Association of Local Government Auditors

ALGA is THE Voice of the Local Government Auditors

Greetings ALGA Friends!

On behalf of the ALGA Board and conference attendees, I get to thank our incoming President and head driver Ross Tate, the conference committee, aka pit crew, and everyone who participated, including speakers, moderators, sponsors, and member services, for a great conference in Charlotte in May.   Preliminary reviews of the conference evaluations indicated attendees were very pleased with the educational sessions, facility, and events.   Attendees had a great opportunity to hear from seasoned leaders and auditors on a variety of timely topics ranging from auditing information technology, detecting fraud, managing audit projects and staff, conducting peer reviews, assessing risks, and writing better reports.

Thank you also to all of the ALGA members who volunteered their time to make ALGA better this year:

• 130 audit abstracts were published in the Quarterly and more were posted
• 76 member were involved on professional committees
• 75 peer review team leaders and members participated on over 30 peer reviews
• 61 articles were written for the Quarterly
• 41 ARRA audit reports have been posted by members on the ALGA web site
• 35 speakers participated in the conference, webinars, and regional trainings
• At least 3 members are representatives on GAO committees
• ALGA is represented on the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council
• ALGA is represented on the ARRA coalition of federal, state, and local auditors

President Tate has taken over and will lead ALGA as we face challenges this upcoming year:

• Continue to advocate for local government audit organizations that are facing elimination (contact our Advocacy Committee Chair, Craig Kinton, if you know of an organization in need of assistance)
• Continue to promote access to information in order to perform audits
• Redesign and implement ALGA's web presence
• Replace the ALGA Listserv that is being eliminated from its current location
• Provide more high quality, low cost trainings via webinars and regional trainings

Finally, I challenge each of us to be involved at some level in THE organization that serves your local government auditing profession.  It is a "pay it forward" experience ... I guarantee that whatever you are able to contribute will not only help our profession and members, it will come back to benefit you professionally and personally three-fold.

It has been a humbling, challenging, and a fun year serving as ALGA president this past year.  Thank you for the opportunity.  I enjoyed working and learning with all of you.

Beth Breier, ALGA President, 2010-2011