By JOHN J. LAUCHERT  |  NYSSCPA Secretary/Treasurer

The 2015–2016 NYSSCPA Nominating Committee met on Jan. 14 to discuss its nominations for Society officers for the 2016–2017 fiscal year, as well as for NYSSCPA Board of Directors members, with terms beginning June 1. In accordance with the Society’s bylaws, the Nominating Committee report was emailed to Society members by Feb. 3 and was posted to the nomination center on the Society’s website on or before Feb. 1. The report can also be found on page 3 of this issue.

A ballot listing the nominees with their service records will be mailed to the Society’s voting membership before the Society’s Annual Election Meeting and Dinner, on May 19. Any independent nominees will be included in the proxy ballot. I urge all members to carefully examine the ballot information and vote.

Independent nominations
According to Article X of the Society’s bylaws, independent nominations for an officer or elected director may be made by a petition filed with the secretary/treasurer by March 1. (See ww.nysscpa.org/society/bylaws.htm.) These candidates are then added to the ballot, along with those individuals nominated by the Nominating Committee. 

Pursuant to the bylaws, any submitted petition for independent nominees requires at least 483 signatures of CPA members (2 percent of the CPA membership as of the beginning of the NYSSCPA’s fiscal year, which totaled 24,169 this year), other than that of the nominee, and must certify that the nominee has consented to serve if elected. To be eligible for the position of a Society officer or director, a nominee must (i) be a CPA member of the NYSSCPA; (ii) have at least five years’ continuous membership in the Society; and (iii) have at least two years of participation either on a statewide-level Society committee or as a member of the executive board of a chapter, or some combination of both.

Independent nomination petition forms may be downloaded from the Society website at www.nysscpa.org/petition (login required), and must be received by March 1, 2016, by the NYSSCPA secretary/treasurer at the following address:

John J. Lauchert, CPA
NYSSCPA Secretary/Treasurer
NYSSCPA
14 Wall Street, 19th Floor
New York, NY 10005

Annual Election Meeting and Dinner
Based on the votes cast in the ballot, the officers and directors for 2016–2017 will be elected during the 119th Annual Election Meeting and Dinner on Thursday, May 19, at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City. Official notice of the meeting will be included in the March/April issue of The Trusted Professional.

If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to contact me at secretarytreasurer@nysscpa.org, or NYSSCPA Public Affairs Manager Robert Busweiler at rbusweiler@nysscpa.org.