We had a great fall board meeting in Chicago last October. We choose Chicago because it is easy to fly to and the airfare is reasonable. Most people arrived and left the same day. Thank you to Hanley Wood for the generous use for their conference room, with the economy CFA is very grateful for the cost savings.

The board meeting was very productive. The hallmark of CFA has always been networking and sharing ideas. We had a 2 hour round table discussion focusing on the economy, survival strategies, ideas for new revenue and a general discussion on the housing recession. It was one of the best investments of time and travel expense that I have made. Everyone was very open with ideas and strategies and I would like to thank everyone who participated. This is truly what CFA is about. Ed has produced an article that outlines some of the topics discussed for this issue. The round table discussion was so successful that we plan to duplicate it at the spring board meeting and the summer CFA convention.

The #1 benefit has always been about CFA members sharing ideas. Hopefully you can attend one of these round table discussions in the future. If you are unable to attend please call or email Ed or Jim with questions and they can direct you to a fellow CFA member that you can talk with. Especially in these times we need to meet and stick together through CFA.