Beta Alpha Psi - Epsilon Kappa

We had a very eventful meeting on 3/7 thanks to the dual presentations from BDO and CRI, along with our officer nominations.

We were very grateful for the representative from BDO for taking the time out of his day to speak about professionalism. Though parts of this topic were reminders for our chapter, we also learned new ideas about how to be more aware of what areas of professionalism we a could improve on.

We are equally grateful to the CRI representative for teaching us new methods of managing distractions while also mixing her personal experiences on this topic that framed it as a universal struggle. This was very insightfulful, especially for the current generation of students who have distractions coming from all directions.

We wrapped up the meeting by holding nominations for VP positions that are held for only a semester. We are excited to see how the elections turn out at the next meeting.

At our 3/30 meeting we welcomed Frazier & Deeter to speak about professionalism and taking charge of your career. These principles are vital to being an accountant or any career for that matter. We also discussed the most effective way to take notes, along with how important they are for organizing yourself and remembering key items.

Thank you to Frazier & Deeter for this insightful meeting.

They held a very engaging discussion called "What's your and?". The representatives from Smith Leonard brought up an interesting question of work life balance and how you can form connections with your coworkers based on shared interests separate from your work. It is important to remember that the work that one does isn't what defines them entirely as a person. Having personal interests and hobbies is very important to being a well rounded person, but can also provide opportunities to bond with people that you would normally only have a surface level connection with.

We thank Smith Leonard for this very insightful discussion.

Our officer group was very excited to attend the Beta Alpha Psi mid year meeting in Orlando on February 20th.

This event was an incredible experience that in many facets. Our officer group got to collaborate with other chapters from across our country, learn about new strategies and ideas being implemented in other universities, and soak up the wisdom of the esteemed key note speaker who took time and effort to craft an insightful presentation for us.

Our chapter presented in the best practices event in the category of collaboration, where we enlightened other chapters, along with a panel pf judges, about our incredible Beans 2 Brew Cofee shop. We praised it for being a student run project and highlighted our role in handling the accounting and providing volunteers for the counter.

Ultimately we learned a tremendous amount and all grew closer together as a team. We are grateful that this opportunity was presented to us.

Our annual street cleanup of Oak Street and Woodland Drive on 2/21 went great!

Our dedicated BAP members were very motivated keep our town clean, starting with our adopted streets. Many thanks to those who came out.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered at Hospitality House from BAP. We are always excited to help out in the community and Hospitality House has been a collaborator with our chapter for years. A warm meal can go a long way after all this snow.

On February 13th we had a group of eight volunteers help out at the Bare Bones Boutique, a volunteer-managed thrift store that raises money for the Watauga Humane Society.

Our volunteers helped clean the kitchen, organize items, and lift heavy objects for the employees and regular volunteers there.

We were very glad to help out again as we do every semester. This activity resulted in 20 service hours for our chapter.

At our 2/16 meeting we had a unique presentation from BGW about the risks and misconceptions with regards to artificial intelligence in the field of accounting. We discussed the benefits that AI can offer us as accountants, as well as how the trajectory of career paths may change.

In addition to this we took the exciting first step of inducting the seven founding candidates of the Hickory sub-chapter of Beta Alpha Psi. We are grateful for the chance to help the Hickory side of BAP get things up and running and we are eager to follow their progress.

We also initiated our final officer of BAP which finalizes our entire officer group as members.

Furthermore, as a special guest, we had Erich Schlenker introduce to the chapter the creation of the new Sweet Carolina Water. This student-ran organization produces cans of local Carolina mountain spring water. They are looking for students to join this amazing opportunity and BAP is eager to help out and include this as a service activity to promote our members collaboration.

Our first meeting to kick off the spring semester on 1/20 was centered around our traditional "Audit vs. Tax" discussion.

We delved into the differences, similarities, and misconceptions about the two main branches of public accounting. Doctors Hasson and Eller gave us insight into their own experiences in their respective fields alongside research that they have conducted on this topic.

In addition, we welcomed the new batch of officers and touched upon the direction that the chapter plans to take this semester.

On Friday 11/21 a team from our chapter spent 2 hours to clean up Woodland Drive. We are very proud of our members who were clearly excited to help out in our town. This was our last service activity of the semester, and we are looking forward to all the rest to come in the spring.