President's Message

December 2008

 

Dear IMA Colleagues,

If you weren’t there on October 29, you missed a mighty fine conference. 

Our 7th Annual Fall Conference was a big success.  Record attendance, great speakers, interesting topics, and a great venue.   A big nod of appreciation to the conference committee: Jim Horsch, Chris Mishler, Lee Bennett, Sue Bos, Teresa DeBaeke, Sue Crane, and Lynn Margulies.   I must also recognize the continued support of our Gold Sponsors, Robert Half/Accountemps, and our Corporate Sponsors, Comerica Bank and Cleary University.  Look on the Conference page of this site for a recap and photos from this big event.

In our IMA national competition, through September, the Upper Peninsula Chapter is in 4th place in the Warner Division among chapters under 100 members.  Detroit Metro leads the larger Michigan Regional chapters at 31st place in the Stevenson Division. Each division consists of about 200 IMA chapters.

I have heard that the recent Student Conference in Jacksonville went very well.  We will be getting a report regarding the conference in coming days.

Lee Bennett has done a fantastic job rejuvenating our website.  This site is even more useful than before, with updated listings of events and news for IMA members in our region.  To further improve chapters' websites, we are asking that chapters needing help in getting their pages up-to date contact Lee.  Look for comments from Lee in our winter newsletter as well as on the website.

We are fast approaching the end of 2008 and many of you will be planning your fiscal year-end activities.  In advance of crunch time we will be holding our next Council Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, December 4th at La Senorita in Lansing.   If you have an item for the agenda please let me know.   I also ask for a report from the Chapter Presidents in advance of this meeting – let the rest of the Council know how your chapter is doing and what you have planned.  

I look forward to seeing you on December 4.

Regards,

Bob

September 2008

 

Dear IMA Colleagues,

Welcome to the newly re-designed website of the IMA Michigan Regional Council. And welcome to the members of the Michiana Chapter who have recently become part of our Michigan Council. The Council strives to encourage active membership in the IMA and participation at the local Chapter level. The Council Board has already been active preparing for the new year. Two goals will constitute our primary focus:

  1. Chapter Assistance – the Council wants to do what it can to help promote its member chapters, and to increase attendance at local meetings and participation on chapter boards.

  2. Students and Young Professionals – the future of this organization depends on the influx of new members. The IMA has long been active in providing professional development opportunities for students in accounting and finance programs. We wish to increase our reach to even more students. We also want to let those who are early in their career know about what the IMA is about, and that there is a chapter near them that would love to meet them at their next event.

The Council’s single biggest event, our annual IMA Michigan Fall Conference will be held this year in E. Lansing on October 29th. The full day of professional development is always a crowd pleaser. Please see the Conference page for details.

The Michigan Council board meeting dates are September 4, 2008; December 4, 2008; and March 5, 2009 (refer to our homepage for meeting times and location).

The Council can always put additional volunteers to good use, so please feel free to contact me or any other board member.

Here’s to a great year for the IMA. Thanks for your continued support.

Robert (Bob) Maddox
Council President 2008-2009
madxofaa@aol.com

734-662-5667 (h) or 734-330-7807 (c)

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