Government Finance Officers Association

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GFOA Logo

The Government Finance Officers Association (or GFOA) is a professional association of nearly 18,000 state, provincial, and local government finance officers in the United States and Canada. GFOA is headquartered in downtown Chicago with offices in Washington, D.C.

The association’s members are deeply involved in the planning, financing, and implementing of thousands of governmental operations in each of their jurisdictions. The GFOA’s mission is to enhance and promote the professional management of governmental financial resources by identifying, developing, and advancing fiscal strategies, policies, and practices for the public benefit. The GFOA has accepted the leadership challenge of public finance. To meet the many needs of its members, the organization provides training opportunities, books and periodicals, software, recognition programs, and research for those in the profession.

Name

The original predecessor of GFOA was the National Association of Comptrollers and Accounting Officers which was formed in February 1906. Its name was changed in December 1931 to the International Association of Municipal Finance Officers. In June 1932, the name became the Municipal Finance Officers Association (MFOA). In 1973, the GFOA (then MFOA) was instrumental in the creation of the National Council on Governmental Accounting (NCGA). By the late 1970s, it was apparent that the NCGA couldn't fully do its job, due to part-time members and limited resources. Several public interest groups, including the GFOA and the National Association of State Auditors Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT), held public hearings to build consensus to create and fund a full-time standards-setting body. In 1984, the GFOA, NASACT, and others signed an agreement with the Financial Accounting Foundation that gave them a voice and appointments in the creation of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board(GASB). The name Government Finance Officers Association was adopted in April 1984. [1]

Membership criteria

Membership in GFOA is open to anyone whose career, studies, or interests involve government financial management. The GFOA serves a diverse base in the United States and Canada ranging from senior executives and financial managers, to students and entry-level employees. Members work for: cities, towns, and municipalities of all sizes; county governments; schools, school districts, special districts, libraries, and public employee retirement systems; states and provinces; federal agencies; and accounting and law firms, investment banks, financial institutions, and consulting firms specializing in public finance.

Benefits of Membership

For over a century, government finance professionals have relied upon the GFOA to provide timely information, practical educational opportunities, high-quality professional publications, and the latest information on best practices. In doing so, the GFOA offers public-sector finance professionals an unparalleled opportunity to: obtain “how-to” instruction on a wide range of financial topics, enhance their technical skills, broaden their knowledge and deepen their expertise, achieve professional recognition,coordinate efforts with colleagues,develop leadership skills, and network with peers. Members receive the latest information on developments in all aspects of public finance. They also enjoy many opportunities to participate in continuing professional education training that fosters their professional growth and career advancement. Naturally, members receive special discounts on GFOA products and services.

Structure

An 18-member Executive Board elected by the membership governs the organization. The Executive Board establishes policy and direction for the association. In addition, there are seven standing committees, made up of 25 GFOA members, each of which studies issues in their respective areas and proposes statements and best practices to the Executive Board. These committees are in the areas of accounting, auditing and financial reporting; budgeting; debt management; economic development and capital planning; pension and employee benefits administration; treasury and investment management; and Canadian issues. Policy statements adopted by the Executive Board are voted on by the membership at the annual business meeting held each year during conference.

The association staff is organized as follows:

Federal Liaison Center

The center informs the GFOA members about federal legislation, regulations, judicial actions, and policies that affect public finance functions, and represent the interests of the GFOA in Washington, DC. GFOA’s public policy statements are highlighted during regular contact with congressional leaders and key administration officials. Working with regulatory bodies that address issues affecting state and local governments is also a component of the center’s work. Center staff also collects, analyzes, and disseminates information to GFOA members about Washington activities. Additionally, by developing and promoting best practices and policy statements, the center helps the GFOA members and public finance professionals enhance their operations.The center coordinates the efforts of the GFOA’s seven standing committees, the Women’s Public Finance Network, and the Black Caucus. In addition, the center conducts the Advanced Government Finance Institute, an intensive week-long program that provides GFOA members from the United States and Canada an opportunity to enhance their leadership skills and focus on emerging trends within the public finance community. (Washington, D.C.)

Financial Administration Center

The center is responsible for all financial matters, procurement, and information technology. It is also responsible for membership and subscription activities, publication/product distribution, and the GFOA e-store. (Chicago)

Operations and Marketing Center

It is the responsibility of the Operations and Marketing Center to handle all logistics and marketing for the association’s training programs – including the annual conference, national training, live-streaming events, Internet training, and committee meetings. Through marketing and advertising, the Operations and Marketing Center promotes membership in the association, participation in the annual conference, training events held throughout the year, publications, and the association’s awards programs. This center also manages administration for the association. (Chicago)

Research and Consulting Center (RCC)

GFOA’s Research and Consulting Center provides timely and relevant information to GFOA’s members that they can immediately apply to the day-to-day challenges of managing their jurisdictions. The RCC conducts research into best practices and produces research reports, books, training, and consulting and other practitioner oriented products. Major current topics include Lean government, performance measurement and management, performance/priority-driven budgeting, long-range financial planning, social media, and business process management. The center also supports the CIPFA-GFOA financial management self-assessment model, which enables governments to assess their financial management performance against best practices in public-sector financial management, identify opportunities for improvement, and make needed changes. The RCC also conducts GFOA’s biennial member survey and facilitates GFOA’s strategic planning process. (Chicago)

Technical Services Center (TSC)

The center provides technical information, products, and services to GFOA members and others interested in government finance regarding accounting, auditing, financial reporting, and the preparation of budget documents. At the heart of the center's activities are five professional recognition programs: the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program, the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program, the new Certificate of Conformance Program for Small Government Financial Reports Program, the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting Program, and the Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award Program. The center also offers a technical inquiry service for individuals interested in the proper application of governmental accounting, auditing, and financial reporting standards; the preparation of high quality budget documents; and best practices in accounting and budgeting. Members of the TSC staff also serve as authors of publications and periodicals; prepare educational materials, and serve as instructors in numerous national training seminars, including Internet and live Web-stream events. (Chicago)

Publications

As a major publisher of financial management information, the GFOA maintains an extensive inventory of books, e-books, manuals, guides, and CDs on accounting, auditing, and financial reporting; capital finance and debt administration; financial management and budgeting; public retirement and benefits administration; and treasury and investment management. Member discounts are available. Specialty subscription newsletters are published on accounting, auditing, and financial reporting and treasury and investment management issues.

Recently, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued a new standard that fundamentally changes how state and local governments account for the cost of pension benefits in their financial statements. There is little doubt that the change will raise many questions. The GFOA’s new publication "An Elected Official’s Guide: The New Pension Accounting" is designed to help answer those questions in a way that is understandable even for those with little or no expertise in pension accounting.

The GFOA’s latest budgeting publication, "Building a Better Budget Document." Each chapter is carefully constructed to tell a story about how to present the government budget document in an outstanding manner: more than 250 real-life examples highlight state-of-the-art budgetary presentation; contents reflect the structure of the 27 criteria used to evaluate budgets submitted to the GFOA Budget Awards Program; narrative text explains how each example meets the program criteria in an exemplary manner; all types of governments are represented; includes examples that illustrate some of GFOA’s best practices in budgeting.

The CIPFA-GFOA Financial Management Self-Assessment Model

The CIPFA-GFOA FM Model is an online financial management self-assessment tool used for measuring the performance of your financial organization against best practices in the public sector. The model will enable you to determine your financial management style and decide where you want to go; assess performance along key financial management dimensions: leadership, people, process and stakeholders; and build a roadmap for transformation, using the model’s best practice guidance. The GFOA staff is available to answer any questions on the model and to provide demonstrations on the product.

Subscriptions

Government Finance Review (GFR): "Government Finance Review" is the association’s bimonthly membership magazine issued in February, April, June, August, October, and December. The articles bring you the latest innovations in state and local government finance. Specialized departments include Perspectives, News & Numbers, Best Practices, PM2 Connections: Performance Measurement & Management, Management & Careers, Solutions, Federal Focus, The Accounting Angle, The Bookshelf, Calendar, and Commentary.

GFOA Newsletter: The association’s e-Newsletter is e-mailed once a week and provides up-to-date information on association news and legislative and regulatory issues; lists current training seminars and publications offered by GFOA; and contains employment notices.

GAAFR Review: "GAAFR Review" is a subscription newsletter that covers major breaking developments in accounting, auditing, and financial reporting for state and local governments. Over the past quarter century, accounting and auditing professionals have come to rely upon GAAFR Review for timely and practice-oriented summaries of the latest guidance from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. They also have come to appreciate the wealth of practical guidance that it offers from month to month on a variety of ongoing issues and challenges. All net proceeds from subscriptions to GAAFR Review are contributed to the GFOA’s Government Accounting Research Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the quality of financial reporting for state and local governments.

Treasury Management Newsletter: Treasury Management is a monthly electronic subscription newsletter focused on treasury and cash management for local governments. Each issue is designed to save you time by compiling the information that you need in a simple, condensed format. There are articles by both industry experts and public-sector professionals who understand the challenges government treasury and investment management officials face, the issues you need to keep up on, and the hot topics you need to know about. In addition, each issue of "Treasury Management" summarizes all the investment performance and interest rate data that are most relevant to you, putting the numbers you need in one place for easy reference.

Participant and Reviewer opportunities are available for GFOA’s technical awards programs

The GFOA has established several highly regarded professional recognition programs to encourage and assist state and local governments of all types and sizes to improve the quality of their financial management and to recognize their achievement:

Awards for Excellence: The Awards for Excellence in Government Finance program recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice of government financial management. The award stresses practical, documented work that offers leadership to the profession and promotes the use of best practices in public finance.

Canadian Award for Financial Reporting: The Canadian Award for Financial Reporting (CAnFR) program has been in operation since 1986 and is designed to encourage and assist Canadian local governments to produce high quality comprehensive annual financial reports in full conformity with national standards set by the Public Sector Accounting Board of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting: The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting program, which has been in operation since 1945, is designed to encourage and assist governments to prepare high quality comprehensive annual financial reports (CAFRs).

Certificate of Conformance Program for Small Government Annual Financial Reports: The recently announced Certificate of Conformance Program for Small Government Annual Financial Reports is a professional recognition program designed to help small governments that, for practical considerations, do not prepare financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), improve the quality of their annual financial reports.

Distinguished Budget Presentation Award: The Distinguished Budget Presentation Award program, which has been in operation since 1984, is designed to encourage governments to prepare budget documents of the highest quality to meet the needs of decision makers and citizens.

Popular Annual Financial Reporting:The Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award program is designed to encourage governments to produce reports that make financial data more accessible to those who need or desire less detailed information than what is found in traditional comprehensive annual financial reports (CAFRs) (only governments in the United States and Canada with award winning CAFRs are eligible to participate).

GFOA staff is available to answer any questions on participant or reviewer opportunities.

GFOA Annual Conference

Thousands of public finance professionals gather each year for this three-day conference to share ideas, develop technical and managerial skills, view new products, and network with peers from across the country and around the world. Participants can select from more than 80 concurrent sessions, discussion groups, and pre-conference training seminars to customize their own educational curriculum.

Training Opportunities

Dedicated to the sound management of government financial resources, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA)provides professional development training opportunities tostate, provincial, and local-level government officials and other finance practitioners each year. Start earning your CPEcredits now or plan ahead using this latest training guide. Training courses are presented as basic, intermediate, advanced, update, or overview. Take part in CPE-accreditedgroup-live courses or enjoy the convenience of training at your desktop with our group Internet-based seminars and live-streaming courses. Visit www.gfoa.orgfor details, to register online, and for additional training announcements.

Take part in CPE-accredited:

Group-live courses: Take advantage of training close to home or in your area by participating in a one-day, two-day, or two and a half-day seminar with a GFOA staff member or an approved GFOA instructor.

Immersion courses: Maximize your training opportunities by taking part in subject-intensive courses held at GFOA’s offices in Chicago, Illinois.

Internet-based seminars: Enjoy the convenience of training at your desktop by dialing in to listen to GFOA’s one- or two-hour presentations.

Live-streaming courses: Watch a live-stream of the training on your computer.

Advanced Government Finance Institute

Every other year the GFOA partners with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a week-long program for 50 GFOA members chosen through an application process that explores emerging trends, professional and personal development tools, and selected issues in government finance.

Certification

Earning the designation of Certified Public Finance Officer (CPFO) provides a well-recognized credential that verifies participants’ knowledge in the main disciplines of government finance. Candidates complete a home-study based program and are required to pass examinations on each of five modules. Additional information about the CPFO Program can be found by visiting the GFOA website at www.gfoa.org and clicking on the “Certification” link, or by contacting Radford University, which provides technical and administrative support for the CPFO Program, at 540-831-6734.

Standing Committees

The GFOA has seven standing committees that advise the GFOA in specific areas of government finance, and develop the GFOA’s public policy positions and recommended practices. The standing committees meet twice a year, and are limited to 25 GFOA members each, selected through an application process and appointed by the GFOA’s President. By formulating new public policies, raising professional standards through recommended practices, and offering technological solutions, these committees provide practical information to the GFOA members on a variety of subjects.

See also

• California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO)
• Government Finance Officers Association of Texas (GFOAT)

External links

• Government Finance Officers Association