`Twentieth Annual Report

Washington Metropolitan Chapter,  Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

June 30, 2011

 

We are pleased to report the completion of another successful year for the Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (“Chapter”).  The success of any volunteer organization is attributable to the hard work and commitment provided by its volunteers, as well as the support and appreciation of the chapters members.  Our Chapter’s success story is no different; we continue to focus on provision of relevant activities and events that not only build upon our Chapter’s mission but are aligned with our Members’ needs.   

 

Our primary mission is to promote fraud detection and deterrence through provision of timely and relevant educational training programs, for both anti-fraud professionals and the interested public. We also host networking socials on a periodic basis, which gives attendees an opportunity to have informal discussions with one another on topics of interest.   We also strive to:

 

·         foster an environment where our volunteers feel their efforts add direct value;

·         make sure volunteers appreciate that our success is vested in their success;

·         promote activities and events that not only build upon our Chapter’s mission but align with our members needs; and

·         help ensure our members are able to unlock and maximize value from their membership.

 Each Chapter event  is structured to allow time for networking with colleagues.   The educational programs we sponsored during the year  focused on enhancing and expanding our members’ awareness of the current events impacting the anti-fraud  community, innovations and improvements in the profession.   We rely heavily on member input for future events; we routinely solicit members and attendees’ input for timely training subjects as well as other events of interest, and respond appropriately. 

Our Chapter’s Officers, Directors, Committee Chairs and additional volunteers take time away from their work and family to donate their availability to the success of Chapter and ACFE objectives.  With out each and every one of them, as well as our active membership, we would not have been able to accomplish the following during the 2010-2011 Chapter Year:

Continuing Professional Education (“CPE”):  We provided  35 hours of CPE on six different dates, compared to 29 CPE hours provided last year.  Our events continue to be well attended.  This year’s CPE opportunities included:

·         Identity Theft and Cyber Crimes (4 hours, 71 attendees)

·         Investigations - Financial Statements and Tax Returns ( 5hours, 87 attendees)

·         You’ve been robbed” - Mortgage Fraud and the Financial Crisis (5 hours,82 attendees)

·         Converging Ethics, Governance and Culture - Who Owns Fraud? (5 hours,44 attendees)

·         Applications of Money Laundering and Financial Crimes, in a special 2-day collaborative event held with the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists.  (16 hours,68 attendees)

Membership:  Our membership is at an all-time high, and continues to be made up of those who provide investigative, auditing, and consulting services to law firms, business enterprises, and governmental agencies in the areas of litigation support, forensic accounting, fraud investigation, and fraud prevention.  As of June 30, 2011 we had 202 members. 

Networking events:  We are also pleased to announce that your Chapter sponsored  4 networking events (August, October, January and May) during the year, averaging 35 registered participants.

Student outreach:  We continued actively supporting Colleges and Universities throughout the region.  Our support traditionally has come in the form of providing panelists and speakers, and this year was expanded to include active solicitation of applicants for the ACFE’s Ritchie-Jennings Memorial Scholarship Awards (for Chapter endorsement) along with opportunities to mentor these future fraud investigators and prevention specialists. 

 We also helped an area University, which was interested in forming the first Student Chapter of ACFE, in getting its efforts off the ground.  American University was able to reach the required number of interested students early into the 2011/2012 school year and has been recognized by the ACFE, and by the Metro-DC Chapter, as an affiliated organization.

National Conference Host, July 2011: The Chapter served as host for the 2011 ACFE National Conference.  This provided an exceptional networking and training opportunity for area CFEs and we are pleased to have hosted.  Our Chapter’s officers and many volunteers provided National with on-the-ground support, with positive feedback. 

Professional Outreach:  The Chapter typically receives requests for panel participants, instructors, and speakers for academic and peer organizations.  A representative sampling of our efforts for the past year follows:

·         American University, White Collar Fraud Panel and Careers in Forensic Accounting

·         Greater Washington Society of CPAs Young Accountants’ Panel on Forensic Accounting

·         Federal Trade Commission’s Business Consumer Litigation Program Seminars

·         Association of Government Accountants Fraud In the Public Sector 

·         Washington Gas Corporation, Internal Audit _Data Mining and Continuous Auditing/Monitoring

Social Networks:  Our chapter maintains a strong presence on popular forms of social networking sites,  further enhancing our visibility and providing another forum for our members to discuss or just be aware of fraud related trends, news and events.  These platforms also allow our members to interact with other likeminded professionals and conduct meaningful discourse over typically complex topics.  Our Chapter officers work hard to ensure our chapters presence on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn are maintained and updated regularly.      Our Chapters presence on LinkedIn grew to 151 members in 2010-2011.

And from the First-Time-Ever Department .. the Metro-DC Chapter of ACFE is pleased to report that we succeeded in accomplishing the following during the year ended June 30, 2011:

·         Membership survey:  We conducted the first ever Chapter membership survey during 2010/2011, to gain insight to members’ satisfaction and suggestions for additional programming and other opportunities.  We are  pleased to report that the results show overall satisfaction with our efforts, and also indicated individual interests in mentoring less experienced Chapter members, being mentored, and participating in speaking and media relations bureaus (we are developing more formal structures than currently exist to address these interests). 

·         Community Giveback:  Thanks to our strong volunteer and membership base, we were able to establish a relationship with a shelter in the DC area, where we donated food during the year, left over from our training events

·         Law Enforcement Working Group:  Our Membership Committee conducted a targeted Professional Outreach effort, and was successful in forming a Law Enforcement Working Group.  The LEWG provides Chapter members who are active or retired Law Enforcement professionals with a forum to discuss matters of mutual concern and interest, on an informal basis.  During the inaugural 2011-2012 year, the LEWG developed a working list of approximately 15  interested participants.     LEWG will continue to develop its outreach efforts during the 2011/2012 year.

·         Changes to our by-laws:  We amended our by-laws to comply with updated ACFE chapter requirements, as well as to incorporate changes to our infrastructure.   The bylaws will be further refined during the 2011-2012 year to reflect various Committees being formed, to assist with providing Chapter governance and sustainability. 

·         Student Chapter: As discussed above, we assisted American University, largely through our participation in their evening and weekend programs, in developing the foundation for a Student Chapter of ACFE.  We are hopeful that we will be able to assist other area colleges and universities in developing sufficient interest in fraud prevention and detection to form chapters as well.

·         Group Purchase, ACFE Self Study Program Support:   e The Chapter was successful in developing a process to support members’ interest in acquiring the ACFE’s self study program materials at a discounted rate, which would otherwise not have been possible.  Twenty-three chapter members participated in this program during the fiscal year.  The Chapter looks forward to continued participation and involvement with this member benefit.

 

Financials.  Our financial condition continued to improve in FY 2011, as a result of increased attendance at events, more streamlined processes, and better monitoring of costs. 

 

Our  FY 2011 compared to FY 2010 is as follows:

 

 

 

 

Our 2010-2011 Board and ad-hoc volunteers have done a yeoman’s job to help accomplish all that we have during the recently completed year, and we appreciate their hard work as  we continue  on into 2012 for another successful year.

Thank you for allowing me to represent the Metropolitan Chapter of the ACFE during the 2010-2011 year as its President.   Our Chapter’s dedicated Officers, Directors and volunteers, and members are sincerely a privilege to know and I am honored to call many my friends.   We look forward to continuing the Chapter’s core missions next year, and each year thereafter.

 

Cheryl B, Hyder, CFE CPA CVA