"By JEAN JOSEPH Queens/Brooklyn Chapter President

I am thrilled to accept my new appointment as president of the Queens/Brooklyn Chapter of the NYSSCPA. I express my appreciation and thanks to past presidents Edward J. Torres and Robert Clovey.

As a member of this organization for the past 10 years, I have seen it grow and evolve over this period in new and exciting ways. One significant change is the fact that the organization is now much more effective in terms of reaching out to a broader constituency of new members. The presidents of the various chapters throughout New York state are also more interconnected and work more closely together. It is critical that this outreach and coordination continues so that the Society can provide a strong base for professionals involved in the accounting field.

I have worked for almost 14 years as a tax CPA for two firms, moved into management, and then decided to build my own firm in Brooklyn that has become a thriving business, serving a wide variety of people throughout the city. I'm also actively involved in my community.

As a result of this background, I understand many of the critical challenges faced by businesses and CPAs in their varied roles. In some cases, the problems for both business managers and CPAs result from a lack of education about the complex details of constantly evolving and ever more complex accounting rules and regulations.

I hope to use my term as president not only to continue to recruit more members, but also to engage in partnerships with organizations to create more extensive outreach and education efforts in interesting and creative ways. For example, I would like to work with private practitioners in forming groups that would hold monthly meetings to share knowledge and information about new rules, regulations and issues facing the profession.

I would also like to involve accounting students or young people considering the accounting field by holding job fairs and informational seminars with established CPAs, to help establish relationships and facilitate entry into the field.

Jean Joseph CPA is a member of CACCI, and I was first aware of her at a breakfast meeting of CACCI with Grenadian officials during United Nations week, in September 2010.

At that meeting was Halim Majeed, a tall Guyanian who in the 1970s was aide to a President of Guyana. Jean invited us all to an evening reception for the Prime Minister of her country, Dominica, in her house in Brooklyn. Jean lives upstairs and runs a tax business downstairs.

I showed up at Jean's house, as did Halim and his business partners, CACCI founder and CEO Dr Roy Hastick, and all the local politicians and everyone who is anyone in the Caribbean community.

After that, I followed Jean around at CACCI meetings, and in June 2011 drove to Queens for a dinner by the Arit Fuller Foundation, in which Jean was honored for her work in African communities. Wonderful.