Although we’re just a few days into summer, we’ve already been feeling it here in the D.C. area!

We’ve unpacked our boxes from PDI and want to thank all those that attended and volunteered – your support helps us to further our mission to provide professional development and promote ethical behavior in all aspects of Defense Financial Management.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL PROGRAM

Thanks to those of you who renewed your membership early or on-time in May! Congratulations to the following "RENEW" YEAR's Resolution program winners: Trent Harpest of the Aviation Chapter and Edward Pak of the Korea Chapter each won $50 gift cards, and the $150 gift card was awarded to Lewis Broome of the Evergreen Chapter!

Each month, all on-time or early renewals for one or three years will be entered into a random drawing to award two $50 gift cards and one $150 gift card, respectively. In addition to contacting the members who win the drawings, we will announce the winners on our website and social media. To save ASMC administrative time and cost and for a chance to win the gift cards, renew your membership on time or early here.

NATIONAL PDI 2018

PDI 2018 was a great success. We welcomed approximately 4,100 professionals in Denver and a tremendous week of special events, CDFM Prep Mini-courses, Service Day sessions, general Sessions and Thursday/Friday Mini-courses and workshops.  Thanks so much to our ASMC President and Board Members; speakers; PDI Professional Development Committee; PDI Chair, Vice Chair, Executive Secretary, and Committee Chairs/members; Assistant Instructors; and Corporate Members/exhibitors. The ASMC PDI is a truly valuable example of collaboration and teamwork in support of the professional development and effectiveness of the defense financial management community.

General (and specific Mini-course and workshop) PDI 2018 satisfaction surveys were distributed last week via email to all PDI participants. Your feedback in response to this anonymous survey is extremely important and critical to our success in continuously improving the PDI learning and professional development experience, so we encourage each PDI attendee to promptly take the opportunity to complete and submit the survey. 

Did you attend PDI but missed out on some of the great presentations? Presentation files will be available via our ASMC website later this month. Virtual PDI, included as part of the PDI registration fee, will be available in late July.

Congratulations and a big thank you to Oracle Corporation, our 2018 Corporate Member of the Year, awarded at PDI. 

THE ELSIE STEFFANY SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

ASMC remains very saddened by the tragic death of Ms. Elsie Steffany during PDI. The ASMC Staff and our National Executive Committee are working on the development of an annual Elsie Steffany Scholarship Award in honor of Elsie’s life and her dedication to public service. A memorial service in honor of Elsie’s life was conducted at the Fort Myer Memorial Chapel last Friday, 22 June. Another memorial service will be conducted on 30 June in Hawaii for Elsie’s family and friends there. You can read ASMC’s memoriam regarding Elsie Steffany here. 

RETIREE MEMBERSHIP

Anyone who fully retires (except for volunteer work) is eligible to remain as a free, non-dues paying member of ASMC. The only difference in membership benefits is that members in our Retiree Sector do not receive hard copy edition of the Armed Forces Comptroller quarterly journal beyond the time that their normal membership paid thru date occurs. Instead, they receive access to our digital-only version. If you are approaching “full” retirement, please notify ASMC at membership@asmconline.org, so we can transfer you into our non-dues paying Retiree Sector, led by volunteer Jack Mutarelli.

NEW CDFM EXAM & UPDATED ENHANCED DEFENSE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TRAINING COURSE

ASMC announced two significant changes to its Certification and Professional Development Programs. The first is an updated Certified Defense Financial Manager Exam (CDFM) blueprint, ensuring the content of Module 1, 2, and 3 exams measure knowledge that is important and relevant to current practice within defense financial management (FM). The second is an updated Enhanced Defense Financial Management Training Course (EDFMTC). Both changes, approved by the ASMC Certification Commission, are supported by data related to the Department of Defense FM Certification Program (DFMCP) job task analysis. With these changes, undertaken through a structured, involved, and lengthy process, ASMC reaffirms its commitment to ensuring that the CDFM credential continues to represent the gold standard and the sign of distinction in defense financial management. The new CDFM Module 1, 2, and 3 exams will be launched on September 1, 2018. However, for those who desire to take the current exams, ASMC will offer the new and current version of all three exams concurrently through December 31, 2018. The new EDFMTC textbook (v2018a) will be available for purchase on July 1, 2018 and introduced in classrooms on October 1, 2018. The current EDFMTC textbook (v2013a) will continue to be sold and used in classrooms through August 31, 2018. New CDFM Blueprint: ASMC has released the full updated exam blueprint on its website. The new blueprint will go into effect with the launch of the new exams on September 1, 2018.

The Certification Commission modified several competency areas defined by the test blueprints, including:

  • Module 1: Removal of “Personnel Management”
  • Module 1: Modification of “Management Responsibility for Internal Controls” to “Enterprise Risk Management and Internal Controls”
  • Module 2: Modification of “Business Management Process Improvement” to “Strategic Planning and Organizational Performance Management”
  • Module 3: Identification of the need to re-conceptualize Auditing in light of Financial Improvement and Audit Remediation (FIAR), thus giving greater attention to auditability

A timeline for the availability of the new exam and course materials, as well as the new exam blueprint, is available here. The Module 4 – Acquisition Business Management course material and exam continue in the update process. ASMC projects the new exam and course material to be available in 2019.

ASMC MEMBER ENGAGE PLATFORM

Log in and check out our new membership communication and engagement platform that we appropriately named Engage! Engage, is an interactive service platform, which has been adapted for integration with your ASMC membership. Engage will allow our members to better network and collaborate with each other. Additionally, the leadership of each ASMC chapter can use their “chapter” level community to better communicate with members regarding upcoming chapter events and programs, as well as enhance chapter administration. Log into Engage at https://engage.asmconline.org/home, using the email address and password associated with your ASMC member account. 

CHECK YOUR ASMC MEMBERSHIP PROFILE

We ask that all members routinely check their membership profile information – including email and mailing addresses. Also, if you’re not using your personal email address, we suggest you change your work email address to your personal (Gmail, yahoo, AOL, etc.) address, so as to avoid any server firewall issues that might block delivery of email to your account.   

As always, thanks for your continued ASMC membership and dedication to our great nation.

Al

Al Runnels, CDFM-A
Executive Director
American Society of Military Comptrollers