 As I thought about what to write for my first message, I thought about why I became involved in ALGA My interest in ALGA grew from an opportunity to attend the 1996 annual conference in Bellevue, Washington. All I really knew about ALGA at the time was that they produced a quarterly publication that included several useful articles about auditing and lots of abstracts of audits from offices around the country.
At the time, ALGA had just started its annual award program and I was the first recipient of the award for an audit that I did on temporary contract workers. ALGA invited me to attend the conference to do a presentation on the audit and to accept the award. When the conference was over, I was hooked – I knew that this was an organization that I wanted to become involved with and that I wanted to continue attending their conferences.
Since then, I fulfilled my goal, both by continuing to attend the conferences and becoming active in the organization. As last year’s president-elect, I not only got to attend the conference, I got to plan it! So now, I want to thank all of you who attended the conference in Milwaukee, as well as all of the members of the conference planning committee and ALGA Member Services who worked hard to provide you with a first-class training opportunity. The committee developed a program around the theme, “Challenges and Opportunities Facing Local Government Auditors,” which provided a variety of outstanding speakers to address a range of topics that are important to the future of local government auditors.
“Challenges and opportunities” was not only the theme of the conference, it was also the theme of my life as president-elect. It was a challenge because of all of the great things happening in local government auditing that I was able to have an effect on as a member of the ALGA board. It was also a challenge because of all of the work involved in planning a conference to meet the needs of our members. In the midst of all of that, I made a cross-country move to accept a new job opportunity as the director of performance audits for the city and county of San Francisco.
At the same time, being president-elect and planning the conference offered many opportunities that I otherwise would not have had. I met or spoke with many great people in the auditing community and got to know several others much better over the past year. Many of these people have become excellent resources for me in my daily work. Most importantly, I’ve achieved both personal satisfaction and professional growth from the opportunity to be not just a member, but an active member.
Now, as I look back over the past ten years since I attended my first conference, I am amazed both at how the organization has grown and how much more we do to provide services to our members through the work of our committees. I can look back at this past year and say, yes, it was a challenge, but the opportunities were well worth it. I encourage all of you who have never attended a ALGA conference or become involved in the association to take advantage of the opportunity to do so. You can start planning now by marking out May 21-23 on your calendar to attend next year’s conference in San Jose, CA. The conference will be followed immediately by the Biennial Intergovernmental Audit Forum, which will provide the opportunity to earn extra CPE while you are there. If you want to become active on a committee, give me a call and we can discuss your interests and find a place for you as our committees continue to grow.
I look forward to the opportunity to serve all of you as ALGA president during the next year.
Harriet Richardson is Performance Audits Director of San Francisco, California.
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