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Meeting
Minutes:
Friday, May 6, 2005
Volume 12; Issue 15 |
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Table of Contents
Committee Reports
Membership
Report
(Click here
to go to the Membership page)
We were
joined today by Bob & Sally Becker. They are have been
invited to join MABE in the realtor position. Their office
is located at the corner of Baseline and Pennington. They
do both commercial and residential realty.
Mark
Grant revisited our group today and brought in part 2 of his
membership application. If there are no objections to this
applicant, Mark will be invited to join our group.
Roger
Carpenter will get in touch with Roy Anderson about his pending
application.
Mark Grant
GTI Contractors Inc.
Sponsoring
Member:
Gus Dekavallas
Part 1 of Application:
Completed
Visited Group: 04/29/05
Part 2 of Application:
Completed
Status: IN
PROGRESS
Roy Anderson
Granite Transformations
Sponsoring
Member:
Roger Carpenter
Part 1 of Application:
Completed
Visited Group: 04/29/05
Part 2 of Application:
Status: IN PROGRESS
The mentoring committee would like to meet
with all new members next Friday immediately following the
regular meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to tell new
members about MABE and to go over their expectations of the
group as well as the groups expectations of them.
Social Report
(Click here to go to the Social Event page)
No report...just pictures.
Speaker Coordinator Report
(Click here to go to the Speaker Schedule)
Main Speaker
- 05/13/05
Bob Uber
- 05/20/05
Joe Zingale
- 05/27/05
No Meeting
- 06/03/05
Round Table - Negotiating Leases
Spotlight Speaker
Treasurer Report
Only one member still owes dues for the
current quarter.
Leads Report
46-06, 44-04, 17-24, 42-02, 29-46, 12-05, 18-15, 18-10, 18-28
(x2), 18-23, 05-07, 05-06, 05-25, 05-28, 49-17, 10-32, 45-13,
21-13, 21-24, 47-21, 22-13, 22-26, 22-23, 04-45, 04-21, 27-35,
31-34 (x2), 31-41, 14-13, 43-02, 40-19, 02-40, 25-45, 25-39,
51-41, 51-28.
This week's
leads focus...
Business Spotlight
Floodlight
Roman Okonowski was today's Business
Floodlight. Here is what he had to say...
The state of Arizona has a new law affecting uninsured
drivers. It is now extremely important that you have
current insurance ID cards in your vehicle at all times.
They now have the authority to impound your car on-sight and you
could be looking fines starting at $700!
If you think it takes a while for your claim
to get processes...It has been several years after 9-11 and the
WTC is still in the news. The first jury declared that
this was one occurrence. The second jury declared that it
was two occurrences. They will now go to a third jury
trial. No money has been settled. The carriers are
in financial trouble so pieces may never be paid.
2004 was the first year since 1978 that
underwriters saw a profit. Unfortunately, they seem to be
repeating the same mistakes that got them in trouble before.
Employment practice liability. Coverage
is available. Be careful. Arizona is a right to work
state but you are not exempt from federal law.
Do you volunteer on a board? Does your
home owners policy cover any potential liability? Probably
not. Be sure the organization has directors and officers
liability insurance.
Just another reminder that if everything were
covered, they would only need one page to tell you.
Insurance is not an exciting commodity but it is a valuable one.
You need to have it and you need to understand it. Know
your exposure. Self insure out of understanding, not
ignorance.
Notable Mentions
USE TAX
- Mike Whalen received a letter
from the Arizona Department of Revenue. They want him to
audit himself. He was asked to go back four years and
calculate how much use tax he owes the state. Has anyone
else had this happen?
This tends to happen every 10 years when the
state government needs a bump in revenue. They target
industries. When they did this 10 years ago they targeted
the service industries. Their goal is not only to raise
much needed revenue but to get you started paying use tax from
now on. The department is under-funded and under-staffed.
Sending the letter and asking you to do the work is the cheapest
route for them to take.
Main Speaker
Mark
Dreher
Wallace,
Plese + Dreher, L.L.P.
Mark grew up in Michigan. He was an
only child but became very close to a friend across the street.
They are still close to this day. His mom worked for Ford
and his dad worked for a manufacturing company. They moved
here 4 years ago.
Mark graduated from the University of
Michigan and went to work in Detroit for a CPA firm. He
was fortunate to work on one really good client, Discount Tire
Co. They brought him to Arizona. He loved the
weather and it was a better economy here. In September of
'81 he made the move.
His first job in Arizona was for one of the
largest local firms. He started as a senior accountant and
worked his way up to partner. In the interim, the firm was
sold to a large national firm. He soon found out that
being one of 400 partners didn't mean much accept that he was
now personally exposed to any liability.
In 1991 Mark decided that it would be in his
best interest to leave the firm. He was 100% vested so he
took his money and signed a non-compete agreement. He then
went to work as CFO of ComCare. This was as close to
working for the government as he ever wants to get.
In 1993 his non-compete agreement expired.
He partnered with some friends from the old firm and started
Wallace, Plese + Dreher. In 1997 they hired their first
real employee. Since then they have grown to a staff of 22
people and have moved twice to accommodate their growth.
Accounting for small businesses is a lot
different from that of large companies. The rules are
pretty complicated. And they have been made even more
complicated with the 2001 Enron & WorldCom situations. The
rules that resulted have had a big effect on the accounting
industry. CFO's and the like face a lot of liability which
they won't accept without compensation. Same with the
professional services. Accountant fees are up 25-40% and
legal fees have risen as well. It is costly for public
firms to follow compliance laws. Many firms are shifting
to private companies.
Four firms dominate the industry. They
are the only ones qualified to audit the largest firms in the
world. There is a huge demand for accountants. New
graduates are getting jobs right out of college starting at
$80,000. Unfortunately, they are overworked doing boring
jobs and they are only learning the compliance rules.
Mark's firm is going to a paperless system.
He is hopeful that this will mean he never has to look for a
file again. They are also evaluating the effectiveness and
worth of using a tax notebook system. One thing they
will not do is hire a company in India that has $6.00/hr
employees entering important financial data into records for
them.
Mark is also actively involved with the East
Valley Partnership (EVP). He helped start this group
almost 13 years ago. They are dedicated to improving
business in the East Valley. One of their first big
projects was getting the Superstition Freeway built along with
our first hospital and branch of the court house. One of
the projects they are focusing on now is developing the NW Pinal
County are. There is 250 square miles of state trust
property undeveloped and they state doesn't have the financial
means to develop it. The EVP is raising the money
privately. Contact Mark if you would like to learn more
about this project.
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