Yes, a great and useful meeting. I know, I know - the advertisement for the meeting stated that it would be a 'Tax Workshop". While under most circumstances, that tagline would succeed in scaring away many potential patrons, the turnout for the meeting was fairly significant. Perhaps the idea of doing "taxes" DOES have a lure of its own. Go figure.
The meeting started with a hearty breakfast featuring not-from-concentrate orange juice, miniature bagels, and Little Debbie snack cookies as a little extra gift...for myself. (As the meeting's breakfast shopper for the day, I threw in a little extra. :) ) Next was the ice breaker - always a ridiculously entertaining and energizing spectacle no matter who's running it. This time, Tari played the role of game show host. In honor of Black History Month, Tari attempted to be the game show host of a Black History Month trivia guessing game. The goal was to excite the audience by luring them into a(n educational) game show about modern and notable engineers and scientists, but he succeeded in driving a few people crazy with his sparsely explained "rules" of the game. Further complicating the game were the EXCESSIVELY COMPETITIVE people (cough, cough...Jeremy, cough, Renee,...cough, Seitu, cough, cough)!! After a while, I just sat back and watched the chaos unfold. Now THAT was awesome. Sadly, though, it looks like most of us need to brush up on our modern day Black History facts. Well, there's always next year!
Up next was our guest speaker from H&R Block, Master Tax Advisor Dan Hunt. Mr. Hunt selected tax topics that most affected the age range of the meeting attendees: student debt, participation in Employee Purchase Programs, stock sales, and 401(k) and other retirement program contributions. Mr. Hunt was a unique H & R Block employee because of his background. He had earned an engineering degree, worked several years (decades?) as an engineer, and then retired from industry. Now, in his retirement, he utilized his love - yes, LOVE - of taxes and tax preparation to the community by providing group informational sessions to the public. His goal is to educate his audience on the pros and cons that result from their financial decisions and to get them to start thinking about how they're going to prepare for the following year.
The response from the audience was great! Once everyone realized that there are many different ways to, uh, *cheat* the system, the level of intrigue was palpable. No, the most interesting blog read, but certainly a very interesting live presentation. He was armed with an abundance of tips. Basically, if you can funnel your money into retirement savings (which you can still do for the 2007 year by April 15th, by the way...) or if you donated a whole bunch of money/gifts to charity, you could move into a lower tax bracket and possibly receive a larger refund. Or you can receive tax credit for driving back and forth between jobs! Or you can be credited for your business lunches! Thus, the moral of the story is that life's a game of chess - there are just a few smart moves that will help you win. To much disappointment, Mr. Hunt had to leave. He handed out information about tax brackets to help in preparations for 2008 taxes.To get in contact with Master Tax Advisor Dan Hunt, call 408.253.8871 and ask for him. I'm sure you'll jog his memory of who you are if you mention NSBE Alumni. Just a tip.
After the tax help, the meeting drew to an end. Here were the announcements:
- First Friday Lunch: Siam Taste Thai Cuisine in Sunnyvale on March 7, 2008.
- The March general body meeting is cancelled due to the NSBE National Convention.
- NSBE National Convention is on the week of March 19 - 23, 2008. (Please contact the chapter President, Elvis, regarding room availability and/or list of conference attendees.)
- NSBE-AE Silicon Valley Banquet is on April 5, 2008 @6:30pm. Stay tuned!!
Until next time, enjoy!
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