Professor Elam

This Month at San Antonio Institute of internal AuditorsI at ten

Thursday July 18, 2013

I attended the IIA monthly meeting this week. The cheif internal auditor from Rackspace, the CIty of San Antonio, and one other organization took questions from the audience. 

My question regarded the necessity of certifications upon being hired. The City Auditor, wihtout consulting any notes, reamrked that of the 19 on this staff, 15 had a certification. He noted that to be promoted one had to pass either 

CPA

CIA

Certified Fraud Examiner CFE

or Certified Infomrantion System Auditor CISA

The other two Auditors replied that it was 'highly recommended' that one begin obtaining certifications. I also noted that all three of these fellows each  have multiple certifications. 

So there you go, I know I sound like  a broken record on this topic but this is a great example of what I hve been saying in class.

Profile of a Toastmaster Meeting

Wed July 17, 2013

Here is the agenda for an upcoming Toastmaster Meeting at Southwest Research. As you can see things are quite organized and  run on time. Our TAMUSA Toastmaster group has attended other meetings here in town to get a feel and advice on how to do this in a first class manner. Thanks to Ruben Medrano for sending this to me. I have added a category to this blog for TAMUSA Toastmasters so you can quickly to go all the posts on that subject. 

Slick Talkers

Club 8772

The mission of a Toastmaster Club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.

Time*	Role / Agenda Item for July 19, 2013	Member
11:30AM 11:33AM	President Calls Meeting to Order Invocation / Pledge Welcome Guests	Chris Bemben
11:33AM 11:35AM	Invocation The invocation, usually an inspirational thought, is an optional part of club meetings. It is usually delivered by a designated club member at the beginning of the meeting, and is sometimes combined with or replaced by the pledge and/or the thought of the day.	Jana Halverson
11:35AM 11:38AM	Toastmaster The Toastmaster opens the meeting and introduces the other roles. Today's theme is TBD	Chris Bemben
-	Joke Master Provide a prepared short humorous moment at the beginning of the meeting.	Alana Woods, DTM
-	Word Master Provide a word for speakers to use during the meeting. Count the number of times the word is used and not who used it. When called upon during the evaluation portion of the meeting, report on use of the word.	Cameron Monroe
-	Trivia Provide a short predentation on either some topic related to Toastmasters or to the theme of the day	David Vickers, ACB
-	Vote Counter Collect and count votes	Alana Woods, DTM
11:38AM 11:45AM	Speaker #1	David Vickers, ACB
11:45AM 11:52AM	Speaker #2 Manual / Speech / Time: Other Manual or Non Manual Speech Custom Speech (5 to 7 min) Speech Title: TBD	Kwok H. Lai
-	Backup Speaker Ready to speak if needed, Plan to be a speaker at the next meeting if not needed at this one.	Jana Halverson
11:52AM 12:12PM	Table Topics Impromptu speaking. The Table Topics master calls upon several members to deliver 1-2 minute talks on a topic announced right before the member is chosen.	Veronica Trejo
12:12PM 12:15PM	Evaluator #1 Evaluates speaker #1.	Carol Clark
12:15PM 12:18PM	Evaluator #2 Evaluates speaker #2.	Laura Vela, CC
12:18PM 12:23PM	General Evaluator Evaluates the meeting in whole.	David Halverson
12:23PM 12:24PM	Timer Keeps the time of each role and reports times.	Cameron Monroe
12:24PM 12:26PM	Grammarian Evaluates the usage of grammar and acts as the "ah counter".	Eva Carpenter, CC/ALB
12:26PM 12:27PM	Ah Counter Note whenever speakers use "ah", "um", "er" or other filler words. Use the clicker or the bell to let the speakers know when they have used one of these filler words. When called on during the evaluation portion, report on the use of the filler words during the meeting.	Eva Carpenter, CC/ALB
12:27PM 12:30PM	Toastmaster Closes Meeting The Toastmaster returns once more to close the meeting and give some final words about the meeting.	Chris Bemben

 

Petroleum Accountants' Scholarship, APA certification

Tuesday July 16, 2013

Today I attended a meeting of the Petroleum Accountants Society of San Antonio PSSA.

You will recall I announced that this group is offering 5 - $1,000 scholarships for accounting students interested in this field. The group has grown from less than 30 to over 70 in the last few years. 

You will recall that I mentioned there would probably not be near as many applicants for the scholarship in that they announced it over the summer with an August 15 deadline. Sure enough, even though the announcement was sent ot half a dozen different universities, only ONE PERSON HAS APPLIED!  Here at TAMUSA I know of only one person that has asked for an application.

AS I SAID IN CLASS, IF YOU DO NOT APPLY YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY BE SELECTED !

Please e mail me for an application. I will leave some printed applications as well at the College of Business desk with Cynthia and Renee this Thursday. 

All student who have been in my classes are aware of my emphasizing the importance of obtaining a certification. Sure enough there is a Accredited Petroleum Accountant Certification Program. APA.

However I see the hurdle to  qualify is  incredibly high. One has to have

an accounting degree -reasonable

five years experience in petroleum industry accounting - this seems onerous as the person is likely doing pretty much the same thing for five years, ie one really has one year experience repeated five times

and one must be a CPA - well in that case why bother, this should be the other way around, allowing someone who is NOT a cpa but who knows this field to qualify, 

So not an alternative for our students but 

I would think many of you should be applying for the scholarship. 

One more thing,  of three people I visited with today at their meeting, none had a business card. 

Do not let this happen to you, have cards printed and put them everywhere, in our back pack, book bag, car, desk at home, purse, pockets of frequently worn jackets, etc. 

 

 

Too Many Lawyers, Perusing the WSJ

Tuesday July 16 2013

Let's take a look at today's WSJ for a sample of what it tells us about what is going on.

Yesterday the op ed columns warned of a  coming disaster in disability payments, too many on disability. And another column suggested individuals would be able to sue the government over required health insurance as the government arbitrarily changed the date for business coverage. 

Today Brett Stephens former Editor of the Jerusalem Post, refers to Secy of State John Kerry as a fool on a fool's errand dealing with Palestine, no fudging on his opinion!

The  retreat from Law Schools continues. 

Regional Hamline Regional Law School in St. Paul has seen its enrollment drop 55% since 2010, now only 100 in the entering class. Seton Hall in Newark cut its enrollment 43%. These are huge adjustments. What's the deal?

In my lifetime the practice of law and the idea that law school was some sort of gilded quest for greatness took hold in the 1970s. Numerous movies and television series held the study of law out to be both difficult and supremely reward, something never suggested about accounting. Lawyers were portrayed as larger than life heroes, always fighting for the underdog. 1973's The Paper Chase won John Houseman an Oscar for his portrayal of the tough Harvard Law Professor, it became a tv series for several years. 

And so tens of thousands of liberal arts majors, with no particular job prospects in sociology and such, went to law school. College discovered this to be a wonderful source of revenue. No Labs, no expensive electronic equipment, just a blackboard and a lawyer in front of students. Schools raised money from law firms, built fancy buildings, and then, there were lots more lawyers than demand. Today computers can scan documents for potential erros while many law grads work by the hour. Now law school grads are suing law schools over false promises of job prospects. 

There is a great demand for accountants as that field continues to expand. In addition the difficulty of the CPA exam versus the Bar exam acts as a gatekeeper for the profession. 

I previously reported that here in Texas the pass rate on the last Bar Exam went from a high of 95% for Baylor graduates to a low of 66% for Texas Southern Graduates. Now contrast that with the fact that the highest pass rate on part of the CPA exam is 66%, and usually only UT Austin and College Station A & M hit that level. Most regional school grads score under 50%. And the failure to properly prepare with resulting horrible results has turns many away from further pursuing CPA status. 

On Page A 3 more and more students are seeking Certificates at Community Colleges rather than degrees. That is a shorter route to employment. Quick now, if you were an employer would you hire

someone certified in MSFT Office

Or someone with an anthropology degree, just wondering...

On page A6 Boards are snapping up female CFOs, one notes that SARBOX really increased the demand for diversity on Boards. 

Finally on page D3 the Torres brothers, aged 60, are quite successful pickle ball players. This game is played with a large whiffle ball on a shortened tennis court, well it sounds better than tennis to me!

 

Dr. Deming Would Be Proud of These Companies

Wednesday July 10, 2013

Yesterday I received an e mail from Discount Tire that my Yokahama 235 x 40 x 18x on my Cobalt SS were due for a free rotation. Sure enough, their computer correctly guessed I had logged another six thousand miles since my last rotation. So I scheduled an appointment for this morning at 8:45, they suggested I arrive ten minutes early. I took them up on that idea and arrived about 8:25. There was a comfortable chair, fresh real coffee, and the latest issue of Road and Track (what a concept a car magazine at a tire store) to read. I brought along the last three issues of the Wall Street Journal to prepare for writing my newspaper column as well later this morning . They immediately got to work both rotating and re balancing all four tires. bingo, at 8 48 I pulled out of the lot, job done. the attendant set the tires at 35 psi since as he noted I had arrived with them warm and they looked like needing a bit more air given the wear. I purchased the tires their as Yokahoma apparently had a deal with Discount offering an incredible 45,000 miles on such a performance tire. 

On the way back the wife had requested one of her favorite guilty pleasures, a breakfast on a bun meal deal from Whataburger. I am puzzled as to why Whataburger has not, like McDonalds risen to the Starbucks challenge. MCD now offers up scale coffees at MCD rather than Starbuck prices. It has note dented Starbuck's sales but has no doubt helped MCD. At any rate, the gal was pronto ready at the register, promptly delivered the orange juice, and then the bagged meal. Note that Whataburger hides the condiments behind the counter. One is offered a choice of them when the meal is delivered. This is classic good cost control via managerial accounting. No wasting of salt, pepper, or catsup by the customer. I also read the CEO has little interest in simply exapnding the number of stores just for growth alone, smart guy. 

I hope that your exposure to ACCT 3314 this summer has made you more aware of such customer innovations. If you end up with your own business, plan on impelmenting some managerial cost ideas for success. 

Steinway sells to Kohlberg for $4358 million

Tuesday July 2 2013

Storied Steinway Musical Instruments is going private in a $35 a share bid by private equity Steinway. 

Here i s graph of LVB dating aback to pre crash levels of 2008. Note this is the highest price it has 

traded at since then. Typically a buy out requires higher than existing price by the buyer. Key Statistics for LVB are here.

Questions for class discussion

1. Why is Kohlberg buying now?  For perspective in forming your answer, here is a 14 year chart of LVB.

2. What do you see among the statistics that would attract your buying interest?

3. Are there other qualitative reasons to buy LVB?  What is the difference between a quantitative and a qualitative reason? Should that influence the buyer?

We are studying Equity in ACCT 3310 and Analysis in ACCT 3314, that makes this a great instructional moment and another reason you should be reading financial blogs and the Wall Street Journal.