The Philadelphia NASPP chapter holds the first chapter meeting of the year on Tuesday, January 6, at 8:30 AM.  The meeting will feature a presentation on “Post-Vest Holding Periods: The Intersection of Corporate Governance, Plan Design, and Financial Accounting.” Attendees will also be treated to a studio tour of the QVC headquarters.

The last NASPP chapter meetings of the year:

DC/VA/MD: Mike Palermo of Fidelity Investments and Daniel Kapinos of Radford present “Minimizing Expense without Reducing Perceived Value.” The presentation will be followed by a holiday event at the Tasting Room. (Tuesday, December 16, 2:30 PM)

Las Vegas: Sheila Frierson of Computershare presents “An Equity Comp Year-End Wrap-Up.” (Wednesday, December 17, 11:30 AM)

Here’s what’s happening at your local NASPP chapter this week:

Orange County: The chapter hosts their annual holiday social and networking event, featuring cocktails, dinner, and a great evening with colleagues. (Wednesday, December 10, 5:30 PM)

Philadelphia: Peter Simeonidis and Megan Cuccia of Deloitte present “MOBILITY: Taxability, Traceability, Payroll-ability, Survivability.”  (Wednesday, December 10, 8:30 AM)

San Fernando Valley: Andrew Schwartz of Computershare presents “An Equity Comp Year-end Wrap-Up.” (Wednesday, December 10, 11:30 AM)

Silicon Valley: I present “Ways to Breathe New Life Into Your Stock Plan Education Program.”  There will be challenge questions, prizes, homemade jam, and a cat video! Don’t miss it! (Wednesday, December 10, 11:30 AM)

Salt Lake City: Ken Stoler of PwC presents “Equity Compensation Viewpoints Other than Stock Administration!” (Thursday, December 11, noon)

I hope to see you all at the Silicon Valley chapter meeting on Wednesday.

– Barbar

On November 12-13, Kathleen Cleary and I completed a short tour of the NASPP’s southern California chapters. We presented “NASPP Conference: Cliff Notes Edition,” which features highlights from this year’s NASPP Conference in a game show format for the San Diego and Orange County chapters and a joint LA/San Fernando Valley chapter meeting. Here are pics from the meetings.

What’s a game show without prizes? We didn’t have $1 million to give away, but we had the next best thing: chocolate!

Funny story: Going through security with 30 bars of chocolate in my bag caused TSA to search my bag (I think it was the foil wrappers). And when the agent found the 30 chocolate bars, he actually exclaimed: “Oh wow!” I guess in shock that anyone would eat so much chocolate. At which point I felt compelled to very hurriedly and embarrassingly explain that they weren’t mine, they were prizes for a game and I wasn’t going to eat all that chocolate myself. I’m still not sure he believed me.

Megan Arthur and Michelle Lara of Cooley chat before the San Diego chapter meeting. A big thank-you to Cooley for hosting the meeting.

The San Diego meeting was attended by around 40 people–a fantastic turnout. Kudos to James Tozer of E*TRADE, the chapter president, and the rest of the chapter board members for organizing a great meeting!

From San Diego to LA–which is a long drive when you got up at 5:00 AM that morning to catch a plane to San Diego. Luckily I wasn’t the driver. In this pic, Sandy Hetrick of Riot Games and Kim Barner of Demand Media catch up before the meeting begins.

View from the meeting room in LA (Kathleen and I were glad we had left a little early for the meeting). A big thank-you to Stubbs, Alderton & Markiles for hosting the meeting. Also, thanks to Joanne Wendler of Demand Media and Jeffrey Peak of Schwab, presidents of the LA and San Fernando Valley chapters, and their respective chapter boards, for organizing a great meeting!

The last stop on the tour was First American in Santa Ana for the Orange County chapter meeting. Here are Sean McLaughlin and Dave Mayo from Fidelity and Michelle May from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. Thanks to First American for hosting the meeting and thanks to Jeannette Wheeler of Solium and the rest of the chapter board for organizing another great meeting!

See more pics from the meetings on the NASPP’s Facebook page.

– Barbara

It’s a big week for NASPP chapter meetings:

Connecticut: Jenn Namazi and Jen Baehr of the NASPP present “NASPP Conference: Cliff Notes edition.”  The meeting will also include drinks, dinner and door prizes to celebrate the upcoming holiday season! (Monday, December 1, 3:00 PM)

Chicago: Mike Melbinger of Winston & Strawn presents “Thirty Changes to Your Equity Plan Documents to Reduce the Risk of Unwanted Outcomes.” (Wednesday, December 3, 7:30 AM)

Florida: Paul McConnell of Board Advisory presents “Total Shareholder Return (TSR) Plans – Pros and Cons.” (Wednesday, December 3, 8:30 AM)

Sacramento:  Kelly Geerts of ISP Advisors presents “How to Finish Out the Year Without a Headache.” (Wednesday, December 3, 1:00 PM Pacific)

Austin: The chapter hosts its first annual Holiday Social and Networking Event.  (Thursday, December 4, 5:30 PM)

Dallas: The chapter hosts its holiday cocktail party, which includes a discussion of the “First Data-Driven Study of the ROI on Equity Compensation.” (Thursday, December 4, 3:00 PM)

Houston: The chapter hosts a presentation on “What’s Trending in Equity Compensation.” (Thursday, December 4, 11:30 AM)

Ohio: Jenn Namazi of the NASPP presents “NASPP Conference: Cliff Notes edition.”  (Thursday, December 4, 9:30 AM)

San Diego:  The chapter hosts its annual holiday social and networking lunch at Cozymel’s Mexican Grill. (Thursday, December 4, 11:30 AM)

Twin Cities: Don Drybrough of Solium presents “Employee Mobility and a World of Challenges: Steps to Take Control of a Mobile, Global Workforce.” (Thursday, December 4, 7:30 AM)

A few last NASPP chapter meetings before the holiday week:

Connecticut: Nathan O’Connor & Raenelle James of Equity Methods present “Ten Things You Want Your Comp Committee to Know BEFORE Performance Grants are Issued.” (Wednesday, November 19, 9:00 AM)

San Francisco:  Two totally timely topics:  Robert Slaughter of Equity Methods presents “Proposed Changes to ASC 718: How They May Affect You” and Gary Hamilton of My Equity Comp presents “6039 Compliance, Tips, and Tricks: Filing Your 3921 and 3922 Forms the Right Way.” (Wednesday, November 19, 11:00 AM)

Denver: The chapter hosts its annual Winter Members’ Luncheon and Roundtable Discussion.  Over lunch, the chapter will discuss planning and ideas, solicit member feedback, and get input to inform the executive board’s 2015 chapter meeting’s agendas. Everyone is welcome to contribute. (Thursday, November 20, Noon)

I’ll be at the San Francisco chapter meeting; I hope to see you there!

– Barbara

I recently completed a little roadshow of the Twin Cities, Wisconsin and Chicago chapters. Here are pics from the road:

All of the meetings included an audience-driven presentation in the form of a game, challenge questions, and prizes.  I brought some of my homemade jam to give out a prizes; a lot of jam (30 jars between the three meetings) was given away! At the Wisconsin meeting, someone also won the grand prize of a men’s Harley-Davidson jacket.  The meetings were all well attended and a lot of fun!

Twin Cities chapter president Donna Bailey Morgan Stanley with Brian Boyd of E*TRADE and Sam Zopfi of Morgan Stanley. Kudos to Donna and the rest of the chapter board for planning a fantastic meeting. There were lots of attendees, including a lot of new faces!

Charlene Lake of Harley-Davidson and Will Thoms of UBS.  Will is the Wisconsin chapter president and Charlene is a chapter officer. Kudos to Will and the chapter board for planning a great meeting.  The meeting was held at the Harley-Davidson Museum and set a record for the most number of attendees EVER for the chapter.  I’d like to think I was the draw, but I suspect it was the museum.  A big thank-you to Charlene for arranging for the meeting and the tour of the museum for the chapter board.

After the meeting, chapter board members got a private tour of the museum, led by Billie Davidson, great grandson of Harley-Davidson co-founder William Davidson. And during the tour, Billie’s father, Willie Davidson just happened to walk by. This is just one example of the sort of benefits you can enjoy by getting involved with your local chapter–consider volunteering today!

Here the board members and I have a little fun.

The last stop on the roadshow was Chicago.  You can see we had a great turnout; the most I’ve ever seen at a Chicago chapter meeting!

Susan Daley of Perkins Coie and president of the Chicago chapter.  Thanks to Susan for accommodating my schedule and for having the idea to make the meeting a double-presentation with lunch, so that we’d have a great turnout even on a Monday!

See mores pics of the Twin Cities, Wisconsin, and Chicago chapter meetings on the NASPP’s Facebook page.

– Barbara