CMA BC Vancouver Chapter

Breakfast Neworking at the Vancouver Club

Breakfast Neworking at the Vancouver Club
Originally uploaded by cmavancouver

We had a great turnout this morning for our monthly breakfast networking session.

This month we held the event at the Vancouver Club. It was a fine setting and attracted many new faces to the event.

We will return to the same venue in March, so make sure you register quickly.

LinkedIn Linking Up CMAs

A great discussion thread was held on LinkedIn this week that yielded some great resources.  For those Certified Management Accountants who use LinkedIn, and we recommend you do, CMAs from Ontario, Alberta and BC shared a number of ways to connect with one another online.  This allows for some great connections to be made and the opportunities to share experiences across the country - very exciting for professional growth as well as exploring new work opportunities outside our current respective locales.We wanted to share these resources with the community at large so feel free to check these out!

CMA Canada:

http://creativeaccountants.org 

CMA Ontario:

http://cmaontario.org 
http://becomeacma.org (Info Sessions)
http://facebook.com/group.php?gid=40952467292
https://twitter.com/becomeacma

CMA Alberta:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2662295&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr 
http://www.twitter.com/CMAAlberta

CMA BC:

http://www.cmabc.com 

http://www.twitter.com/cmabc

http://www.cmabcblog.com 
http://www.cmabc-pd.com

CMA BC (Vancouver Chapter):

http://www.cmavancouver.com (Blog)

http://www.twitter.com/cmavancouver 
http://bit.ly/CMAVanFB (Facebook)

If you've read some of our posts on Social Media or seen any of CMA BC's recent Update Magazines, you'll know you can just jump in and play with these tools if you aren't already.  If you're new to any of these tools, please don't hesitate to throw some Comments out here and we'll answer anything we can.

Addenda:

Quebec: (hats off to the Quebec sites - fantastic! Trés bon!)

http://www.cliccma.com/en/

http://cma-quebec.org/

http://www.twitter.com/ordredescma

Manitoba:

http://www.twitter.com/cmamb

Chapter CPLD Event a Success

On January 19th Mackay & Company hosted the first Chapter CPLD event of the year.

Joanna Joniec, CMA explained the difference between insolvency, bankruptcy, bankruptcy protection and protection under the CCAA. Joanna then took us through various rights of debtors or creditors including some great examples.   Jonathan Ross gave a good procedural overview of debt collection and taking of security, elaborated well on various factors to consider and shared some best practices.

 A huge thank you to Joanna from MacKay LLP and Jonathan from Davis LLP for presenting to the Vancouver Chapter on Bankruptcy and Insolvency.  The presentation was very informative and timely.  There was also a great question and answer period after the formal presentation; including drinks at the bar afterwards!

The Vancouver Chapter is always on the look out for hosting future events.  Please let us know if there are any topics that you would be interested in attending a presentation on or if you would like to volunteer to present on a topic of your choice.

CMA Member Stories: Felicity Withington BComm, LLM, MTAX, CMA - Part 5

Today we wrap up our interview with Felicity Withington BComm, LLM, MTAX, CMA, Director of Canadian Tax at Intrawest. Intrawest is a host of the 2010 Winter Olympics so we had to ask Felicity the following question!

What impact do you believe the 2010 Winter Olympics will have on Vancouver?

I lived through the transformation the Summer 2000 Olympics brought to Sydney and I believe Vancouver has the potential to gain similar benefits in the aftermath of this magnificent event.  For a start, the city gets a face lift which is enduring and benefits everyone; Granville Street is a perfect example, and the Canada Line means Vancouver is one of the few major cities in the world with a train connecting downtown to an international airport. It adds a level of maturity to the city.  

That concludes this week’s interview. Many thanks to Felicity for taking part. Stay tuned for further CMA Member Stories in the coming weeks.

Why firms who want to be entrepreneurial fail!

Here is a great article that Chapter Director, Felicity Withington, came across; have a read.  Don’t forget that if you read this article and it relates to your professional competency the equivalent of one hour of reading = 1 CPLD Credit (up to a maximum of 30 credits for Reading and Research) and you can track your CPLDs on-line by clicking here.

Many firms want to be entrepreneurial, but aren’t. The research of Terry Wang helps to explain why.

Also please let us know if you come across something interesting and want to share it with your colleagues by using our new Contact Us page, leaving a comment below or @cmavancouver on twitter.

CMA Member Stories: Felicity Withington BComm, LLM, MTAX, CMA - Part 4

Today we continue our interview with CMA Vancouver Chapter Board Director, Felicity Withington.

Felicity is an avid skier having achieved CSIA and CADS (Disabled skiing) ski instructing qualifications, enjoys mentoring activities (awarded Mentor of the Year 2008 for the Vancouver Board of Trade Leaders of Tomorrow program), and has traveled extensively. Given this we asked:  

Having worked previously in Sydney, Australia how does working in Vancouver, Canada compare? Is there anything that surprised you?

After working in bigger financial centers such as Sydney, New York and Singapore I would compare Vancouver in Canada to Brisbane in Australia, with a smaller number of head offices and focus on lifestyle.  It was interesting to see how much more focused the tax field in Canada is on accounting and numbers compared to Australia where tax specialists are recruited from law graduates.  Nevertheless having worked in an industry position in Australia and after a solid grounding at a Big 4 I was very familiar with the accounting side of tax when I arrived. 

Given we are now weeks away from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, tomorrow we hear Felicity’s uniques perspective on it’s impact.

CMA Member Stories: Felicity Withington BComm, LLM, MTAX, CMA - Part 3

This week in our CMA Member Stories series we continue our interview with Felicity Withington.  We asked Felicity the following question:

What are the benefits of being a CMA?

I think the main benefit for me is that now I have an accounting designation, in order to maintain that designation, I am required to keep up-to-date with changes in the accounting field in Canada.  When employers require candidates applying for accounting positions  to  have a valid accounting designation they are guaranteeing the candidate has been continually learning and therefore up-to-date in today’s constantly changing world of accounting. 

As mentioned yesterday Felicity's brief on the Chapter Board is CPLD. With that in mind her first event is coming up next week on Corporate Debt and Insolvency. You can register by clicking on the link below:

Tomorrow we share some of Felicity’s international perspective.

 

CMA Member Stories: Felicity Withington BComm, LLM, MTAX, CMA - Part 2

Today we continue our interview with Felcity Withington, Director of Canadian Tax at Intrawest. 

Prior to moving to Vancouver Felicity was the Director of Australian and Asian Taxation in the Sydney head-office of one of Australia’s largest multinational companies, Lend Lease: a diversified real estate company.   Felicity started her tax career with Ernst and Young in Sydney and New York, in the real estate, infrastructure and financial services taxation divisions. Following on from yesterday’s theme we asked:

What do you believe differentiates CMA from other professional designations?

I would compare my CMA designation to my law degree; it is a very useful and broad platform from which you may springboard into many different avenues as it is an extremely flexible tool.  Nevertheless, like a law degree once you have it you are not a specialist in any one area and it is how you then apply that basis of knowledge and build on it that defines its value.  My Masters in Taxation and Bachelors in Commerce are very specialized and train you to think in one area, but what you achieved from a law degree or a CMA is that your mind is opened to many possibilities and consequences of actions rather than just dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s.  It is therefore up to the CMA graduate to build their own depth of experience.

Tomorrow we find out why Felicity is perfectly suited to her role on the Chapter Board, i.e. focussing on CPLD.

CMA Member Stories: Felicity Withington BComm, LLM, MTAX, CMA - Part 1

This week we continue our CMA Member Stories series with one of the newest members of the Vancouver Chapter Board, Felicity Withington BComm, LLM, MTAX, CMA. Each day this week we will focus on one question from our interview and Felicity’s response.

Felicity is the Director of Canadian Taxation at Intrawest host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Prior to joining Intrawest Felicity was a Senior Manager with KPMG, Vancouver for 5 years working in Tax Reporting, specifically focused on income tax provisions and the Canadian conversion to IFRS, and in International Tax focused on Transfer Pricing.

Given the above we started our interview with the following question.

What attracted a specialist in taxation to the CMA designation?   

The bigger picture of organizations has always been a key interest of mine and the reason I enjoy working in an industry tax position. The CMA allowed me to explore the theory behind the drivers of business.  In Canada, tax people generally start off their careers with a CA.  However, I already have a Bachelor in Commerce, a Bachelor in Law and a Masters in Taxation, therefore when I moved to Canada I was looking for something a little more broadly business focused than what the CA offered.  Also the Executive Program offered by the CMA is ideal for a seasoned professional as I was able to network with other experienced business individuals and learn at the same time. 

Tomorrow Felicity shares more of her thoughts on being a CMA.

CMA Breakfast Networking at the Vancouver Club (Jan 28th)

We are thrilled to announce that this month we will be visiting a new venue for our monthly coffee & muffins networking. The event takes place on Thursday 28th January from 7am - 9am at the Vancouver Club. This month we are limiting numbers so register early, in future months we hope to grow the attendance. 

There is a dress code for the Vancouver that we require all attendees to follow. More details can be found when you click through on the link below to register. Don't worry though, the informal nature of the event, good conversation and good company over a cup of coffee and a pastry continue as per normal!

We will be taking a break in February but for the remainder of the year will revert to our normal third Thursday of the month.

We hope to see you there!