This year we had a clear vision to celebrate the accomplishments of our profession. As CPAs, we're used to rewarding good work with more work. But our board was very clear that we wanted to think differently and celebrate good work with recognition. 

Each of my President’s Messages highlighted the efforts of our CPA community and as we roll into the holiday season, I can’t help but be thankful for everyone’s contributions. 

We first reflected on why we stay in the profession, why we stay as members of CalCPA and why we want to enrich our lives with more than just the work. 

Highlighting our Young Emerging Professionals (YEPs). These are the impact players to our organization who are constantly challenging the norms of what a nonprofit should be. Each of these YEP Committee chairs have contributed time and energy to create an inclusive environment that all can enjoy. 

It was extremely important to me and chapter board members that we appreciate our program managers. The success we have as an organization is based on the daily contribution from these impact players. They even sacrifice their weekends to ensure successful events! Our profession is surrounded by these supportive members of the community.

We celebrated our new licenses at our wonderful event at the W Hollywood. The time and energy spent successfully completing the CPA Exam is no easy feat and each of these new licensees deserved an evening of recognition. 

Diversity and inclusion have been at the forefront of our board. We expressed our support by doing something the LA Chapter had never done before: We created an event supporting our women’s soccer team, Angel City Football Club. Not only did we get to celebrate the team’s win, but we also got to celebrate on the field! 

Our CalCPA scholarship recipients put together a video to thank our scholarship donors. Those that contribute to our Scholarship Fund make a direct impact on our student member’s ability to enter the profession. Your contributions helped hundreds, if not thousands of students enter the CPA profession and our scholarship recipients wanted to thank all those donors. 

Lastly, we wanted to celebrate you, the CPA. Your contributions to our profession have led us to where we are today. We worked for more than 15 months with the Los Angeles Business Journal to create the inaugural event celebrating our CPA profession. The success of this event was in large part thanks to the contribution of the Los Angeles Business Journal, which saw our vision to celebrate our profession’s success.

As we approach 2023, I can’t help but thank the volunteering efforts of our members and the firms that support them. If you want to make a meaningful impact, consider joining us at CalCPA.