Professor Elam

Lost i Phone in 139 thursday

Labor Day Weekend August 31 2013

A big favor to ask: Would you please send the students in both of your Thursday afternoon classes that meet in Room 139 an e-mail asking them to let someone know if they found an I-Phone 4 in that classroom last Thursday.  I am hoping that a student picked it up with the plan to bring it to campus after the Holiday.  No problem with this, I just need to know that the phone is in good hands.

The phone belongs to Henry Ramirez of supply chain fame. If anyone has the phone please bring it to class so I can return it to henry. It is locked on the alarm setting when it was lost. 

TSCPA Scholarship

Wednesday August 28, 2013

 

The Accounting Education Foundation of the Texas Society of CPAs is pleased to announce that applications for scholarships for the 2013-2014 academic year are now available. Last year, the foundation was able to award over $140,000 in scholarships to Texas students intending to earn the CPA credential. This year, the award amount will be $2,500 without renewal.

We have changed our scholarship program from prior years. We ask that you follow the following steps in connection with this scholarship program:

1. Distribute the application link to those students you think will be eligible to receive an award. The eligibility criteria are listed in this email. Ask them to complete the application form online.  Once the student submits the application, the department chair will receive an email notification that reads “TSCPA Official Scholarship Nomination Form”.  The chair must complete and submit the email to officially nominate the student. The application deadline is September 30, 2013.
2. To encourage applications from all accounting programs in the state, the Foundation is allocating scholarship applications based on the number of candidates from your school who sat for the CPA examination in 2012. For your school, the maximum is two (2) applications.
3. Each student must request an official university transcript.  The transcript should be sent directly to:  Accounting Education Foundation, 14651 Dallas Parkway, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas 75254-7408. This is important. The selection committee will not consider applications unless they are accompanied by an official transcript.
4. Submit evidence that the student has filed an Application of Intent with the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy to take the CPA Exam in the state of Texas.  The evidence should be sent to:  Accounting Education Foundation, 14651 Dallas Parkway, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas 75254-7408.

We appreciate your efforts in making this scholarship program a success and look forward to receiving applications from your students. Please contact Stephanie King at [email protected] if you have any questions on the application procedures.

 

The application link is:  https://secure.tscpa.org/aef/aefnewapp.asp

ACCOUNTING EDUCATION FOUNDATION 

Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants

Scholarship Program

                                                                                                                                            

GUIDELINES & INSTRUCTIONS

 

The Accounting Education Foundation of TSCPA has established a program to provide scholarship assistant to accounting students who plan to become Texas Certified Public Accountants and enter the accounting profession. 

 

To be considered for a TSCPA scholarship, a student must:

 

·         Attend a college or university which participates in Accounting Education Foundation programs and be nominated by the chairperson of the accounting department of the university.

 

·         Have satisfactorily completed at least 110 semester credit hours of college-level courses by August 31.  A recipient will normally be classified as a 5^th year student or graduate student in the fall semester or quarter.

 

·         Be an accounting major with the intent of becoming a Texas Certified Public Accountant and entering the accounting profession upon graduation.  The student is expected to be enrolled as a full-time college student (at least 12 semester credit hours each semester for undergraduate students/at least 9 semester credit hours each semester for graduate students).

 

·         File an Application of Intent to sit for the CPA Exam with the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.

 

·         Have an Accounting GPA of 3.6 or more on a 4.0 scale.

 

·         Have completed 21 semester credit hours of accounting courses required of accounting majors with a grade of B or better in each course by August 31.

 

·         Submit an official cumulative college transcript through the end of summer of the current academic school year to include semester or quarter hours earned and cumulative GPA.  If the applicant has attended more than one university, the cumulative college transcript should show grades and credit received for all previous schools.  If such transcript does not show a previous record, then a separate transcript (or transcripts) will be required.

 

FOR THE CHAIRPERSON AND THE STUDENT:

 

The chairperson of the department must nominate the applicant. Official transcript and evidence of filing an Application of Intent should be sent to the Accounting Education Foundation of TSCPA, 14651 Dallas Parkway, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas 75254-7408.  Deadline for receiving applications and all supporting documents is September 30, 2013.  Each college may nominate at least two students.  Awards will be made during the fall semester and the funds will be sent to the school for disbursement to the student.

 

Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

 

 

Stephanie King 
Accounting Manager
Texas Society of CPAs 

 

Evaluating a Speaker

Tuesday August 27, 2013

Carolyn Saint Is President of the North America Board of Institute of Internal Auidtors. This is a two minute video clip in which she urges students to consider internal audit as a career. Since I similarly do the same, I watched the clip with the intention of posting it. 

Hmmmm, after watching I decided this was a better lesson on how to deliver a two minute pitch ala Toastmasters than just a ptich for internal audit. Consider

Did she grab your attention at the start

Is the message concise and to the point

Does she describe enought of what an internal auditor does to make you want to know more

Was this an effective message to colege students

Is her outfit helpful or distracting?

These are all things that one learns in Toastmasters. Delivering an effective two minute pitch is one of the most difficult things in media. This is why the creators of commercials for products and politicians get paid the big bucks.

Checking BB Announcements

Monday August 24, 2013

Are you checking the announcements on Black Board?  Did you spend the weekend running down the resources posted there under TAMUSA Accounting Resources?  I posted two more articles on how to get off to a fast start as an accounting student. All of this is to urge you to become engaged in a daily study of accounting now, not later in the semester. 

I spent my first three high school years at one school. Then I moved and finished the senior year at another high school. At KHS we only went to two debate tournaments a year. As a result we had little to no real world experience pitting ourselves against other schools. I never did any better than a 50% win two lose two in the first four rounds of those two tournaments. 

AHS however had won the state championship the previous year. The generous budget allowed the school to attend all the debate tournaments, well over a dozen as I would guess. The e coach set the bar .  I quickly learned I need to read at least an hour outside our daily class on the subject.  And I learned to be  far more prepared for the negative or status quo side of the issue. The first tournament was a mere six weeks into school A freshman partner and I won it outright winning al four rounds.  That was a first for me. The change took a mere six weeks. 

The change was realizing the degree of preparation required for success. The rest of the year I always qualified for the quarter final rounds, and won many extemperaneous and persuasive contests. The difference was preparation, every single day. 

I am attempting to pass on that lesson to you regarding the study of accounting. But whether you are Vladimir Horowitz or Phil Mickelson or Mike Phelps the Olympic swimmer or an accounting student here, it's all the same. 

As Phelps coach succintly put it, Mike practiced very day of the year, Christmas, New Year's his birthday. If you want to win at this as he put it, 

get in the water. 

Ballmer Resigns, Net Worth Advances $769 M

Monday August 26, 2013

Steve Ballmer  announced he will step down as the MSFT CEO by next year. The reaaction was an immediate jump in the stock price of two points.  That raised Ballmer's net worth by $769 M. 

Now suppose one of your firends, a psychology major, asked you to explain what happened. Can you do that?

The best article of course is in the WSJ today.It details some of the mistakes Ballmer made in cancelling potential consumer products. Here is an article detailinghow the c omputer world changed but MSFT never did.  One of the things you need to be successful as a professional is to understand how your company makes money. This article does a good job of explaing that. 

The purpose of this blog is to point out such articles that will increase your understanding of the application of accounting information. 

Now after reading the articles, can you explain what happened to your psychology major?

Bob Krueger Reflects on Football

Sunday August 25 2013

Former Senator Bob Krueger  reflects on stadium expansions in Texas. He notes that Texas seems more enchanted with football than achieving great colleges. The study he references only has Rice University in Texas in the nation's top 50. 

I would say the surveys raking the 'top' colleges fail in hat there is not nearly the difference between the top colleges, and whatever the next tier of colleges are. Today we all have near unlimited access to far more information at lower cost than was possible when I was an undergraduate. Back then schools prided themselves on the size of their library, ie, the store of knowledge at the school. Today all schools can share in cyber-space stored knowledge. 

The academic idea of a 'great professor' is one who publishes research. But le me ask you juniors seniors and grad students reading this blog. In your college experience, how many research papers have you read?  Hmm, that's what I thought. The great teachers in my opinion are great communicators with their students.  I frankly don't see the 'research' reaching the students. But then to me college is all about the students, not the resesarch. 

George Will noted a few years back that only 35 college teams will qualify for a bowl game anyone ever heard of.  But I notice that once schools pass say the 20,000 enrollment mark, the President assumes his or her school is just like UT or A & M, based on size alone. If that were true, Alamo CC would be in the Rose Bowl, the enrollment there after all is 60,000. But winning college football games is a tough assignment, A & M's experience the last ten years is a good lesson on that. At any rate, we see schools like Texas State and North Texas trying to wedge into Division One thinking that the Fountain of Eternal giving to the school is a mere touchdown away. But this is a fool's errand, building a consistent winning program is incredibly difficult, and inculcating a fan tradition requires long time rivalries, something not likely to happen when playing schools that lie across several state boundaries. 

I just checked, Trinity University has a football team, who knew?

What constitues a great school, here is one anecdotal story. 

One day when I was in my office at Texas State, a young lady probably 19-20 came by. She was in my class. She halted at my open door, almost apologetic in addressing me. I'm sorry to bother you, where is  the teaching assistant?  I laughed replying the buck stopped right here, no teaching assistants at Texas State, you just get the teacher. She was truly astonished, her jaw literally dropped. I Invited her to sit and chat. She related that the best decision she had ever made was leaving UT Austin for Texas State. She noted

her largest class at Tx State was smaller than her smallest class at UT

professors were frequentl ynot in class bu toff giving lectures or fund raising elsewhere. 

She had become  a cheerleader at Tx State. 

So, the best school for you is just that regardless of its naitonal ranking. 

Getting Off to a Fast Start in IntermediatePs

Saturday August 24 2013

I am teaching one Saturday hybrid 3312 class, others are twice a week, whith two 3311s and another 3312. As you will see I have assembled an array of resources to aid in your accounting study. We truly want you to believe that TAMUSA is a value added experience. 

Far  too many student wait to get really engaged in their accounting studies each semester. links are either on the syllabus or under course content on BB as TAMUSA Accounting Resources. I suggest you do the folloiwng 

After the first class, order your book in print if you want or buy the sixth edition off Amazon for a mere ten bucks. 

Examine the Schaums books, I have both and many students have done likewise so they are around, I suggest you order the intermediate versions off Amazon. 

Give Quantum and FAME a try, these are very well done self study sites.  While you are at it , log on to connect and give Learn Smart a try, it's free. 

This would be good time to familiarize yourself with the textbook site www.mhhe.com/spiceland7e

Remember there is a power point for every chapter, great review, I suggest you watch multiple times. just pull down the tab to the chapter you want and the power point is ther. Notice how the flash cards are a log like Learn Smart. 

Hey did you watch the Baruch site on the narrated description of the three statements, remember the link is on both the syllabus and TAMUSA Resources. 

Oh, hey, how about those weblogs, if you are reading this you already found the first. Scroll bck thru the summer posts to get a feel for what professorelam is all about. Read the links, this is a darned fine free business  course in and of itself. 

Try some of the lnks such as marketwatch and yahoo finance, read those particularly during the week to keep up with the news. 

And hey, don't forget to subscribe to the WSJ. I have sample copies coming in early September, why wait, start now and being increasing your contextual understanding of the markets. 

And oh one more thing, get a supply of yellow highlighters, my favorite shade, and start reading the textbook. Write down the Learning Objectives LBOs, practice on the sample problems, uh uh, no cheating, cover up the answer, go as far as you can without looking at the answer, okay take a peek but then repeat the entire process. As I said this morning, looking at the answer will only make you an expert at, yep, looking at the answer, it will do noting to teach you how to work problems. 

Welcome Back to Campus!

Thursday August 22 2013

This Georgia Tech Sophomore gives a rousing welcome to the next arrivals at Georgia Tech!

When One is Waist Deep In Alligators....

Wednesday August 21, 2013

It is hard to remember you were trying to drain the swamp. 

I have spent hours and hours preparing for the start of the semester only to encounter one difficulty after another. 

I spent Monday and Tuesday at school with both the MH rep and Michelle working on tblackboard and connect. 

Update Wed Aug 21 9 30 AM CST

Michelle using her student ID was able to access both the book and syllabus. If you have difficulty call Michelle Martin at  210 784 2307

 

Thanks for all for staying in touch. As you will see we have assembled more tools than ever to assist your study of accounting at TAMUSA.

Making Social Media Work for You

Tuesday August 20 2013

Millions of young people are spending millions of minutes on facebook and such. But to what purpose?  I mean is your goal on earth simply to let us know you hanging out at a bar or about to leave from the airport?

Here is an article on how 16 year old Aedan Richter writes book review blog. She estimates she has read about 400 books in her life. Her goal is to encourage reading among teens. Not surpisingly her Mom is a Communications Professor at Palo Alto CC. 

She has 45 reviews to date. 

Her point is well made. Reading makes us think, and it makes us better writers in a way no video game can achieve. We have students who I fear have never actually picked up a book and read it. Aside from that...

Aedan is creating a biography of her own. She is creating a record of accomplishment. I suspect that an admissions officer at a top college, the kind where admittance is tough, would be impressed at her initiative. 

Now to the point. If one is going to spend time on Facebook, why not do this constructively. Do your FB entries reflect a professional interest?  If you plan to go into accounitng or finance, do you post on accounitng and finance topics?  If not why not?

Make the most of your time and effort. Take a laser focused aim at improving your prospects by using social media to advance your own cause. I mean hey, thousands of people are at the airport, so what, tell us something about your chosen profession that reflects on you. 

Work smarter, not harder. 

Check Aedan out at

https://www.facebook.com/210teenlibrary