2024 Chapter Leaders Summit Recap

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The ACFE held the 2024 Chapter Leaders Summit in Austin, Texas on December 2-3, 2024. Nearly 40 chapter leaders from all over the world (including chapters in Bangladesh, Samoa and throughout Africa) traveled to Austin to network with their fellow chapter leaders, discuss challenges, provide solutions to those challenges, and meet the ACFE’s leadership and staff.

The event began with a warm welcome from ACFE President John Gill and Chief Executive Officer John Warren. Attendees got an overview of the ACFE’s membership growth strategy, much of which is supported by the efforts of our chapters. Chapters can support the ACFE in our strategy by continuing your outreach to other organizations and introducing yourself and the ACFE to audiences that may be unfamiliar with the organization and our mission. Your promotion and events held through International Fraud Awareness Week are a great way to bring awareness to the brand. Additionally, your chapter’s support of the ACFE Chapter Foundation Challenge helps provide scholarships to deserving students and funds fraud-related research.

Attendees also heard from Chief Training Officer Andi McNeal. She shared some changes that will be implemented to the CFE Exam, beginning in June 2026. There are also additional procedural changes that the ACFE Board of Regents voted on that will take effect in January 2025. Chapter Development Manager Joe Broccolo will provide additional details of those changes in early January.

Attendees also heard from Vice President of Communication Mandy Moody and Communications Director John Duffley. They discussed best practices when promoting your chapter. The key takeaways that I took from this session were:

  • You have about 6-8 seconds to make an impression in your communications.

  • Promote your events as early as possible and send reminder emails as you approach the event date.

  • Be active on social media. Don’t forget to spend a few minutes a week on LinkedIn liking and commenting on other fraud-related posts.

  • Reuse content and communicate it with your members.

The rest of the sessions were led by Southwest Ohio Chapter President Amanda Malusky Krauss and Pacific Northwest Chapter President Katie Robinson. They led us through sessions on chapter events, board responsibilities and membership. Joe Broccolo also gave a short demonstration on how to access the Chapter Administration site, which contains many helpful resources for your chapter.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Chapter Administration site, I encourage you to log in and see the resources that we have available for you. The site contains the list of all ACFE members in your geographic area, a speaker database of recommended speakers, an area to add your chapter events to our Chapter Calendar of Events and more.

To access the site:

  • Log into your account at ACFE.com.

  • Click your name in the top-right corner.

  • From the drop-down menu, click on Chapter Admin.

The event was a perfect opportunity for chapter leaders to meet the ACFE staff and make new connections. We look forward to offering the summit in 2025 and hope to see you there.