This summer’s blockbuster for many of us will not be Hollywood’s finest but witnessing and/or participating in budget discussions for the coming fiscal year.  Our days may be filled with anticipation as we discover whether our audit shops will expand or contract, will be assigned interesting or boring work, and whether or not our auditees in other departments will be funded for their own projects.

We wait with bated breath for news, even rumors, about presentations from our elected officials.  Who is meeting with whom?  Did they really say something cutting funding in one place to give to another? How will the citizens react to the budget presentations?  What do they really care about?  As this drama unfolds, we may all find ourselves at least marginally affected, even if other departments are impacted more than our own.

For some of us, another highlight of summer of 2007 might be the ALGA Annual Convention.  It will give us the opportunity to meet old and new members, discuss practical tips to beat the audit performance blues, and share knowledge gained by experience in serving our organizations.

I would also like to take time to announce the addition of Brandon Haynes as the assistant editor for the Local Government Auditing Quarterly.  Brandon worked for Mayor Mark Funkhouser when he was the City Auditor of Kansas City then moved to Atlanta where he works closely with other ALGA activists.  I’m glad to add someone with the depth of experience, education, and energy that Brandon brings to the Communications team. Brandon will help usher in some changes to the LGAQ for next year including the construction of template to help standardize, and hopefully improve, the look and feel of our publication.

We will also be rolling out some themes for every issue to help you all as writers.

For example, the theme for the September Quarterly will be, “The Art and Science of Auditing.” I hope that you all take this broadly written prompt and use it to your advantage in generating articles.  Future issues may have themes such as “Auditing and Technology,” “Back to the Basics of Auditing,” or “The Role of Auditing in Local Governance.”

We look forward to seeing new faces, rekindling old relationships, and learning new skills in Memphis.  But if you aren’t able to make it to the conference, we hope that your endless summer is still filled with excitement from the sights and sounds of local government auditing.