The radical changes in the work world, which are very real today, are going to require constant upgrades to our skills.
The 9-10-11 edition of The Economist had a series of articles on the changing work environment. One article in particular, My big fat career, discusses the changes already underway.
One particular author, Lynda Gratton from the London Business School, suggests you will need to acquire a new skill or expertise every few years. Continuous learning in other words.
(cross-post from my other blog, Attestation Update)
Subtitle of the book is A business fable… about shedding the three fears that sabotage client loyalty. It’s a book by Patrick Lencioni which you can find here. As with his other books, it is an entertaining fictional story that illustrates the points instead of making them directly.
Primary focus of the book is business consultants. It applies to directly to anyone in business working with external clients. It can also apply to many people in the ministry world.
He suggests there are three fears that get in the way of loyalty from your clients. These fears tear down transparency and openness. Getting past those fears in order to improve transparency is the way this book can help anyone in business or ministry.
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If we are going to adapt to this rapidly changing world, we are going to have to be constantly learning. Always picking up new ideas. Continuously gaining new skills and knowledge.
The alternative is to get locked in time.
The world of work has changed. We are all free agents.
Even if we don’t change jobs or stay with one employer for decades, we are all now free agents.
That will be the theme of a series of posts. Probably the theme for a new blog, since those discussions will wander far away from issues of immediate interest to the nonprofit community.
What has happened?
The nature of work has changed.
The Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations has announced the members of three panels that will advise the commission.
See my previous comments on the Commission for background here, here, and here.
The Commission’s website can be found here.
A short description of the Commission from their website: (more…)
(cross-post from my other blog, Attestation Update.)
In a webcast on August 31, 2011, Mr. Michael Glynn, CPA, of the AICPA staff, gave a wonderful word picture of the levels of assurance in a review and audit. Here’s his idea: Filling up a bucket with procedures produces different levels of assurance. I would like to expand Mr. Glynn’s description and provide an illustration.
Notice the similarity and difference? The overlap between these definitions is how much assurance the accountant obtains for himself or herself provides that there are no material errors in the financial statements.
The differences? (more…)
If you want to conduct your ministry or business using anything other than your legal name, you have to get a fictitious business name. This is also called a DBA, or “doing business as” name.
Let’s say you are on staff at Southside Community Church and are starting a major summer program as an outreach to the community. This would be a big, ongoing project. If you’re going to be collecting money and trying to reach out beyond your local congregation, you just might decide to run the program under the name Southside Summer Swim. If that is the case, you need to file for a fictitious business name with the county clerk’s office.
William Vaughan Company CPAs, reports one of their clients got a fax that seemed to be from the IRS asking for bank account information. See their post and a copy of the fax at: Recent IRS Scam Requests Bank Account Information.
How can you tell this is a scam? That is not how the IRS does things. Very simply, it fails the smell test. (more…)
“Can I Get a Receipt for That?” is a great introduction to the issue of giving contribution receipts in a local church. Also applies to other NPOs.
4,100 people work so 200 can fly.
In August, my wife and I toured the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum in San Diego. Quite a treat if you enjoy either airplanes or naval ships.
One narrative plaque really caught my attention. It quoted someone as saying that 4,100 people are hard at work onboard so 200 can fly airplanes. Since the purpose of the carrier is to put planes in the air, everyone else on board is in a ‘supporting’ function.
Seems to me that this is a good illustration of the concept of overhead or functional allocation that we work with in the nonprofit world.
(cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update.)
Facebook has posted a really good guide to online security: Own Your Space – A Guide to Facebook Security
It is focused on Facebook, of course. It also has a lot of good stuff, such as general discussion of how to recognize a scam as a scam. Good ideas on general defensiveness when online.
Would be good for your staff to read it. (more…)
Previous post discussed the increasing visibility of the Driscoll tax case allowing a pastor to use $400,000 to buy a second house and not pay income tax on the $400,000. The Tax Court ruled that the clergy housing allowance concept applies to more than one home.
My concern is that extreme case is perceived as a typical example of the financial life of a pastor.
The average size of a church in the US is about 100 members. Therefore, the life of a typical pastor in America looks more like this:
It has been one year since I launched Nonprofit Update. On August 29, 2010 I started this blog to talk about issues affecting the nonprofit community. On October 14, 2010 I started moving topics of more interest to CPAs to a new blog, Attestation Update.
Many thanks to all who have stopped by to read! This has been fun and I look forward to many more years of blogging.
Here are some stats from the first year for those who are interested in such things.
Number of posts: (more…)
Earlier this year I wrote a CPE course on SSARS requirements for CCH . Back in April I mentioned Compilation and Review: Practice Issues (Third Edition) was available. Discussed that course here. Two more SSARS classes I wrote are now online. Another will be available soon. Each of the following classes are two CPE hours.
Compilation and Review: Introduction. Course description from CCH:
The Apparent Project Blog explains the serous unintended consequence of giving help in Haiti while ignoring the economic context in their post Peanut Butter and Shelley.
Those of us in the West desperately need to understand the culture, economy, and local situation when we want to move cross-culturally. We can provide wonderful blessings but can cause harm without intending to.
I’ve discussed this in other posts: Does humanitarian aid actually help and how do we know? along with Cross-cultural partnerships.
Back to the situation in Haiti.
Some churches in the US are trying to help the hungry in Haiti by shipping huge quantities of peanut butter. Sounds like a great way to help since it is a superb source of protein – as good as pork for nourishment.
What do you think happens to the local economy if peanut butter and pork are major products? It can seriously disrupt the economy.