WHY I JOINED ASBO

I was given the opportunity to become the alternate liaison for Howard County within my first year of membership and quickly made connections with the other liaisons and higher officials within ASBO. Through the position of liaison, I gained a lot of behind the scenes knowledge of the internal structure of ASBO that as a normal member, I would have otherwise never have known. One of the primary goals of ASBO as I learned was to do everything possible to keep the costs low for not only membership, but the individual classes and seminars. The goal of ASBO is to disseminate knowledge to those that can use it, and they realize that cost is a prohibitive factor for many school systems. So to that end, registration costs are kept as low as possible to encourage participation and strengthen the knowledge of our workforce as a whole.

I have been to numerous events offered by ASBO, ranging from the Fall and Spring Conferences to individual seminars that pertained to my specific field of accounting and I can say without hesitation that they have been worth every penny. Not only am I broadening my knowledge of school accounting, but I am making powerful and lasting connections with the school officials of other counties. Those connections have proven invaluable in times where I am researching ways of producing effective procedures and policies that can be integrated in our own school system. Through my time with ASBO, I have realized that there is no one school system that has all the answers, we all share similar and even sometimes the exact same problems. Only with a collaborative effort can we solve these ever persistent challenges. To those of you on the fence about membership, whether it be becoming a member for the first time or continuing to renew membership, think about what you could accomplish if you had the support of the whole state of Maryland at your disposal.

Craig Blackwell

Accounting Services

Howard County Public School System-HCPSS