Membership
rose to 193 which was the highest since 1980 and attendance at monthly meetings
was up 50%. The National recognized the
26% increase in membership as the highest in the nation in Group B.
During 2007-08, our
Chapter raised over $2,000 to benefit both the Stewpot (a downtown Dallas
homeless shelter) and the National Brain Tumor Foundation, donated $500 to the
SpiritHorse (a center that provides therapeutic horseback riding service free
to people with disabilities), served homeless individuals hot meals each month,
participated in a downtown Dallas clean-up project, created gift baskets for
women shelters, sent get well cards to soldiers, donated food / toys / cell
phones to individuals in need, collected canned goods for the North Texas Food
Bank, and donated our time to help with a golf tournament to benefit the
Special Olympics program in Lewisville, TX.
Further, Adnan Amjad (a
partner with Deloitte) updated us in February 2008 on "Compliance Enabled by
Identity and Access Management."
Corporate sponsors have been a great help in funding many chapter
programs. 128 individuals registered
for the Regional PDC "A Dynamic Government: Key Issues for Success" held on
April 24-25, 2008 at the Doubletree Hotel in Dallas. Proventsure was the PDC's title sponsor. Other sponsors included Audimation Services,
the Reznick Group and Ernst & Young.
In 2008, Chapter member Noble Flenniken, CGFM, became a
life-member. Noble became a member in
1968 and had paid his dues for 40 years.
David Irvin, Peter Van Der Veen (see earlier note) and Donald Whitteaker
became 28 year members.
