• Professor Elam

    I am delighted to remind accounting students that Wendi Tabor, President Elect of San Antonio CPA Society will speak to my Graduate Cost Class Wed evening October 7 at 7 PM.We meet in Room 12 in the classroom annex. Accounting students whether you are in this class or not are certainly invited.

    Wendi came to speak to my classes when we were in the portables, as you can see below, she brings a good deal of experience in the San Antonio market and I look forward to her remarks. Her bio appears below.

    Wendi C. Taber, CPA, CISA, CITP

    San Antonio, TX

     

    She has a Bachelor of Business Administration, with a Major in Accounting, from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, TX.  She worked in public accounting for about 12 years in small CPA firms; mainly in the tax field.  While a brief three years in Japan, she volunteered with the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program through the IRS for the military and worked with the Department of Finance and Accounting Services.

     

    She earned her CPA credential in 1999.  She received her Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certification in 2007.  She received her Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) Credential in 2008.   You must be a CPA to qualify and then establish you have the requirements for technology, information management and assurance.

     

    She was employed with Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union for about 7 years working in the Accounting Department and later in the Internal Audit Department.  She moved on to work for IBC Bank in the Internal Audit Department as a Vice President & Auditor working closely with the IT department on information technology audits.  She currently works for Security Service Federal Credit Union as a Risk Management Analyst in the Risk Management Department.  She is responsible for the Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment and User Security Systems. 

     

    She has been a member of TSCPA since 1999.  She is currently the President-Elect of the SACPA Society.  She has been involved with many committees – Education and Accounting Careers, Funlympics, New CPA Involvement, Student Auxiliary and Financial Literacy.  She is also on the BOD at the state level and has been chair of the state committee – Career Awareness Committee. 

     

    She has been a Regional Director of the American Society of Women Accountants (ASWA).  She has been President of ASWA for two terms and also held several other board positions and is currently a national committee member of the Chapter Partnering Committee.  She is also a member of the IIA and ISACA. 

     

  • Professor Elam

    Students tend to fixate on their 'major.'  Indeed this is a serious problem for any college of business. Student ignore or fail to seriously study classes out side their 'major.'  Yet there is no one that just does accounting or marketing or statistics all day long, indeed we need all those disciplines.

    I have learned a lot about managerial accounting and marketing and statistics reading Jerry Flint at Forbes.   Mr. Flint has covered the auto industry since the 1950s and understands a great deal about long term perspective. This hyperlink will take you to a list of his recent articles. The one about market share for the Detroit Three and the next 100 days is a particularly good example of  blending disciplines. 

    My take, I suspect Chrysler is a dead man walking with the Ram pickup eventually being sold to a large truck company.

    GM cannot survive as it is and continue to shed brands and market share, read the article about the importance of German engineering at OPEL, and how GM will now be with out it as well as Olds, Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, Saab, etc. As market share drops below 16% by next spring it will be harder and harder for the govt to support and send more money to GM.

    Ford looks like it has the best chance to survive, but again, without mercury, aston, jag, lincoln (anyone want to own a lincoln) hmm I guess they still are the proud owners of volvo  But a surviving Ford only really makes sense without its crosstown rivals of Chrysler and GM. 

  • Professor Elam

    Students in class have reported on how companies are using six sigma to coax more savings from existing business plans. This does not include hiring more employees.

    Students need to focus on acquiring a specific skill set. What new skills will one acquire in college that will make you stand apart once you graduate?  Simply obtaining a degree will not be an adequate assurance of a job.  

  • Professor Elam

    Read this article about how well Fiat is getting along with the Chrysler culture, and vice versa. 

    In my experience this one article seems to summarize all the merger stories I have ever read - 

    Recall that Chrysler already went through the same thing with Mercedes which is how they ended up with Fiat, that culture clashed also

    What was the good of HP and Compaq?

    Fed Ex has already ditched the Kinko name that they paid billions to get

    GM ended up paying Ross Perot $750M to leave the company after they paid money to buy EDS

    The only positive I see in making Ram a separate vehicle line is that might make it easier to sell to a truck company which is my long term prediction about what will happen, Fiat will not know what to do with a big pickup, perhaps International will want to be back in the pickup business

    All companies will not survive this business downturn which will last for many many years, I expect Fiat will end up with the chrysler factories and that is about it, and I doubt that they will manage to build fiats in any time frame, given an overall downturn that will make Fiat a match for honda toyota kia

    I mean this never worked for Renault….

  • Professor Elam

    Inaugural Meeting Texas A&M San Antonio Accounting Society

    October 16 4:30-5:30 at SACPA Society Offices
    Alamo Towers West
    On the north frontage road of Loop 410 between Broadway and Nacogdoches
    901 NE Loop 410, Ste. 420
    San Antonio, TX 78209-1307

    Plan to attend as we will be choosing officers and discussing important issues for the start of our organization.  After our meeting we have an event hosted by the SACPA Society with Pizza and soda available.  Please email joshua.wagner@students.tamuk.edu before October 13 if you plan to attend.

    Accounting Careers Workshop

    October 16 6:00 – 8:00 at SACPA Society Offices

    The workshop offers area accounting majors the opportunity to hear from CPAs in business and industry, government and public practice in a relaxed setting.  Pizza and soft drinks will be provided. 
    For more information and to RSVP, contact your accounting professor or the SACPAS office at info@sacpasociety.com.

  • Professor Elam

    Seeking to improve minority representation, one of the big firms will reach out to six selected 

    community colleges. 

  • Professor Elam

    We do not have this kind of information available. But I thought you would find this analysis of BAC interesting. 

    http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=385

    Sorry I cannot get the hyperlink working. The analysts believe that there is simply no equity in the bank, 

    why and how did they reach this conclusion?

  • Professor Elam

    Charles Band is bringing his horror movie festival to Pat O Brien's in San Antonio this month, this except is from page 7 G of the SA Life Section of the Sunday San Anonio Express News.

    On the opposite page of this very paper, local columnist Gary Clack notes the lack of humanity in someone doing a video of a teen being beaten to death in Chicago, for no apparent reason. My point?

    As the mood has turned negative about the economy, the mood in general is negative, again, the piece below appeared in this Sunday paper, not in some goulish web site. 

    Decapitations, fantasy and fun, well sorry Charles, you are really caught up in the negative mood. The fact that there is a market for this tells us just how much more negative the mood may get before the bear market ends. No doubt such reports about Chicago did not help in the US Bid to bring the Olympics to that city….

    "I think a lot of kids are into the edgy horror side of life when they're young," Band says. "Maybe when they're older it's the last thing they want to think about, but it's kind of healthy, fun escapism. I've never made a slasher movie. I'm not into something that is so close to what you see on TV and so close to what happens in this world. To me that's not entertaining or fun.

    "As a kid, I enjoyed films that weren't quite as mean-spirited but were full of fantasy and fun, whether they were the Ray Harryhausen films, the old Universal horror films, some of the great sci-fi films of the '50s. That was what I really enjoyed, and I really wanted to make those kind of films, and there seem to be a lot of kids of all ages who really enjoy these movies and have fun getting into what they are without the films being really horrible and mean-spirited."

    Mind you, this is an R-rated show for grown-ups only. Band will tell stories about the movies he's made and the famous actors he worked with. He'll show previously unseen clips.

    "There's blood, there's decapitation,  I have no idea why, it happens," he says. "It's sort of a Grand Guignol of everything with music and effects."

    There's lots of audience participation, and one lucky winner at every show will be chosen to get killed in an upcoming movie. For fans, it will be like they've died and gone to Hollywood. They'll be part of "the biggest mass electrocution in movie history" for a little direct-to-video item called "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver." That's the sequel to "Gingerdead Man 2: The Passion of the Crust." Really.

    Charles Band's Full Moon Horror Road Show stops at Pat O'Brien's, 121 Alamo Plaza, at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

    Tickets, which cost $10, can be bought at the door or through the Web site at http://www.fullmoondirect.com. Expect to buy drinks and make noise.

  • Professor Elam

    Jose Feliciano

    Wiwthout question my favorite singer  in college, with  the BIG smash hit of the late 1960s Light my fire was Jose Feliciano. Why we do not hear more from him now I will not understand.

    He recorded Light My fire and California Dreamin' and as they say the rest is history. Unlike many singers, he is one of the best guitarists there is, period. I got to hear him at UT at the height of his popularity and again deades later in Austin. Woudl you believe the tickets were $3 each?  Best Deal i ever bought!

    And yes I have the digitals on my iPod, if you have not heard him you are in for a treat. Jose is a star in Latin countries as well, a great performer and talent.

  • Professor Elam

    Ricardo Montalban

    He was the epitome of continental elegance, charm and grace on film and TV and in the late 40s and early 50s reinvigorated the Valentino/Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority actors of his time, he fought to upscale the Latin (particularly, Mexican) image in Hollywood. His noted militancy may have cost him a number of roles along the way, but he gained respect and a sturdy reputation as a mover-and-shaker within the acting community while providing wider-range opportunities for Spanish-speaking actors via Los Angeles theater. IMDB

    Yep that's Ricardo Montalban. He achieved his most widespread audience on Fantasy Island at left.