Volunteer spirit: CPAs making public service a priority - Cover Story

California CPA, Dec, 2002 by Laurie Mason

STEPHEN MAYER LAUGHS mischievously as he recalls a particular pre-game talk he gave to a Pop Warner football team while he was a volunteer coach.

He pounded his fist on the chalkboard so forcefully to make his point during the talk that the chalkboard came crashing to the ground, frightening the youngsters.

Some 30 years later, a former team member approached Mayer at a Pro Athletes for Kids black-tie dinner and said, "You're Coach Mayer!"

"I remembered him," says Mayer, founding partner of Burr, Pilger & Mayer in San Francisco. "He was one of our running backs."

The team member, who'd gone on to play pro football in Canada, told Mayer he worked with kids himself and liked to tell them the story about the blackboard.

"It scared the hell out of me," he told Mayer, who had unbolted the 20-foot chalkboard before the lecture, just so it would come crashing down.

"It's all fun stuff," says the CPA.

Whether it is their brute strength or professional experience, many CPAs are finding it in their hearts and schedules to volunteer for various organizations--taking the "P" part of their title seriously.

As Harold "Hal" Schultz pointed out in his CalCPA 2002 Public Service Award acceptance speech: "This is a profession renowned for its dedication to serving clients and employers--and serving the public interest."

There are many reasons CPAs volunteer, notes Steve Kramer, chair of CalCPA's Awards and Recognition Committee.

"Some do it because of a feeling that they have to give something back to the community from which they draw their living. Some do it to find a date," he says.

To Kramer, a San Diego sole practitioner, any reason to give is a good reason.

"We attribute no negative to the fact that volunteering may be good for business. But that motivation is not as important as the public good," he says.

Maria Wilcox, president of the Orange County United Way, says that the financial expertise CPAs--including PSA winner Schultz--provide her organization is invaluable.

"We have so many financial dealings," says Wilcox. "We're a $28 million shop. Raising and distributing money is our business."

The following are just a few stories of CalCPA members who give to their communities and help keep charitable organizations moving forward.

GIVING EVERYONE ACCESS

Schultz, a partner in government affairs with Price water house Coopers in Irvine and past-president of CalCPA, believes his volunteer efforts open doors for others.

"I've been fortunate," Schultz says. "I came out of modest means, but was able to get a university education. I was able to enter into a challenging and financially rewarding profession. My sense is not so much that I need to give this back, but that a society like ours can only exist if people feel like they have the opportunity to reap the fruits of it."

The longtime volunteer is board vice chair for the Orange County United Way, but that is just one group of many Schultz works with. He is deeply involved with the United Church of Christ and in the performing arts community, where he has served as president of the South Coast Repertory Theater.

Schultz is involved with various types of organizations because he believes volunteer activities should include the family.

"Going to a finance committee meeting isn't something you're going to bring a picnic lunch and the family to," he says. "But generally, community organizations, whether they're health and human services or arts or for a chamber of commerce, do things that bring people together. And in a lot of cases, they do things that include the family."

Schultz estimates he spends 24 hours a month volunteering and sums up his calling with something Teddy Roosevelt once said: "This country will not be a good place for any of us to live unless we make it a good place for all of us to live."

The amount of time he can give, Schultz says, plays a big role in determining the areas in which he can volunteer. For the past few years, for example, he has turned down invitations to be chair of the Orange County United Way.

"There is no way with the travel that I'm doing for work that I can be at all of the board meetings that being the chair of the United Way demands to do a good job," he says.

Still, Wilcox is thankful for what Schultz and other CPA volunteers bring to her organization.

"We could not afford to pay for their services," Wilcox says of the CPA volunteers, who are involved in all aspects of the United Way's financial operations-from financial overview to audits of organizations that receive United Way funds.

BRINGING PERSONAL VALUES TO WORK

Lisa Patterson, an audit senior manager with Ernst & Young in Los Angeles, began volunteering when she was a child.

"It's a calling that I've had for a long time," she says. "I was volunteering at the nursing home in town when I was a kid, or helping the older lady next door. It's just something that's always felt right and good."

Patterson admits that when she began working at Ernst & Young she was so overwhelmed with work that for a number of years she didn't have time to volunteer. But that has changed and she's made time to volunteer.