President’s Message By Ed Nakano
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve as Your President It has been an honor and privilege to 3. After 30+ years in Pioneer Plaza, the serve as your servant leader and PresiHSCPA relocated its office to the dent of the Hawaii Society of CPAs durCades Schutte Building with lower ing my tenure. Thank you to Executive operating costs and enhanced Director Kathy Castillo, Administrative technology to conduct efficient Support Debbie Cortes, and the Board training and meetings to improve of Directors for supporting me and the service to its members. HSCPA, especially during these challenging health and economic conditions these past two years.
6. Continued HSCPA’s partnership with the AICPA and other state societies on a national level with monthly remote meetings.
As the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going” and this is how the HSCPA staff, Executive Committee and Board performed during the past two years to serve the membership and profession. Their actions included:
7. Continued to promote the CPA profession by collaborating with the AICPA in the dual student recruitment campaign.
1. Pivoted from in-person to online training. Training events increased due to ease of scheduling and 4. We established the HSCPA DEI CPA attendees being ‘comfortable’ with Exam Review Course grant with virtual events. Members surveyed financial support from Deloitte. have adjusted to this type of training Through our partnership with and have expressed continuation of Surgent CPA Review, a discounted fee this method. This has been a and subsidy allowed 6 members WIN-WIN for both members and the – so far – to take advantage of this HSCPA staff by increasing participation benefit. due to no travel time and related costs. 2. Y-CPA Squad continued to promote the profession to elementary, high school and college students, all virtually. These efforts were critical to address the recruiting and employment challenges during the pandemic.
HSCPA scholarships through the Hawaii Community Foundation. We are grateful for the initial support of American Savings Bank, Wo Family Foundations and Ed and Diane Nakano for helping to establish the HSCPA Family Scholarship Endowment which supports all 10 campuses in the UH System.
I am confident that the HSCPA will continue to promote the profession and serve its members under the leadership of President-Elect Ryan Suekawa, Managing Director of Deloitte. Ryan has served on the HSCPA Board since 2017. Thank you, take care and be safe!
5. The HSCPA continues to promote and support accounting students through its various university and college scholarship programs, and
KALA JUNE 2022
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