July 12, 2010

TxSEA Members:

The 2010 Convention is over, and I am overjoyed with the tremendous success this event brought to TxSEA. We had 129 attendees plus 16 EA candidates take our SEE review course, which ran concurrently with the education track we offered.

Bryan Gates, EA delivered nothing less than his usual power classes, with his vast knowledge of IRS problem solving skills as well as several tips worth the cost of the convention alone. Meda Dalton-Wogan, EA made it very clear how to handle rentals in several scenarios. Valorie Paugh, EA presented a current how-to handle Section 1031 exchanges. Beanna Whitlock, EA made us think really hard with her Ethics presentation (which I consider to be one of the best in the nation), plus her presentation on how to handle LLC conversions was exciting. Jean Bennet-Dicus, EA brought to reality what happens when we die. AMT, the real ugly truth, was presented by me, and let's not forget L.G. Brooks, EA who made us laugh in his presentation of Travel and Entertainment. The SEE candidates received the wealth of knowledge and experience of Nancy Uecker, EA, Chuck Bell, EA and Beanna Whitlock, EA.

To top these tremendous education giants, we were fortunate to have spent time with and heard very important messages from Ms. Nina Olson, National Taxpayer Advocate, Ms. Karen Hawkins, Director of the Office of Professional Responsibility, Dave Williams, Head of Electronic Filing and the new PTIN program, Ray Wagner from the IRS Oversight Board, William Stevenson, EA USTCP and Federal Tax Judge Juan Vasquez.

We certainly laughed very hard with Judge Vasquez' anecdotes and Beanna's Patsy D. Cline skit during the banquet, I believe I am correct in saying "it's been a long time since we had so much fun at a convention." But the most wonderful part of these past four days was seeing so many of our peers together. There is only one thing that could have made this convention much better - the attendance of the rest of our members.

I thank all the members who attended the convention, all the hard work of the host chapter, and I look forward to next year's convention and educational summit.

Sincerely,

Ricardo V. Rivas, EA
President

Office of the President: 14800 San Pedro Avenue, Suite 224, San Antonio, Texas 78232