Monday Metanomics: Accountants in SL

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This Monday, March 31th, 2008, at 11:00AM SLT (2:00 PM EST), Robert Bloomfield and Metanomics will host a panel to discuss accounting issues in Second Life. We will be joined by Texas Tech Law Professor Bryan Camp, KAWG&F COO Arline Ciroula, and Tom Hood, founder of the Business Learning Institute. They will discuss the economy of SL, the differences in accounting for virtual and RL businesses, and the tax implications for conducting business in SL.

The event will be held on CMP's 4-sim Amphitheatre as well as by our event partners, and filmed and streamed live on SLCN.tv.

Bios of our guests and event partner locations after the break.

Bryan Camp
After earning his J.D. and M.A., Professor Camp clerked for the Honorable John P. Wiese of what is now called the Court for Federal Claims. He worked on tax, takings, and government contract cases. Then, as an Assistant County Attorney for Arlington, Virginia, he experienced the myriad delights of providing legal counsel to a local government, ranging from litigating various civil matters to practicing what he likes to call "transactional constitutional law." Professor Camp left public service briefly to work as an associate in a small Washington D.C. firm. There he divided his time between commercial law, contract law, and estate planning.

After earning his LL.M., Professor Camp returned to public service as a Senior Docket Attorney in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel's National Office in Washington, D.C. There he spent eight years delving into the details of subtitle F of the Internal Revenue Code and the subtleties of the Bankruptcy Code, dispensing advice to IRS field attorneys across the country and helping devise appropriate responses to adverse judicial opinions. In 1997 and 1998 Professor Camp was privileged to be a fly on the wall when Congress ground out the Internal Revenue Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (the RRA). He participated in the IRS efforts to affect that legislation. After the RRA's enactment, Professor Camp led the regulatory response to one of the most complicated of the RRA provisions. The resulting proposed regulation was published in the Federal Register on January 2, 2001. During his tenure at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, Professor Camp received numerous awards, the last one being the 2000 Attorney of the Year for the General Litigation Division.

Since joining Texas Tech, Professor Camp has lectured and written on bankruptcy law and has also written in the areas of tax law, statutory interpretation, constitutional law, and jurisprudence. He is the author of over 23 published articles and treatise chapters, plus numerous shorter works. Since June 2004 he has written 13 articles on tax administration law and policy for Tax Notes, the premier national publication devoted solely to tax issues. In addition, his long-standing and continuing interest in United States legal intellectual history and social history is reflected in his selection to participate in the 2003 Supreme Court Historical Society's summer seminar and in scholarly presentations before the New York Historical Society and Haverford College.

Professor Camp is currently Chair of the Committee on Individual and Family Taxation of the American Bar Association's Tax Section. He is frequently invited to present at CLE functions; currently he prepares materials for and presents at two to four CLE meetings per year.

Arline Ciroula
Arlene Ciroula joined KAWG&F in 2003 as Chief Operating Officer for KAWG&F with over nine years of industry experience. She creates the necessary people systems crucial to eff ectively grow the organization and to ensure both financial strength and operating efficiency. As a member of the shareholder review and compensation committee, Ms. Ciroula works to promote a success-oriented and accountable environment. Providing leadership and management, she ensures that the firm has the proper controls set in place for administrative and reporting procedures. During her tenure with the firm, Ms. Ciroula created and launched the world's first virtual accounting office in the virtual world, Second Life, to provide accounting services in the next generation of the Internet.

Tom Hood
Tom Hood, CPA, is the CEO and Executive Director of the Maryland Association of CPAs and founder and CEO of the Business Learning Institute (BLI).

Tom has his pulse on the forces affecting the CPA Profession due to his active involvement in the CPA Profession as a State Society Executive, strategic planning consultant, and as a volunteer. He led the national CPA Vision Team through the implementation phase from 1998 – 2003 and has experience working with CPA firms, national committees, and corporations around the country. His passion is helping people and organizations implement strategies to deal with the rapidly changing environment.

Through BLI, Tom and his team help businesses and firms navigate the turbulent waters of business with training, strategic planning, and other tools. The Business Learning Institute is a nationwide developer of high quality training and resources for today's' business. He is also the co-author of the High Performance Model for organizations with Jeannie Patton and Carol Kirwan.

His service to the Profession has earned him awards and recognition. Hood received the AICPA Special Recognition Award for his role in the CPA Vision Project in 1999. He was recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the Profession by Accounting Today Magazine in 2000, 2001 and 2003. Most recently he was nominated as one of Maryland's 50 Top CPAs by SmartCEO Magazine for the second year in a row. He has published articles in national and local business and professional organziations. In 2006, Tom was profiled as one of the top "thought leaders" of the Profession by RainToday magazine. He is also the lead author in the webblog dedicated to CPA Success – www.cpasuccess.com and one dedicated to New/Young Professionals – www.newcpas.com.

Hood has experience as a high level executive in industry, specifically as treasurer and CFO of Bryn Awel Corporation, a privately owned $75 million highway construction company. He is a graduate of Loyola College (B.A. in Accounting) and has a Master's in Finance (Real Estate) from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's equivalent in Information Systems from the University of Baltimore. Most recently he obtained the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) certification from the AICPA.

He serves on the Board of Directors of the Shared Services, LLC and is Co-Chair of the Board of the State Societies Network, Inc. He also serves on the Board of the CPA/SEA (CPA State executives Association). He chaired the AICPA/CPA-SEA Interchange Conference for 2005. He is a member of the AICPA Enhanced Business Reporting Committee and was recently appointed to the AICPA Pre-Certification Executive Education Committee, the AICPA CPE Advisory Committee and the AICPA Special Committee on Mobility.

He is a member of the AICPA, MACPA, American Society of Association Executives, Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, and the World Future Society.