AGA National has listed a new training event which is free for government members! Performance Counts 2024. This is May 1 from 11:40 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET. Registration details are in the April newsletter. This is a bonus CPE opportunity!
Also note that the Wake Up Wednesday Coffee Chat (free to members) is this week: April 17, 8-9 a.m. ET (7-8 a.m. CT). The last Free Members Only Webinar of the program year is Wednesday, May 15 from 2-3:15 p.m. ET/1-2:15 p.m. CT. Webinars are at: https://www.agacgfm.org/Training/Webinars.aspx
If you have not already registered for the May 8 Annual Spring Symposium, there is still time! Registration ends Tuesday, April 23.
** Registration deadline is April 23, 2024** After the registration deadline, there are no cancellations, only substitutions. SPACE IS LIMITED TO 150 PEOPLE
Professional Development Training
May 8, 2024 | 8:00am-3:30pm | In Person | 6.5 CPEs
Symposium Agenda
Start Time
End Time
Session Topic
Session Speaker
7:45 AM
8:00 AM
Sign In
8:00 AM
8:05 AM
Opening Remarks
Sherri Voigt, CGFM, AGA Southern WI Chapter President
8:05 AM
8:55 AM
Leadership Themes in Financial Management(FOS: PD)
Tony Scardino, Crowdstrike, AGA NGB Director At-Large
8:55 AM
9:10 AM
Break
9:10 AM
10:00 AM
How Government Bonding Affects Your Life(FOS: ECON)
David Erdman, Baker Tilly
10:00 AM
10:15 AM
Break
10:15 AM
11:30 AM
Enterprise Risk Management (FOS: MGMT)
Bradley Grams, US Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration
11:30 AM
12:20 PM
Lunch
12:20 PM
1:10 PM
Emotional Intelligence: The Importance of Building Strong Relationships (FOS: PD)
Tony Scardino, Crowdstrike, AGA NGB Director at Large
1:10 PM
1:25 PM
Break
1:25 PM
2:15 PM
Fraud: Internal Controls and Fraud Risk Management (FOS: AUD)
David Miller, KerberRose Amanda Tigert, KerberRose
2:15 PM
2:30 PM
Break
2:30 PM
3:45 PM
Fraud session continued (FOS: AUD)
David Miller, KerberRose Amanda Tigert, KerberRose
3:45 PM
3:50 PM
Closing Remarks
Sherri Voigt, CGFM, AGA Southern WI Chapter President
*Titles and times/speaker order are subject to change*
Welcome to March—We are once again celebrating “March is CGFM Month”!!!! This is the 30th anniversary of the Certified Government Financial Manager credential. We have included signed proclamations denoting this special month by Governor Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.
Registrations are open for the AGA Spring Symposium! Sign up today and mark your calendar… We were able to hold the 2024 registration fee to the same price as last year even with Union South price increases. I hope you can join us for a day of learning and networking! We have not finalized the full agenda yet, but we are close. Confirmed topics are Enterprise Resource Management, Fraud Detection and Prevention, How Bonding Affects Your Life (Government Debt Funding). More information will be sent as the speaker biographies and session information is available. You can visit our website to register and to see any updates (www.aga-wis.org).
There are two free CPE opportunities posted on the AGA National website (https://www.agacgfm.org/Training/Webinars.aspx). April 17 is a CPAG Wake-Up Wednesday Coffee Chat for 1 CPE. The next free Members Only Webinar is May 15 for 1.5 CPE.
We are actively working on getting the Symposium schedule in place. Hold the date! Wednesday, May 8, at Union South. Once this schedule is done, we will get some webinars set up.
It is membership renewal season. They now offer the opportunity to sign up for recurring billing so you don’t have to remember each spring (but they will send an email ahead to remind you it is coming). Please consider checking your information on-line. There are a number of people with outdated addresses (email and physical). Keeping your email current ensures you are receiving all the notifications for members only events and chapter events.
Happy March! I love March since it is official CGFM month! Featured are the proclamations from Governor Evers and Madison Mayor, Satya Rhodes-Conway. I would like to give a “shout out” to board member Andrew Stovich, CGFM, CPA for contacting their offices to get the proclamations this year.
We will have the brochure and registration set up for the Symposium soon. This in-person session will be held at Union South on Wednesday, May 10. We are partnering with CLA and they have helped us pick out a list of topics so we can provide 7 CPE. The topic list is:
Accountability in the Workplace
GASB Updates and Impacts
Pensions and the Current State of the Economy
Effective Risk Assessment and Audit Planning
Common Errors in Governmental Reporting
Cybersecurity Risks and Controls
I hope to see many of you there!
The National AGA office is offering a free members only webinar on April 5, A State of Flux – Shake Up Within Our Profession! This session runs 1-2:15 central time and is 1.5 CPE. If you haven’t registered yet, there is still time! They are also offering a free members only webinar on June 7, but the topic has not been announced yet. This session is also 1.5 CPE. I hope you are able to take advantage of this great membership benefit.
It is membership renewal season! It is also CGFM renewal time. I am sure you are aware and getting emails from the AGA National office. This year, they have added the option to select auto-renewal.
We have also included some upcoming CPE events from AGA National and other chapters. Please take a look at the information for the 2022 Technology & Transformation Summit (page 3)… This is 8 CPE and is free to members!!! If you can’t attend the full day, you can still get credit for the sessions you do attend. This is a great part of your membership value!
The chapter board spent time in September and October discussing what we could for new AGA members. Historically, we offered a free lunch meeting. Since those are no longer part of the event rotation, we brainstormed and came up with a few ideas. The result was a vote to give new members $20 off the registration fee for the Annual Symposium. This also helps with members who are outside the Madison area and could not reasonably attend the lunch meetings. We will do a look-back to all members with an original join date of January 1, 2022 or later. I will be reaching out to that list of people over the next month or two to let them know, and I will also do an outreach as the Symposium agenda is finalized. [Note: Be sure to save the date: Wednesday, May 10, 2023]
AGA National has created Google accounts for chapters so we can better handle surveys. We will be sending out a member survey very soon to get feedback on what you would like to see the chapter doing, including the ever-present request for training topics and speakers. This year, we will be offering an optional drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card for completing the survey by the deadline. We look forward to the information so we can use it in planning chapter activities.
Happy CGFM month!!!! If you have ever considered the Certified Government Financial Manager certification, this is a great time to apply. There is a special running through March 31 that will give you one free exam voucher, a $125 value. Visit https://www.agacgfm.org/exampromo for details and to start the process. We have received CGFM Month proclamations from the governor and City of Madison mayor. These are included on pages 5 & 6 of the newsletter.
The Symposium speakers are confirmed and we are just working out some last details on titles and agenda times so the full information can be posted/sent out. I hope to see many of you out there on Wednesday, May 11. Union South surprised us a little this year by moving up the dates for meal and chair counts by a week. Please note that registration cuts off Tuesday, April 26. You can register via email or on our website (soon) and be invoiced later.
We have set up a webinar on Wednesday, April 20. Kinney Poynter, CPA, NASACT Executive Director, will be speaking on “State and Local Government Emerging Issues”. This will be worth 2 CPE.
AGA National has changed our logo for the organization and the CGFM certification. Also, our name has been shortened to “just” AGA. See all the details in this month’s Footnotes.
We have started planning for the fall and have a fraud speaker lined up for a 2 CPE webinar on August 23. If you have any topics you would like to see offered as a webinar, please let us know. Education chair Mary Laufenberg is great at finding speakers and building on your ideas ([email protected]).
The Chapter is off to a slow start this year, but we are actively looking for topics that might work for chapter webinars (to replace lunch meetings until such time as those might be safe again). A couple people did send in ideas and we are looking to slot those in over the winter months. If you have ideas, pleases feel free to send topics/speakers/ideas to Mary Laufenberg . The same goes for any suggestions for the annual symposium (which is currently on track for in person attendance at Union South).
We have one chapter-sponsored event lined up next week, an Ethics webinar. See page 6 for two other opportunities: The Technical Services Summit is free for AGA members! And the New York Capital Chapter is opening up their annual Fraud Conference to other chapters. Here are some great ways to get in some inexpensive CPE!
It has been a strange year indeed. I miss seeing everyone at lunch meetings and webinars.
In the meantime, the chapter board is working to adapt to the current environment. With the second year of our annual Symposium being cancelled at Union South, we are branching out into the virtual world. This year will be all virtual! On the plus side, the software will handle session check-in, polls to track attendance, and will even issue the CPE certificates after the data is reviewed.
I want to wish all the Certified Government Financial Managers (CGFMs) in our chapter a very happy CGFM month! We have 23 CGFM or CGFM-Retired members.
We have two webinars coming up. See below for the dates and content. Also, AGA National has a free Members Only webinar on March 17 for 1.5 CPE: Resiliency: Your Mindset, Your Mission and Your Triumph. Take advantage of the great membership benefit! https://www.agacgfm.org/Webinars/2020-2021- Webinars/March-Members-Only-Webinar.aspx
And speaking of membership benefits, it is renewal season. I’m sure AGA National has been in touch…
