SCAFP News April 2005

 EXPO L.A. Symposium 2005 is Coming Soon!

MARK THE DATES NOW!

May 18 & 19, 2005

As a professional engaged in corporate treasury or a treasury-related function, or as a provider of these services to the corporate sector, EXPO L.A. Symposium 2005 is for you!

EXPO L.A. Symposium 2005 takes place on a regional stage with a national cast of highly experienced experts. Mix and match your interests with any of the four concurrent tracks and 29 different presentations.  Session topics for the two day program will include Risk Management, Technology, Investments, Banking, Cash Management, and Banking for Bankers.

Attend sessions on numerous topics, or focus on a few that particularly interest you. Don't miss the "Brainstorming" session where you may bring your questions about any aspect of treasury; and the concluding session on "Check 21," featuring a panel of experts from the banking community and a practitioner, is not to be missed!  Once again, we'll have the wonderful door prizes awarded on the second day in the afternoon.

EXPO L.A. Symposium 2005 is produced by the members of SCAFP and is one of the longest-running treasury conferences in the country. And it's affordable, too!

Register now!   We encourage online registration, so just click here: Register on-line or go to www.scafp.net and click on EXPO L.A. Symposium 2005. Five or more employees of the same firm, registering as a group, qualify for the Member Rate.  Click Here to register.

Sponsors! Sponsor opportunities are still available. Contact Michael Hards, sponsor chair, at michael.r.hards@jpmorgan.com, who reports that our top tier sponsors now include:

 Laura Chick To Speak at April 8^th Luncheon Meeting

Laura Chick, the newly re-elected Controller of the City of Los Angeles, will speak at our next luncheon meeting on "Performance Audits in a Political Environment." Ms. Chick has made quite a name for herself through her department's performance audits of the Los Angeles Airports Department, Harbor Department, and Department of Water & Power, as well as performance audits of numerous other operations of the city government. Results of the Controller's Department performance audits, as well as considerable amounts of other information are available for all to see at the Controller's website, www.lacity.org/ctr.  We encourage SCAFP members to visit that website before Ms. Chick's visit and to come prepared to ask her some tough questions following her presentation.

Ms. Chick is known as being determined to expose malfunctioning and dysfunctional operations in the City and outspoken about her findings. You won't want to miss hearing her speak about her job and her experiences over the past four years in conducting these audits and dealing with the political fallout that usually occurs. Who knows? There may even be some lessons to be learned by treasury managers in dealing with corporate operations! 

 Federal Reserve Bank Tour

SCAFP members were delighted to tour the Los Angeles branch of the 12^th Federal Reserve District Bank on February 17th.  The members viewed the check processing operations area, which was largely finished with the day's work by the time of the tour, the coin and currency vaults, loading dock where armored carriers deliver deposits and funds undergo preliminary counting, the unique money museum, and the newly-installed lobby exhibit, "Fed Gallery: Your Central Bank in Focus."  There, members saw antique equipment, purchased the new California quarters and the Lewis & Clark nickels, and worked with simulations of the U.S. economy.

SCAFP President Morgyn Taylor was amazed at the cash vault, which is the size of a football field and contains racks of boxes of currency. She marveled at the fully automated robotic machines that pull and store cases of cash in and out of the racks. A box of $100 bills, for example, contains $40 million!

Thanks to Susan Farbenbloom (SunGard), SCAFP's Education Chair, for arranging this tour. Flush with the success of this tour, Susan has made arrangements for another Fed tour on September 22, 2005 for those members who missed this one. Look for registration details in a couple of months.

 Los Angeles Clearing House Tour Scheduled

Have you ever witnessed the actual exchange of checks in a clearing house? The Los Angeles Clearing House is one of the largest in the country, and the check exchanges take place at a location near downtown at 8:00 AM and at 12:00 noon. Dick Ercole (Bank of America) has arranged for a group to observe the exchange of checks. This tour, which is limited to 15 people at each session, is scheduled for Monday, September 19, 2005. Sign-ups will begin soon, so watch for the details. The tour will be preceded on Friday, September 16, by our regular luncheon meeting at which Jerry Milano will be the speaker. Mr. Milano is Senior Vice President of the SVPCO, which operates the clearing house. He will talk about "The Clearing House -- Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow." Mr. Milano's presentation will put our Clearing House Tour into perspective for us.

 All-Stars Win "You Bet Your Cash" Contest

A team of all-stars walked away with the honors (and baskets of holiday goodies) at SCAFP's annual holiday luncheon meeting and game show, "You Bet Your Cash," in December. Congratulations to the members of the winning team:

Scott Campbell            Merisel

Debbie Fan                 CB Richard Ellis

Chris Herrera               Comerica Bank

Rob Rogovin                International Rectifier

Randy Weaver             JP Morgan Chase

Rumana Yasmin          Marsh, Inc.