Happy New Year, GFOAT Members!

Acknowledging that the holidays can be tough for many, I pray that everyone experienced some level of joy during the season.

As we finish up audits from the past year, I encourage you to spend time reflecting on the positive outcomes and look for areas of opportunity to improve going forward.

I’m so happy that our GFOAT Fall Conference was a huge success with a sold-out crowd! Many thanks to our sponsors, Executive Board, Conference Planning Committee, Executive Director Martie Simpson, TML liaisons Lavern Gaines and Tristan Gideon, and members who attended.

The GFOAT Governmental Accounting Academy, held in December 2022, was another success with 63 registrants! I’m pleased to share those participants included city administrators and other department directors wanting to gain a better understanding of what we do as finance officers for our agencies. How great is that? Based on attendee feedback, plans are in the works to expand content beyond building the annual financial report to cover governmental accounting concepts and terminology. This will make the training more useful for new finance officers in need of basic governmental accounting knowledge.

GFOAT’s next professional development offering will be the Budgeting Academy scheduled for February 21 – 22, 2023, at the TML Building in Austin. Register early for an opportunity to experience governmental budget training at its best.

With a goal of continued conference excellence, Kalahari Resort in Round Rock will be the location for the GFOAT Spring Conference, April 16-19, 2023. The planning committee is working diligently to build an agenda power packed with content and presenters who our members can use and enjoy. We look forward to another sell-out attendance.

Starting a new calendar year, I challenge us to set professional and personal goals to learn new things, grow our networks, and to keep living the GFOAT mission of “Promoting Excellence in Government Finance!”

Katina Hampton, MBA, CGFO
President, GFOAT
Director of Administrative Services
City of Friendswood