This can truly be billed as the "Greatest Show on Earth". We had 53 participants from the state of Minnesota.  Terry Meggitt won the Donald Sharper Grant Award for 2003 (Terry's acceptance speech is below).  Linda Obertin, former President of the Northstar Chapter, gave her "farewell speech" as Payroll Women of the Year in 2002.

Speech by Terry Meggitt to the 2003 Congress

I would like to thank the DWS Grant committee for selecting me as the 2003 recipient.

I would also like to thank fellow NorthStar members Marsha Smith and Sheri Beck for submitting letters of recommendations.  Additionally there are two other NorthStar members that I would like to thank for their support and guidance over the past 8 years.  You see, they will do whatever it takes to keep a chapter going strong, they are Robyn Murphy and Denise McMahon.  All chapters need individuals like them to survive.  Some other current and past NorthStar members that have helped shape our chapter are: Bruce Beckman, Irene Chapman current President of APA, Patty Lake, Marcia  Aamodt and Linda Obertin who have all been named “Payroll Woman of the Year”.  A chapter is like a family and we are proud of these individuals and what they have done for the Payroll Profession.

I have read that we have some new chapters joining us this year.  I would like to welcome all the new chapters and remember that there are over 100 APA chapters out there so don’t try to recreate the wheel.  Contact some of the chapters to see if they will send you a copy of their processes or procedures for the different activities.  What I have seen over the years is that Payroll Professionals are willing to help one another, you just have to ask.

One of APA objectives is to provide educational opportunities to anyone that wishes to learn more about payroll.  If we look back before 1980, how did people in payroll learn the correct way to pay employees?  You may have seen an accounting class at your local college that may have talked a little about payroll.  But for the most part we learn from our co-workers who learn from their co-workers and so on and so on.  Right or wrong that’s the way we were taught.

Why was that?  Well, we’ve all heard the saying that anyone can do payroll and we all have always known, that is not true.  Today with all the different kinds of pay and how each of them may or may not effect your employee’s taxes, we all need to be educated.  Then in the early 1980’s there was a vision.  A vision to create an association dedicated to the Payroll Profession.  A vision that would include publications, seminars and conferences all over the country, heck why not an annual congress too!

Today we have a lot to celebrate, a state of the art training center in San Antonio Texas, seminars and conferences all over the country, publications, CD’s, internet training (who would have thought about CD’s and internet back in the 80’s) and of course an annual congress.  My favorite is the CD combo, I like it because of the ability to click on the foot notes and it takes you to the regulations.  Not only do you get the Payroll Source book on the CD, there are three other books included: The APA’s Guide to State Payroll Laws, Federal Payroll Tax Laws and Regulations, and Federal Payroll Non-Tax Laws and Regulations.  Every payroll department should have this CD, it will save you time and money.  It saved my company over $70,000, and if you get the CD combo you get a hard copy of the Payroll Source book, which I use for all of our NorthStar chapter study groups.  If you’re planning on becoming an FPC or CPP check with your local chapters to see if they have a study group you could join.  Your chances of passing the exam are greater if you participate in a study group.

I want to tell all of you about a fever that we have in the Twin Cities, I call it the NorthStar fever.  If you are not certified as an FPC or CPP the odds are you’re going to catch this fever.  Because every where you go someone is certified and more and more companies are looking for both types of certifications.  We have companies like ADP Mpls over 30 of their employees have become certified in the past two years.  Target the retail giant has 25 employees taking the exam this current cycle alone and they’re 3 for 3 so far.  There are a lot of other companies that have had several of their employees become certified like Land O Lakes, Ceridian Mpls, NCS Pearson, Fortis Inc, Metronic and Rochester Mayo the list goes on and on.  For the current testing cycle we have over 70 people signed up to take the exams and if our percentage holds up we would have at least 63 more people certified.  The most we have had in one year (2 cycles) is a little over 50.  The fever is catching on in the Twin Cities and the only cure is to become certified. So I challenge all FPC’s and CPP’s to help one person pass the exam over the next two years and see if we can spread this fever nationally, because it’s a good fever to have.

Getting back to Target, do you think that the 25 Target employees had to pay for the class and the Payroll Source book?  No they did not, the class was even held during their workday, 2 hours a week for 14 weeks.  Thanks to Becci Power-Johnson Sr. Manager at Target.  She convinced her upper management that it would be a good investment.  That’s what all of us should be doing.  This is our profession and if we want it to become a better place we have to do something about it.

Before I accepted my current position 3 ½ years ago, my employer had to agree on 5 different items:

They asked me to help them understand why this was important to me.  Having worked in this department before as a Tech and knowing that they were held back, I wanted the staff to know that I supported them 110%.  Now I’ve talked about a lot of individuals and what they have done.  So I want to ask you, can one person make a difference?  I believe the answer is Yes and each of you could make a difference too.  My message to all of you is, support both the National APA and your local chapter, be a paying member, get involved and by all means support your profession.

Thank You Donald W. Sharper for your vision, without your vision where would we be today!  Thank You and have a great congress.