Peterson AFB hosts a Regional Professional Development Institute event for professional comptrollers

Published March 31, 2017
By Staff Sgt. Tiffany Lundberg
21st Space Wing Public Affairs Office

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The American Society of Military Comptrollers Pikes Peak Chapter held an all-day event featuring multiple speakers for over 110 financial management professionals at The Club, March 30, 2017, at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

The Regional Professional Development Institute conference offered financial managers, resource advisors and comptrollers training and open discussions from 15 financial management subject matter experts.

“The focus of this training is to meet the growing demands of today's complex fiscal environment,” said Tech. Sgt. James Blaz, 21st Comptroller Squadron finance customer service NCO in charge. “The sessions meet the National Association of State Boards of Accounting standards while providing attendees an opportunity to earn up to eight Continuing Professional Education units.”

The conference began with an opening ceremony and remarks from Brig. Gen. Trent Edwards, Air Force Space Command financial management and comptroller director. Afterwards, the attendees then broke out to their first of four pre-selected financial management related briefings of their choice. The topics included computer systems, leadership training, government travel cards, fiscal law, etc.

The attendees were not just from Team Pete. Some were from all across the state of Colorado including U.S. Air Force Academy, Schriever AFB, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Fort Carson, Buckley AFB, and the Center of Expertise. Also, there were several people from outside of Colorado from Francis E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, and the ASMC Utah chapter.

“American Society of Military Comptrollers is our professional organization not just for the comptrollers in the Air Force, it’s for all military services,” said Lt. Col. Christine Millard, 21st Comptroller Squadron commander and Pikes Peak Chapter president.

Another advantage to conferences like the PDI is the networking opportunities.

“While we have people in this office and we all know each other, this gives us a chance to network with other (financial management) professionals and hear speakers from the local community,” said Millard. “Networking is important because while we have our processes here, we have a chance to talk with someone else who uses the same processes at a different base so we might learn better ways to streamline our procedures.”

The chapter also has a new subgroup called the Early Careerist Group.

“The group is a new initiative for our new Airmen and gives (financial management) professionals a chance to network and figure out their career path,” said Millard. “It helps them figure out what they should be doing early on to make them better professionals later on in their careers.”

One of Millard’s goals as the Pikes Peak Chapter president is to provide more opportunities for comptrollers to get their required number of CPEs through various outlets such as monthly luncheons, Regional PDI conferences, monthly virtual PDIs and computer-based trainings. Another goal is to get more financial management professionals involved in ASMC.

Department of Defense comptrollers are required to achieve financial management certifications and to maintain their respective certifications by earning several hours in CPEs. For example, the level one certification requires 40 hours of training, level two needs 60 hours and level three needs 80 hours.

The Pikes Peak Chapter is not the only place FM professionals from the region can get their required hours, ASMC online also provides various online opportunities for training.

For more information on the ASMC Pikes Peak Chapter, visit http://chapters.asmconline.org/pikespeak/.