Chapter Profile - Central Indiana Chapter #52
/Through strong leadership and a very active board, the Central Indiana Chapter has adapted with the times and continues to serve their members.
The chapter currently serves roughly 150 members, and nearly all are CFEs. Members are represented by law enforcement agencies, accounting firms, private investigators, university faculty, and government agencies. They have made it affordable for all members to join by only charging $35 dues for CFEs and $45 dues for associates. The chapter does not charge students or university faculty members. Their chapter board is composed of 14 members from a range of ages and a variety of organizations.
The chapter provides multiple networking and training opportunities for their members. These events include luncheons that are free for chapter members, a dinner event, one-day and two-day conferences, and an ethics event. The Central Indiana Chapter will be celebrating their 27th anniversary in October.
“Our organization is producing a wonderful group of talented fraud examiners who will impact fraud examination for many years to come.”
Successful Events
The transition from in-person events to virtual trainings is not always an easy one. Despite this, the chapter’s leaders moved quickly and learned which platform worked best for them. They are back on schedule by offering trainings to their members. Prior to 2020, they have held an annual ethics training event as well as an annual two-day Professional Development Conference in September. They are grateful to have several board members with experience presenting training events. Their ethics event was presented by Central Indiana Chapter Director Troy Janes, Ph.D., CFE, who is also a professor at Purdue University.
Their annual two-day Professional Development Conference has been an extremely popular event. Due to capacity issues, they’ve limited the event to 100 attendees, and they reached capacity the past 8 years. This year, they moved to a virtual platform and again reached more than 100 attendees. The conference featured a one-day training event by ACFE Vice President John Gill, J.D., CFE, whose presentation was titled “Understanding the Mindset of a Fraudster.” The second day of the conference discussed using behavioral science knowledge in the fraud examination process and cybersecurity topics.
Your Chapter’s Greatest Achievement
Like other chapters, COVID-19 has required the chapter to adapt and transition to virtual events. There was a learning curve on discovering how to best execute these events. Despite the challenges, they are still providing events to their members that are very popular.
Chapter Recognition
The Central Indiana Chapter would like to acknowledge two individuals: David Fink, CFE, CPA, their treasurer, and John Rihm, CPA, their director emeritus. David is never hesitant to speak his mind even when he has a different opinion than others. In the end, he is usually found to be correct in holding his contrary opinion. John is a longtime past chapter officer and keeper of the chapter’s corporate memory.
Challenges in 2020
They had a large hole to fill after the resignation of their vice president and longest-serving board member, Jack Armstrong, CFE, who moved away following the death of his wife. The Central Indiana Chapter officers and members send their condolences.
Future Goals
The chapter plans on increasing the diversity of their board to include more minority and female board members. They also plan on continuing to offer virtual trainings through the pandemic and eventually offer both live and virtual events.
Success Model
The Central Indiana Chapter has survived during these uncertain times and even prospered each year by meeting the needs of local CFEs. Below are some suggestions to help ensure that your chapter can be successful despite any challenge:
Offer CPE credits and the required ethics credits at a low cost. The Central Indiana Chapter charges around $15 per CPE credit hour for chapter members and their one-day and two-day conferences are generally sold out.
Your program should include a variety of speakers and different topics. Make sure you don’t get caught up offering the same topic using the same speakers. You should strive for a mix of male and female speakers, national and international experience, and offer different topics to ensure that your members are exposed to many different types of trainings.
Use an ACFE faculty member to speak to your group. The Central Indiana Chapter’s one-day and two-day conference usually includes one ACFE faculty member and a non-ACFE speaker. They have found that ACFE faculty speakers are top-notch and travel expenses are reasonable. This is not always the case with other speakers.
Have a healthy bank account balance. Your chapter should have enough cash on hand to meet any expenses for three years in the event of hardships, such as a global pandemic or whether the chapter is unsure that it can remain active.
Have an active and diverse board. It is important to have board members who play an active role and participate in chapter activities. This includes attending board meetings, offering suggestions, and being visible at chapter events. You should not allow members from any one group — law enforcement, CPA, private investigators, insurance, big corporations, academia, etc. — to dominate your chapter board. Strive for diversity among your chapter leadership.
Offer a variety of membership discounts. Offer chapter members discounts on events that aren’t offered to non-members. Additionally, consider giving board members and individuals who help run events an additional discount. Since government employees have difficulty being reimbursed for chapter memberships, offer a group discount for members from the same government agency.
Speaker agreements are a necessity. Be sure to set clear expectations. In the Central Indiana Chapter’s agreements, they are very specific about fees, CPE hours/duration of the presentation, and travel and expense reimbursements. They also encourage other chapters to not hesitate in setting a maximum transportation expense reimbursement in the agreement.
You always need a plan “B”. In case a speaker cancels at the last minute or an emergency arises, be sure you are ready to find a last-minute replacement. In the case of the ACFE faculty speakers, the ACFE staff would likely find a substitute speaker without very much trouble. When you have outside speakers, you need to have an alternate plan. In the event of a no-show, the Central Indiana Chapter is grateful to have several qualified speakers on the board. The Chapter President Greg Wright, CFE, keeps flash drives containing his PowerPoint slides as well.
Take feedback from your members and take action. To ensure that they are meeting the needs of their members, after each event, survey your attendees about meeting location preference, facility, speaker quality, and topic preferences.
Become a NASBA sponsor. Since many ACFE members are also CPAs, you can increase event attendance by also offering events that can count toward members’ CPA continuing education requirements.
Thank you, Central Indiana Chapter, and their board for continuing to adapt and stepping up and providing a valuable service to their local members.
