2008 Telephone Seminars

Accounting Endowments of Not-for-Profit Organizations After UPMIFA ...ited States, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, in 2008, promulgated FASB Staff Position No. FAS 117-1. FSP FAS 117-1 provides guidance for nonprofits as to the proper classification of endowment funds when UPMIFA has been enacted and expands the required disclosure about endowment funds. The replacement of the prior legal restrictions of historic dollar value with the seven articulated  more...

Best Practices for Preventing and Responding to Cheating in Your Classroom and School ...Institute (http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/2008/ index.html) indicates that 64% of high school students admitted to cheating on a test and 36% admitted to using the Internet to plagiarize others' work, while 93% were satisfied with their personal ethics or character. Students report a multitude of cheating methods, from using notes or cheat sheets or looking at another student's  more...

Intellectual Disabilities and Employer ADA Obligation ...n With Disabilities Act (ADA) by the ADA Amendment Act of 2008 (ADAAA) and the EEOC's ADAAA final regulations effective as of May 24, 2011, ADA claims are skyrocketing. A great many of the burgeoning claims concern matters formerly called mental disabilities and which are now called intellectual disabilities. Intellectual disabilities, which may include the ability to think, concentrate,  more...

Turbidity Control and Testing on Construction Sites ...NPDES) Construction General Permit which will replace the 2008 Construction General Permit. The public notice period expired July 11, 2011. The 2008 Construction General Permit will expire February 15, 2012. Turbidity (cloudiness or haziness of a fluid) is an important parameter used to evaluate the impact of construction sites on the waters of the United States. The Construction General  more...

Foreclosure and Workout of Commercial Mortgage Loans in New York ...of the Manhattan property where a crane fell, in March of 2008, understanding how to proceed in this challenging area is a critical skill for any commercial professional in New York today. This audio conference will take you through the steps of foreclosing a commercial loan in New York and discuss real world issues and problems that often arise. A special section will address some emerging  more...

Preparing for the International Financial Reporting Standard ...2008, the SEC released its proposed road map for the adoption of IFRS in the United States. About the same time, leaders from the G20 countries at a financial summit in the United States issued a statement which, among other things, confirmed the leaders' support for developing a single set of high-quality global accounting standards. Both of these events represent progress toward the  more...

Understanding the Legal Concepts of Adverse Possession of Real Property in New York State BenefitsAdverse possession is a recognized legal doctrine in the state of New York that enables a party, through litigation, to acquire title or ownership to real property belonging to someone else, and to thereby extinguish the record owner's rights in and to that property. While the New York courts have historically disfavored settling property disputes in this manner and thus the courts have  more...

Labor Law: Could 2011 Be the Turning Point for Unions? ...many campaign promises. Unions played a vital role in the 2008 elections and they continue to have a large voice in upcoming Congressional elections this fall. While most of the country has been focused on health care reform, 2011 could prove to be a pivotal year for union activity. What businesses may not be aware of, are many proposed, smaller amendments to NLRA and NLRB rules - when coupled  more...

Oil SPCC Update: How do the Ongoing Changes Affect You? ...and clarification efforts associated with the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 changes, changing the effective date over and over again. With most of EPA's changes complete, this teleconference will address the big changes presented by the numerous Federal Register announcements. Learning Objectives - You will be able to recognize SPCC plan elements. - You will be able to discuss inspection of  more...

Social Networking in the Workplace: Policies, Monitoring and Discipline Issues ...pularity over the last few years. According to an October 2008 survey, 51 percent of employees accessed social networks at least once per day at work; many of them did so for an hour or more per week. Despite these numbers and the risks inherent in employees using social networking tools, such as harassment, dissemination of trade secret information and lost productivity, employers have been  more...

EPA's Rules on Compensatory Mitigation for Impact on Wetlands, Streams and Other Waters ...2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers adopted new rules that dramatically changed its approach to mitigation under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which regulates fill in wetlands and other waters of the United States. The new rules adopt a mitigation hierarchy that moves away from the prior preference for on-site, in-kind mitigation in favor of mitigation banks and watershed-based  more...

Mortgage Fraud: An Epidemic ...2008 as the worst year ever for mortgage fraud. 2009 has seen the mortgage fraud epidemic spread even wider and deeper. This teleconference will focus on the most prevalent forms of mortgage fraud. Best practices for detection and prevention are outlined, with industry-specific recommendations for bankers, lawyers and mortgage professionals. We will conclude with a discussion of choosing and  more...

ADA Update: Overview of Americans with Disabilities Act and Practical Implications for Employers ...2008 takes effect January 1, 2009. The new amendments substantially alter and expand the definition of disabled under the ADA and who might be protected. This teleconference will review the ADA amendments and related issues, provide you with practical advice on how to comply with the ADA, and address common ADA and employment issues that may be impacted by the new law. Human resource managers,  more...

Doing Business in Texas? An Overview of the Texas Margin Tax ...nto the details of the tax. Beginning with reports due in 2008 all this has changed with the revised Texas Franchise Tax, known as the Texas Margin Tax by everyone but the Texas Comptroller's Office. The Texas Margin Tax raises a variety of issues for tax executives ranging from the tax provision to the overall legal entity structure of the company. For companies operating in Texas, either  more...

Impact of the New ADA Amendments on Schools ... Congress passed a body of amendments to ADA in September 2008 which effectively overturned the Court's interpretations and replaced them with a broader and more specific enumeration of what qualifies as a disability under ADA and Section 504. These changes will require many employers and school officers serving special needs students to change hiring, employment and student eligibility  more...

Floodproofing Fundamentals: Design Methods to Reduce Flood Damages .... Yet in spite of these risks associated with flooding, a 2008 national study commissioned by Office Depot indicates 40 percent of small businesses and nearly 50 percent of homeowners have no preparedness plans for floods or other major disasters. n nSolution: This teleconference is intended to help you reduce or eliminate the risk of flood damages to residential, commercial and public  more...

Paycheck Calculation Basics nThis is an excellent teleconference for those new at withholding payroll taxes or for those who need a refresher course. You will learn tips on how and why to determine if the worker is exempt or nonexempt. We will cover the calculation of and the maximum deductions for Social Security and Medicare taxes in 2009. n nThere are multiple methods of calculating federal withholding, which one should  more...

Estate Planning Opportunities in an Uncertain Environment ... on the sidelines to decide what to do after experiencing 2008? The uncertain times and uncertain market have actually created the perfect time to use some of the advanced planning tools in the estate planner's arsenal. Depressed values for good assets open up the opportunity to leverage our clients' assets to achieve bigger results down the road than we thought possible. In this  more...

Share-Based Compensation - Impact of Recent Events on the Use of Equity Compensation nExecutive compensation continues to be a hot topic across many industries. Recent changes in share-based compensation rules, principally the changes to Financial Accounting Standards 123(R) [FAS 123(R)], and market uncertainty and declines have led to significant changes in how companies and executives view the role and the value of equity as part of an overall compensation package. Join our  more...

Employee Retaliation: Supreme Court Update ...ermined in CBOCS West, Inc. v. Humphries, 128 S.Ct. 1951 (2008) that employees can bring retaliation claims under Section 1981, a post-Civil War era race discrimination act, even though the law does not expressly refer to retaliation. Moreover, the CBOCS West decision recognizes a retaliation claim brought by an individual of any race, who suffers an adverse action as a result of attempting to  more...

Same-Gender Marriage Rulings: Impacts on Employee Benefit Plans Across the Nation ...2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot deny same-gender couples the right to marry. Same-gender couples - many of them, in fact - flocked to California and started getting legally married on June 17, 2008. But then in November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage going forward. Massachusetts and Canada also allow same-gender  more...