AGA Guam Chapter - Advancing Government Accountability

Photo Gallery by GVB

Congratulation to member, Josephine Villanueva for passing the CGFM exam!

If you have comments or suggestions, please contact us.
_______________________________

Message from the President

April 2012

President’s Message

Hafa Adai, AGA Guam Chapter! Last month’s Certified Government Financial Manager’s activities turned out to be a huge success. Whether you were able to join us for the Proclamation Signing at the Governor’s Office designating March as CGFM Month, our free training on Overcoming Negativity in the Workplace with Dr. Karri Perez, our Building Bridges Mixer with the Guam Society of Certified Public Accountants and Junior Accountants’ Society, or our monthly general membership meeting with a Legislative Resolution from Dr. Judith Guthertz, we were definitely “Celebrating our AGA Membership” throughout the month of March. Thank you all for your contributions toward making our Chapter so successful.

As we draw closer to the end of our program year, we are now in the transition phase for our new leaders to assume leadership of the AGA Guam Chapter. Some of the highlights for this month include our nominations and annual election for officers, submission of chapter awards and recognition to AGA National, recognition of the recipients of the 2012 Herminia Dierking Scholarship, eligibility for the scholarship to attend the 61st Professional Development Conference (PDC) in San Diego, and our upcoming general membership meeting.

Nominations and Elections for Program Year 2012-2013
Can you believe it’s April already? Our chapter year ends on June 30th and we are starting to prepare the transition of the President, President-Elect, Treasurer, and Secretary positions. Our bylaws require we hold our annual elections before the end of April, so this month’s meeting will include the election of next year’s officers. Nominations for President-Elect, Treasurer, and Secretary have been open since February and will still be open until our April meeting. Our current slate of candidates include Doreen Crisostomo, Ph.D., CGFM – President-Elect, Gloria Travis, CGFM – Secretary, and Yukari Hechanova, CPA, CGFM, CIA, CGAP – Treasurer. Please email all nominations to President-Elect and Chairperson of the Nominations Committee, Jason Katigbak, at jason.katigbak@gu.ey.com. The winners of our election will be serving with Jason Katigbak for program year 2012-2013.

Chapter Awards and Recognition
Earlier this year, AGA National put out a call to all organizations to submit nominations for the annual awards presentation at the 61st PDC in San Diego. The AGA Guam Chapter submitted several nominations, including the Chapter Education Award, Chapter Service Award, Community Service Award, Chapter CGFM Award, and Emerging Leader Award of Excellence. We will also be submitting nominations for the Newsletter and Website awards.

Our Education Committee comprising of Chairperson Jason Katigbak and Co-Chairperson Rodalyn Marquez were nominated for the Chapter Education Award. As our Education Chairperson mentioned, the goal for this year was to provide our current and potential members with quality training that is relevant, timely, comprehensive, and affordable. Throughout the year, we were able to provide training on Performance Measurement and Budgeting, Government Accounting Updates, and Overcoming Negativity in the Workplace. We are also in the planning stages for the 2012 Guam Professional Development Conference to take place in July 2012 at the Nikko Hotel in Tumon, Guam.

Our Chapter Service Award nominee this year is Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks, CPA, CGFM. Public Auditor Brooks has been a member of AGA since 2001 and has been a champion for advancing government accountability for many years. She has served in the chapter and regional levels as the AGA Guam Chapter President-Elect, President, Pacific Rim Regional Vice-President-Elect, and Regional Vice-President. She is the first Chamorro CPA and first-elected Public Auditor of Guam. She has also served as a three-term Senator in the Guam Legislature, Accounting Professor at the University of Guam, Director of the Bureau of Budget and Management Research, and Vice-President/Chief Financial Officer of the Bank of Guam.

One thing I love about the AGA Guam Chapter is our willingness to give our time and efforts towards our community service projects. Our Community Service Committee Chairperson Lourdes Perez and Co-Chairperson Jocelyn Untalan have led many efforts for our members to participate in projects ranging from our annual 5K run/walk, financial literacy campaign, Kusinan Kamalen Karidat (soup kitchen) feeding, Salvation Army Bell Ringing and Canned Food Drive, etc. We couldn’t have done it alone, so thank you everyone for being so giving.

Over the year, our Chapter CGFM Committee has done a great job of promoting the CGFM. For that, the efforts of our CGFM Committee Chairperson Jose B. Guevara III and Co-Chairperson Gloria Travis have been recognized with their nomination for the Chapter CGFM Award. Jojo and Gloria have made several presentations to University of Guam and Guam Community College students as well as coordinated CGFM activities with government leaders that promote this very important certification.

Our Emerging Leader Award of Excellence nominee this year is Rodalyn Marquez, CGFM, CPA, CIA, CGAP. Rodalyn is currently an Audit Supervisor with the Guam Office of Public Accountability. The Emerging Leader Award recognizes individuals with 5-10 years of experience within the government financial management industry. Over the past 9 years, I have witnessed first-hand the path and promise that Rodalyn exhibits daily as a government professional.

Thank you to Taling Taitano, our Chapter Awards and Recognition Chairperson for assisting in the nominations process. Good luck to all our nominees.

Herminia Dierking Scholarship
Congratulations to University of Guam students Nina Kharlene Doromal, Angeline Nieto, and Anthony Quenga for being awarded the 2012 Herminia Dierking Scholarship. Nina and Angeline are Accounting majors, while Anthony majors in Marketing. Each student received a $1,500 scholarship from the AGA during our March general meeting. Congratulations to the winners!

The AGA Guam Chapter committed $10,000 to our potential scholarship recipients for Program Year 2011-2012. As an organization, we recognize the importance of higher education and the need to assist our deserving college students. By awarding the Herminia Dierking Scholarship (UOG) and AGA Guam Chapter Scholarship (GCC) annually, it allows our future accountability professionals to also become more familiar with the Association of Government Accountants and what we stand for. Our chapter will continue to fund these worthy scholarships and share our knowledge about the profession with college students.

PDC Scholarship Raffle
Every program year, your AGA Guam Chapter sponsors an annual scholarship raffle for eligible members to attend the upcoming PDC. To become eligible, an AGA member must (1) be in good standing, (2) attend at least 8 of the 10 meetings starting in August, and (3) volunteer for one community service project. Our Membership committee Valerie Mafnas and Bobbie Howard have been tracking attendance and involvement in community service projects and will be notifying our eligible (or close to eligible) members by the end of April. Our raffle will take place during our May general membership meeting. Winners will be joining me in San Diego in late July, early August for the 61st Annual PDC.

Membership Meetings
Our guest speaker for our March general meeting was the Honorable Judith P. Guthertz, Senator, 31st Guam legislature. As the current chairperson of the Committee on the Guam Military Buildup and Homeland Security, Dr. Guthertz provided an update on the military buildup on Guam. She also presented a Legislative Resolution to all of Guam’s CGFM’s in honor of CGFM Month. Thank you, Dr. Guthertz for all your assistance and for being our guest speaker.

Our guest speaker for this month’s general meeting is Special Agent Garold Hewitt, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Agent Hewitt will provide us with a presentation on “White Collar Crime on Guam and the Pacific.” Our general meeting will be held at the Outrigger Guam Resort on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 with doors opening at 11:30am. Please join us.

For more information on AGA happenings, meetings and events, please read our newsletter or visit our website at http://aga.guam.net <http://aga.guam.net/> . If you’re interested in joining any of our committees, please feel free to email me at vduenas@guamopa.org or contact any of our CEC members. Thank you.

Vincent Duenas
President
AGA Guam Chapter

Guam Time

___________________________________

Quick Links

>> AGA National Website
>> Pacific Rim Partners
>> GovGuam Agencies
>> Job Opportunities
>> Contact Us
Last updated 05/16/12
>> AGA Fraud Prevention ToolKit

Chapter News

2011 AGA-Guam CCR
April 2012 Newsletter

__________________________________

Upcoming Events

May 30, 2012
General Membership Meeting
Dr. Robert Underwood, President
University of Guam
Topic: Leadership
Location: Outrigger Guam Resort
Time: 12 noon

For more information on our membership meetings for this program year, please click on "Our Meetings" tab above.

PDC Scholarship Raffle
Our raffle will take place during our May general membership meeting. Winners will represent the AGA Guam Chapter in San Diego in late July, early August for the 61st Annual PDC. For more information, please visit our membership website.

Guam Professional Development Conference New!
(formerly PEIC)
Dates: July 17-19, 2012
Locations: Hotel Nikko Guam
Earn up to 24 hours of CPEs
See flyer and registration form at this link.