Call for CPA Board Member Nominations

2011 Michael H. Urbach, CPA, Community Builders Award Now Accepting Nominations
Sponsored by the New York Council of Nonprofits (NYCON) and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA)

Submission Accepted through August 22nd, 2011

In recognition of the important role, talents and leadership that a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New York State can provide as a board member for community-based charities, NYCON and NYSSCPA are pleased to announce the 8th Annual Michael H. Urbach, CPA, Community Builders Award.

The award is named in honor of the late Michael H. Urbach, CPA, former partner of Urbach, Kahn and Werlin, former NYS Commissioner of Tax and Finance and Chair of the State Employees federated Appeal, and board leader of a number of charities.

Award Criteria & Submission

Candidates must:

• Be a CPA in good standing and a member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants;


• Have served as an Officer on at least 3 different charitable 501(c)(3) community-based nonprofits with service as President/Chair at least once;


• Have demonstrated exemplary board leadership resulting in significant and positive organizational impact including, but not limited to, financial turn-around, growth, and/or organizational re-structuring; and


• Preference will be given to nominees whose board leadership accomplishments have been with community-based charities.

Deadline - August 22, 2011
Nominations addressing the candidate's qualifications must be received by August 22nd. Nominators are strongly encouraged to address the candidate's qualifications related to the four (4) criteria's mentioned above and to include at least three (3) letters of support from the charities who have benefited from the candidate's volunteer leadership.

Send seven (7) packets of nomination materials to:
Urbach Community Builders Award Committee
New York Council of Nonprofits
272 Broadway
Albany NY 12204
or email the packet to Melissa Currado, Executive Assistant to the CEO at mcurrado@nycon.org.

Announcement & Presentation
The 2011 award will be formally presented at the Annual Member Meeting of NYCON slated for the afternoon of October 6th at Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York.

The Luncheon will take place during CAMP FINANCE, a two-day retreat that provides the very best in knowledge, skill and strategy sessions for your staff and volunteer leaders.

In honor of the late Harold Mandel, a certified public accountant who worked for Urbach, Kahn & Werlin in Albany, NY and retired in West Palm Beach, FL, the 2011 Urbach Honoree has the privilege to award one (1) nonprofit executive of their choice a Camp Finance scholarship in Hal's name. In 2009, Mr. Mandel's family accepted a posthumous Michael H. Urbach, CPA Community Builders Award in his tribute.


Past Urbach Award Honorees
2010
Edward S. Mucenski, CPA of Potsdam
2009
Lewis "Lew" Kramer, CPA of Chappaqua
2008
Mel Zachter, CPA of Staten Island
2007
Eugene H. Fleishman, CPA of Poughkeepsie
2006
Craig Sickler, CPA from Kingston
2005
Paul Battaglia, CPA from Batavia

For More Information
visit NYCON at http://www.nycon.org/ or contact Melissa Currado at (800) 515-5012 or mcurrado@nycon.org

NYS Employers to receive bill for new fee related to Unemployment Insurance borrowing

Read below about the recent news about a new fee per employee for employers related to NYS Unemployment Insurance borrowing. As a nonprofit, there is another alternative, which you can learn about from NYCON:

Find Out if the Unemployment Savings Program for NYCON Members through First Nonprofits Companies can Save You Money.

Why pay a tax if you don’t have to? Many NYCON Members have switched from paying the state unemployment tax rates to First Nonprofit Unemployment Savings Program saving up to 60% of their unemployment costs annually. Find out if you can too. Take NYCON's FREE upcoming Beneft Spotlight: Unemployment Savings Program on August 23rd from 10 am to 11am. REGISTER HERE

A Big Bill for Employers
The Albany Times Union reported that Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday rolled out a sweeping plan to help revitalize the state's economy, complete with an ad campaign and competitive grant program designed to spark innovation.

But businesses have a more immediate concern: The bill is coming due for New York's unemployment insurance.

Citing the need to borrow more than $3 billion from the federal government to prop up its chronically empty account, the state faces a whopping $95 million interest payment on loans for the fund due Sept. 30.

As a result, the state Department of Labor is assessing businesses up to $21.25 per employee to cover the cost. That payment is due Aug. 15.

Complaints about what businesses describe as a hidden tax were rolling in Tuesday after numerous employers received the notices and as Cuomo expounded on his plans for the economy.

"This is something that could -- depending on the number of employees -- be a pretty hefty cost in this economy," said Mike Durant, New York state director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

When asked about the surcharge during a news conference outlining his revitalization plans, Cuomo stressed that the bill for interest is ultimately coming from Washington, D.C.

"It's a federal decision whether or not they'll waive the interest payments. I hope that they do," he said, adding that his office was pushing the state's congressional delegation on the issue.

The hefty tab illustrates what can happen as the federal stimulus program, enacted shortly after the recession started in 2008, runs out.

The Department of Labor noted that the stimulus program provided no-interest loans to the states in 2009 and 2010, but not this year.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/A-big-bill-for-your-boss-1472786.php#ixzz1SetH4Zip

Non Profit to Shut DownBy Lindsay Nielsen

WBNG reported that after nearly seventy years a local non profit is shutting it's doors.

The Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled employs the able and disabled.

The Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled made the decision last year that it would have no choice but to close it's doors.

"What drove it was the fact that we lost a major customer which represented about sixty percent of our manufacturing business and we weren't able to replace it as quickly as we needed to and although we tried we just couldn't," says CFO and General Manager, Louis Harasymczuk.

The non profit provides employment opportunities and services to the disabled.

About 90 people are employed in jobs from manufacturing cable assemblies, packaging, and kitting.

"At the height of our organization we had close to four hundred employees so like I said earlier we put a lot of food on a lot of tables over the years so we had a very large payroll that's basically going to go away," says Harasymczuk.

The non profit is set to close in September, but company officials are working hard to make sure employees have somewhere else to go.

"We will do everything we can to ensure that the disabled consumers and clients continue to receive services in the community. We are working with the State, New York State agencies to ensure that happening," says Harasymczuk.

That includes its services to disabled individuals who work at others businesses in the community.

SWS provided job coaching and support.

"You see the smile on the faces of people that they're so happy to be in a work environment," says Harasymczuk.

Some disabled employees have already secured other jobs and SWS is committed to making sure all those it serves are not left behind.

A sister company of the non profit, Able Industries, which also employs disabled individuals will also be closed.

The Sheltered Workshop sold its remaining manufacturing contracts to VMR Electronics.

A.G. Schneiderman Picks Binghamton Leader for Nonprofit Reform Committee

Binghamton, N.Y. WBNG Binghamton
-- Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman on Wednesday announced the appointment of Sharon Ball to serve on his Leadership Committee for Nonprofit Revitalization.

Ball, the Executive Director of the Broome County Arts Council in Binghamton, is one of 29 leaders Schneiderman has charged with providing recommendations to improve nonprofit regulation and enforcement in New York.
"I am pleased Sharon will serve with her colleagues across the state to reform the rules of the road so the nonprofit sector can thrive,” Schneiderman said. “Nonprofits provide critical services to their communities and as the second largest employment sector in the state, their success is crucial to our economy. We can be tough on policing fraud without imposing needless burdens and costs on this vital sector, and the Leadership Committee is a central part of achieving those goals.”

The Attorney General oversees nonprofits operating in New York State, and Schneiderman has made the improvement of nonprofit regulation a priority for his office.
Earlier this year, he announced he would convene a group of leaders from New York’s nonprofit, business and labor communities to help eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy that has long plagued nonprofits, such as redundant audits and overlapping reporting requirements, and delays in processing and payment of contracts. The nonprofit sector is the second largest employment sector in the state, providing work for between 17 and 18 percent of New York’s labor force.
“The current regulations can be confusing and burdensome, forcing nonprofits to commit resources they would otherwise spend serving their communities,” Ball said. “Attorney General Schneiderman is taking a much-needed step in the direction of reform by bringing together leaders to modernize the system so nonprofits can thrive.”

Ball has been the Executive Director of the Broome County Arts Council since 2004, where she has overseen the organization’s fundraising and grant making activities, member services, advocacy and programs. She is the primary fundraiser for and manager of the Arts Council’s United Cultural Fund, one of only about 60 active campaigns for the arts in the United States.
As a radio journalist for more than 20 years, Ball established NPR's first cultural news desk to cover the arts, religion, media, and race relations in Washington, D.C. Ball’s notable honors include a Case Media Fellowship at Harvard University and appointment as Senior Scholar by the Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The Leadership Committee’s activities will focus on the following:

• Making recommendations on how to reduce regulatory burdens and more effectively address regulatory concerns;

• Developing legislative proposals to modernize New York's nonprofit laws that would eliminate outdated requirements and unnecessary burdens; and

• Proposing measures to enhance board governance and effectiveness, including through new programs to recruit and train nonprofit board members.