Assistants Network Session

Speaker: 

Peg Hartnett, Village of Bloomingdale

Session Description:

Come and join us to network with your fellow professionals on pertinent topics.  This is an opportunity to establish your own personal network among other GFOA members.

DROP

Speaker: 

Stan Helgerson, Village of Carol Stream

Joe McCoy, Illinois Municipal League

Sandor Goldstein, Goldstein and Associates

Session Description:

Explore the ups and downs of DROPs and learn how this retirement benefit could be structured for cost neutrality. DROP is expected to resurface in the 2007 legislative session.

Earn 1 CPE Credit

Associates Forum

Speaker: 

Fred Lantz, Sikich LLP

Session Description:  Discover the myriad ways IGFOA Associate Members can support professional public finance management.  Share tips for working with the public sector.

Leadership Dialogue

Speaker:

Paul Craig, University of Illinois

Session Description:

IGFOA is sponsoring the 1st in an annual series of Leadership Dialogues for Public Sector Finance Professionals.  The session is held in a relaxing yet challenging format. You will learn new concepts on leadership from the author’s words, the facilitator’s insights and the exchange of ideas from the other participants.  Participants in the Leadership Dialogue will receive and read the chosen book before the session.

The Leadership Dialogue is a journey of self-discovery and the exploration of new ideas about leadership. The chosen book, Endurance:  Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, will undergo a “semantic autopsy,” a procedure which lays open the author’s ideas and arguments to the scrutiny of the group. The emphasis is on discovery as the dialogue attempts to relate the author’s thesis to real-world issues facing contemporary leaders. Through the journey, participants will discover new concepts and invent new meaning for these ideas in their organizations. Participants explore the meaning and application of the author’s ideas to his or her life. This exploration, coupled with the dialogue experience, will leave you with a feeling of ownership of the book. Participants frequently return to a book as they would an old friend, when they seek some encouragement or special words of wisdom.

Click on the book for a preview

Earn 7 CPE Credit

REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE NOW!!!

ONLY 30 SEATS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE LEADERSHIP DIALOGUE.  YOU'LL RECEIVE THE BOOK IN THE MAIL.

How to Communicate Your Budget Message

Speaker: 

Julie Zolghadr, City of Springfield

Session Description: 

As public funds become increasingly limited, it becomes more important than ever to ensure the stakeholders of local government understand the financial issues facing their elected officials. Often times the real message is lost in a haze of buzzwords or technical jargon that fails to reach the target. This seminar will stress the importance of simplifying communication models to reach all levels of experience and understanding. The seminar will also point out communication pitfalls in dealing with elected officials, media outlets, special interest groups and others.

Earn 1 CPE Credit

Advanced Governmental Accounting

Speaker:

Fred Lantz, Sikich LLP

Janet Matthys, Sikich LLP

Brian LeFevre, Sikich LLP

Session Description:

This two-day session will address the complex challenges of implementing GASB standards and preparing useful financial reports.  Current hot topics in governmental accounting, recently enacted GASB pronouncements and pending issues will be covered.

Day 1 will cover accounting for Cash and Investments related to GASB 31, Disclosures for Cash and Investments related to GASB 40, Economic Condition Reporting related to GASB 44, Accounting for Debt Issues, Accounting for Capital Assets, and Accounting for Post Employment Benefits and Special Termination Benefits related to GASB 43, 45, and 47.

Day 2 will cover interfund transactions and Equity Reporting and GASB's Project Agenda and Future Pronouncements.

Earn 7 CPE Credit for Day 1

Contract Oversight

Speakers:

Mary Dankowski, Village of Park Forest

Dan LeTourneau, Risk Management Services

John Murphey, Murphey & Coblentz

Session Description: 

There is a myriad of types of contracts that involve local governments. This session will identify the key elements and requirements of the various contracts, specify the role of key individuals, review the process of developing contracts,  and instruct how to avoid risks.

Earn 2 CPE Credits

The Current Interest Rate Environment

Speaker: 

Ivan Samstein, LaSalle Financial Services, Inc.

Session Description:

This session will discuss recent trends in interest rates, and what they mean to your community. How can we manage interest rate risk on both our borrowing needs, as well as our treasury investments?  The Federal Reserve has undertaken a sustained campaign to raise interest rates, while long term rates remain near historic long-term lows.  This has resulted in a “flat” yield curve that presents unique challenges and opportunities for governmental financial managers.  Participants will learn about ways to approach these current trends, and how to best manage interest rate risk for future borrowing needs. 

Session is appropriate for Finance Directors, Assistant Finance Directors, and Treasurers

Earn 1 CPE Credit

Troubled Credits vs. Pressured Credits--A Rating Agency View

Speaker:

John Kenward, Standard & Poor's

Session Description: 

All local governments face challenges in maintaining balanced budgets, and while nearly all are under increasing financial strain, some entities are more of a credit concern from a rating agency perspective than others. This session will address the difference between a troubled credit in danger of a rating downgrade vs. an average credit under normal stress due to revenue limitations and/or expenditure growth. Examples from both within Illinois and across the U.S. will be used.

Earn 1 CPE Credit

The Bond Rating Process

Speaker: 

Melanie Shaker, Fitch Ratings

Session Description:

The session will walk through the steps in obtaining a bond rating and will provide insight into rating agency credit analysis.  The discussion will begin with a description of market participants and required documents, and then will highlight the issuer/rating agency meeting, offering points for an effective presentation.  The session will close with an explanation of the committee process employed by rating agency analysts. 

Earn 1 CPE Credit

Succession Planning

Speaker:

Carol Arneson, Virchow Krause

Session Description:

Many public sector organizations are facing one of the largest challenges faced by organizations throughout our country – the rapid retirement of talent during the next decade.  The public sector is hardly prepared and succession planning is needed to prepare future leaders of our organizations.

This session will discuss this upcoming challenge and share strategies and processes used to develop talent and depth for your future work force.  We will look at programs and activities used by other organizations and talk about the benefits and pitfalls in dealing with the shrinking workforce and other trends.

This seminar can be useful to those who are responsible for managing organizations, planning for the future or developing talent in their organization.

Earn 1 CPE Credit

Technology Advancement for Investments

Speaker: 

Sofia Anastopoulos, GFOA

Session Description: 

Attempting to operate more efficiently – to do more with less – governments continue to harness technological innovations.  In the area of finance, technology has been used to streamline processes ranging from collection to disbursal of funds.  Come and learn of recent advances in the investment process – precisely the activities that occur between the collection and disbursal processes.  This panel will give you an overview of the tools available in helping manage your funds in the functions of:  research and information collection, analysis, trade execution, and performance measurement and reporting. 

This seminar can be useful to those involved in managing public funds from finance directors, treasurers, investment managers, and also various elected officials.

Earn 1 CPE Credit

Advanced Governmental Accounting

Speaker:

Fred Lantz, Sikich LLP

Janet Matthys, Sikich LLP

Brian LeFevre, Sikich LLP

Session Description: This two-day session will address the complex challenges of implementing GASB standards and preparing useful financial reports.  Current hot topics in governmental accounting, recently enacted GASB pronouncements and pending issues will be covered.

Day 1 will cover accounting for Cash and Investments related to GASB 31, Disclosures for Cash and Investments related to GASB 40, Economic Condition Reporting related to GASB 44, Accounting for Debt Issues, Accounting for Capital Assets, and Accounting for Post Employment Benefits and Special Termination Benefits related to GASB 43, 45, and 47.

Day 2 will cover interfund transactions and Equity Reporting and GASB's Project Agenda and Future Pronouncements.

Earn 2 CPE Credits for 2 day

Red Flags of Fraud in Government

Speaker:

Emyln Neuman Javornik, Crowe Chizek and Company LLC

Session Description:

Governmental entities face many different and sometimes unique challenges when it comes to the identification of fraud.  The delicate balance achieved through strong internal controls and monitoring functions is sacrificed on occasion in the name of providing a greater level of service to customers.  This situation creates a perfect climate for fraud.

In this presentation we will examine the true cost of fraud to governmental entities, not just measured in dollars, and the different pressures that exist on all levels including management.  Through discussion of real-life examples, we will highlight ways to identify potential at-risk employees, identify unusual situations, and how to leverage these techniques to decrease fraud opportunities in the workplace.

Earn 1 CPE Credit

Preparing Hiqh Quality Budget Documents

Speakers:

John Fishbein, GFOA Technical Services Center

Session Description:  The Budget Awards Program is designed to encourage governments to prepare budget documents of the highest quality to meet the needs of decision-makers and citizens. Since the program was first established in 1984, participation has grown from 113 to 1,100. The examples selected represent a broad cross-section of state and local governments of all types and sizes from both the United States and Canada.

Earn 1 CPE Credit

Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D., is the professional ethicist known as The Ethics Guy.  He appears from time to time as an ethics analyst on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” and his syndicated column, “Ask the Ethics Guy,” is distributed internationally by Knight Ridder/Tribune.  His interactive talks to businesses, schools, and non-profit organizations across the country show how living an ethical life makes us happier, healthier, and more prosperous. 

His latest book, Life Principles: Feeling Good by Doing Good, shows why all of us benefit professionally and personally when we live according to ethical principles.

Dr. Weinstein is the author or editor of four previous books and the author of over 20 articles on ethics. His writings have appeared in, and he has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Investor’s Business Daily, The New York Observer, Family Circle, Men’s Fitness, Real Simple, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the in-flight magazines of American Airlines, Delta Airlines, USAirways, United Airlines, America West, as well as Newsweek.com, CNN.com, and FoxNews.com. 

In addition to his CNN duties, he has appeared as an ethics analyst on NBC’s “Today Show,” ABC TV’s “Good Morning America,” the Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor,” MSNBC “The Situation with Tucker Carlson,” CNBC’s “Capital Report,” Bloomberg Television’s “Personal Finance,” and other many programs. 

He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Swarthmore College, a doctorate in philosophy and bioethics from Georgetown University, and a certificate in film production from New York University.

Dr. Weinstein is a W.K. Kellogg National Fellow and lives in New York.

Earn 1.5 CPE Credits in Ethics