Is “Community Service” Really an Important Part of What AGA is About?

By: Jeffrey S. Hart, CGFM, CFE

Jeffrey S. Hart, CGFM, CFE, is a member of AGA’s Denver Chapter and the Association’s Immediate Past National President. He is the manager responsible for evaluations of climate change programs and activities for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General, and works out of their Denver Office.

One of my primary goals as National President last year was to help us better understand how all the things AGA does, at the National Office and in the chapters, fit together to create value for members and contribute to AGA’s ultimate goals.

Last year, I visited many AGA chapters and was amazed at the variety of community service activities in which our members are engaged. I was also humbled by just how seriously some chapters took their community service activities and how prominent a role these activities played in a chapter newsletter or in an individual chapter meeting. It made me better appreciate just how important these activities are to some of our members and to AGA as a whole.

Gathering toiletries for domestic abuse shelters, food drives, toy drives, public TV auctions, VITA, cooking and serving meals at homeless shelters, building houses for Habitat for Humanity, pet shelters, adopting a single charity for the month or the year, giving scholarships, charm school for job hunters, cash donations to chapters impacted by Hurricane Katrina, not to mention the tremendous outpouring of sympathy and support that manifested in cash donations to the families of AGA members who were working at the Pentagon and were victims of the September 11 tragedy. These activities represent just a smattering of the many and varied community service activities in which AGA chapters and members are involved.

When I traveled to Louisiana to visit the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Chapters as National President, I was so moved by the devastation I saw, both in the physical infrastructure, and more important, in the eyes of our own chapter members, I felt called to do something. When I returned home I organized our first National AGA Community Service Project with the help of Karl Boettcher, CGFM, and Peggy Javery, CGFM, the Past Vice Presidents of AGA’s Capital and South Central Regions, and the support of New Orleans Chapter President Jill Byrd, CGFM, and many of the chapter members. A small group of us went to New Orleans last June to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity. And a much larger group of us are going down there again next week. (If you’d like to join us, find details at http://www.agacgfm.org/publications/topics/030308/habitat.aspx). In fact, I hope to continue this blog through next week and share some of our experiences in New Orleans. So, stay tuned for that.

Some people wonder if all these varied activities are the types of community service activities in which AGA ought to be involved. After all, when I joined AGA more than three decades ago, the Association’s community service activities were pretty much limited to providing some volunteers to help folks complete their income tax returns under the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program.

Do you agree that community service is essential to who we are as an organization? Why? Are these the types of things in which AGA should be involved? Does it create “value” for members and potential members? How does it do that? What novel community service activities have you or your chapter been involved in? Do you have some ideas about the future direction of AGA’s community service efforts? Let’s hear them!

TOMORROW: Thad Juszczak. a senior manager with Grant Thornton LLP, a retired federal budget officer and AGA National Treasurer-Elect, on "Accountability: The Budget’s New Clothes"

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