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July 10: Summer Planning Session 1 @ L Kroiss Home.

Keeping Your Best on Board: Retention Tactics That Work

 Practical Tips & Tricks for the Workplace

Brush up on your Excel skills by going to www.aswa4.org and clicking the “Excel” tab. ASWA member Leslie Miller of L. Miller Consulting Company has provided resources available for download, including tutorials on beginner to advanced functions of Excel.

Special Thanks
to the Spokane Office of Accountemps
for providing the

 

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Member Highlights

The board member spotlight shines on Joyce Towne this month. Joyce has been a very involved member of the ASWA Spokane chapter and continues to be a great resource for all.

Joyce has served as treasurer, recording secretary, vice president, president elect, and president. She has also served on various committees, including the National Nominating Committee and the Regional Conference Committee.

Joyce graduated from Whitworth College and has her CPA license. She has worked for McFarland & Alton and Holy Cross Cemetery before retiring and working during tax season at Goodman CPA. Goodman CPA, owned by Connie Goodman, another ASWA member, had its first tax season this year.

When not working during tax season, Joyce can be found with her family. Joyce and her husband have 4 children, 13 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.

What message does Joyce have for members? “I love ASWA.” More specifically, she loves the conferences, camaraderie, contacts, and the CPE credits.

HIGHLIGHTS OF APRIL’S DINNER MEETING
Leslie Miller introduced our speaker, Dr. Molly Pepper of Gonzaga University. The presentation entitled “Hate in the Workplace” covered a broad range of issues. I learned that many types of behavior from a slight offense to physical violence can be categorized as “hate”. Her findings concluded that in the majority of cases, reporting a bully may not result in any changes.

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Unhappily Ever After
Dissatisfaction With Management is the Top Reason Good Employees Quit

When top performers decide to jump ship, managers may want to consider a little self-reflection, a recent survey suggests. More than one-third (35 percent) of executives interviewed said good employees are most likely to quit their jobs because of unhappiness with management. This is up from 23 percent when the question was asked five years ago. Limited opportunities for advancement was the second most common answer, cited by 33 percent of respondents.

The survey was developed by Robert Half International, the world's first and largest staffing services firm specializing in accounting and finance. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on interviews with 150 senior executives from the nation's 1,000 largest companies. Executives were asked, "Which of the following is most likely to cause good employees to quit their jobs?" Their responses: (more.....)

Making the Most of Your Meetings

Yawning. Glazed-over eyes. Compulsive watch-checking.

These are just a few signs that a meeting is unnecessary, has gone on too long, or is just plain boring. While nobody wants to be the leader of a meeting gone awry, it can happen to the best of professionals. The good news is that you can guard against ineffective gatherings by taking these steps:

Break the habit. In many companies, certain meetings have become such a habit that no one — not even the facilitator — steps back to ask whether there’s still a compelling reason to get together. Remember: Just because a gathering is standard practice doesn’t mean it’s necessary. Before automatically booking the usual conference room, ask yourself if a routine meeting has outlived its original purpose. Sending an e-mail or memo is often a more effective way to share information that doesn’t require significant group input.

Select invitees with care. You’ve likely been required by your boss to attend meetings where your only thought was, “Why am I here?” Don’t perpetuate the problem. Before calling a meeting, always review your list of invitees to determine if everyone on it truly needs to be in on the discussion. Participants should have a stake in the majority of items on your agenda. If your list is extensive, it can be a signal that you’ve A) planned an overly ambitious meeting or B) invited some people whose time would be better utilized elsewhere. Moreover, when you include individuals as a courtesy but their presence isn’t really required, be sure to list them as “optional.”

Respect the time of participants. Perhaps the biggest challenge for any meeting leader is maintaining focus. Minimize time-wasting tangents by creating an outline covering the key points of discussion and any pertinent background details. Provide it to participants ahead of time so that they can prepare accordingly. Once the meeting starts, stick closely to your agenda, and rein in the conversation the minute it begins to meander off track. Even if an exchange is on-topic, be prepared to cut off discussion if that one item begins to jeopardize the time remaining for other issues. And if there’s still important ground to cover when you’re approaching the scheduled ending time, set aside the last few minutes to arrange a brief follow-up meeting.  Another Accountemps article!

The Mary M. Fraijo
Scholarship Fund

Our local Scholarship Fund is named in honor of Mary M. Fraijo (1927-1995). Mary became a charter member of the Coeur D' Alene, Idaho chapter of ASWA in 1958. She joined the Spokane chapter in 1967. Mary held later the Northwest Area Director of ASWA continuing to mentor young, bright students and accountants.