“We’ve Always Done It This Way” Is Not the Future of the NAEA

You cannot say we were not warned. Both Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said this filing season would once again be rocky. For once they did not disappoint.

My friends and colleagues in my state affiliate are emailing, calling, and meeting together regularly to provide each other with technical assistance, good advice, and emotional support. I see the same on the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) WebBoard discussions daily and at the monthly NAEA Roundtable discussions.

I open my last column as your NAEA president with this initial focus because I hope your tax season is going OK for you. And that you are availing yourself of the support of the enrolled agent community, whether on social media, through your state, chapter, or at the NAEA. I have said for years we are better together and nothing I have experienced since I became a member has shaken this belief.

As this is my last column as your president, I thought I would look ahead to the coming year. I am optimistic for NAEA’s future. Why? Your new board members who NAEA members elected in December include extraordinary leaders. You have chosen well, and I expect the incoming board, led by soon-to-be President Kathy Brown, EA, will continue to build programs and services that add value to every member’s practice.

While we have plenty of work to do, I am optimistic because your board discussed at length, built, and fully supports an updated NAEA strategic plan. We have created a roadmap in which we believe and which we intend to use to guide strategic and operational decisions over the next three years. I hope you will check it out on the NAEA website at www.naea.org/about-naea/ strategic-plan/. I am pleased that the plan includes four core values that embody all that we do as members of the NAEA: collaborative community, equity and inclusion, expertise, and integrity and ethics.

Our staff team, led by Executive Vice President Megan Killian, is building programs in support of our strategic plan including a growing list of education programs, support of NAEA’s state affiliates and non-affiliated members, regional conferences, and our NAEA Tax Summit July 24–26 in Las Vegas where we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary with a blockbuster education event and party. I hope I will see you there!

When you review the strategic plan, you will see, I hope, a fresh look at who we are, what we stand for, and what we would like to accomplish. That said, our shift is not radical. We will continue our advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C.—and in Minnesota, and wherever else necessary—to protect the rights of enrolled agents everywhere, to advocate for minimum standards for tax return preparers, and to promote a more service capable IRS. And we will, as we always have, continue to focus on our NAEA member community of enrolled agent members by providing you with the information, tools, and services you need best to serve your clients.

Thank you for allowing me to serve as your president over this past year. I love the NAEA and its mission to serve enrolled agents and the taxpaying public. It has been one of the great honors of my career to serve this association.