Nineteenth Annual Report of the Washington Metropolitan Chapterof the Certified Fraud Examiners

This year has been one of change for the WashingtonMetropolitan Chapter of the Certified Fraud Examiners (Chapter); we weresuccessful due to the ongoing efforts of our hard-working volunteers and strongmember and non-member participation. We continue to build on past successes while fully supporting ourmission and continuing to meet our members’ needs.

The Chapter’s mission is to promote fraud detectionand deterrence through educational training programs.  The objective of the Chapter's educational training programis to enhance and expand the knowledge of its membership with timely, relevanttopics. This past year’s training offerings are listed on our website (Training).  

For the 2009-2010 Chapter year, our volunteerOfficers, Directors, and committee chairs succeeded in achieving all goals:
We provided 29 hours of Continuing ProfessionalEducation (CPE) on six separate dates and again featured a full-day trainingevent.  Our topics were ForeignCorrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Money Laundering/Virtual Currency, Tax Fraud andthe New Economy, Procurement and Grant Fraud, Interviewing and Body Language,and Legal Updates/Ethics.  Wesuccessfully hosted one of the first ACFE programs dedicated to the new annualEthics requirement.  A specialappreciation to the instructors of all our sessions – as this success could notbe achieved without their efforts!
The Chapter restructured every aspect of ourinternal processes from our website to event planning and processing.  These changes, while time consuming toimplement, have enhanced member experience, reduced individual volunteer time commitments,and increased administrative efficiencies associated with our events.
We developed a sustainable presence on socialnetworking websites LinkedInand Facebook.  On average, we have between 250-450 uniquevisits to Facebook per week.  Thisprovides us with additional means of communication with our membership andother interested parties.
Through our Speakers’ Bureau, we providedpresentations to Federal agencies, educational institutions and professionalorganizations about the CFE credential, careers in fraud examination andrelated topics.

The financial position of the Chapter remainsstrong.  The Board has been verydiligent to ensure our costs and consistent with our expenses.  As you know, $45 for a 4 CPE course isan outstanding achievement.  Weensure, as a non-profit, our event costs are relative to our expense.  Our Financial Report will be viewableon our website shortly (Financial Report).

Our membership is at an all-time high, and continuesto be made up of those who provide investigative, auditing, and consultingservices to law firms, business enterprises, and governmental agencies in theareas of litigation support, forensic accounting, fraud investigation, andfraud prevention. 

The Chapter hosted several networking events.  We received very favorable feedback andexcellent professional outcomes directly related to these events.  I look forward to the continued memberinteractions in a less formal environment. 

The Chapter presented Mr. Thomas Borgers with the2009-2010 Fraud Examiner of the Year Award.  His nomination is viewable on our website (Examiner ofthe Year Award).

I am pleased to have been your President duringthis last year.  I look forward toworking with the Chapter as a Director and observing the continued growth ofthe Chapter and membership.  TheChapter’s continued accomplishments are a direct result of the professionalismand ability of its’ members and volunteers.  I am truly appreciative to have been associated with such afine organization.

Respectfully,

G A Smith