Finance/Operations Roundtables

2012 Roundtable Schedule

Strengthen Your Bank through Shared Ideas and Interaction with Peers

The Finance and Operations functions are critical to success in community banks. Senior finance, operations and technology officers shoulder responsibility for ever broadening and increasingly complex issues. No one knows or understands the issues you face better than your counterparts in other banks. Sharing ideas and best practices with your peers will broaden your professional knowledge base and benefit your institution. That’s the purpose of the Finance/Operations Officer Roundtables.

Roundtable Structure

Each Roundtable group will include up to 16 participants from a broad mix of bank sizes and diverse geography throughout the state without competitive overlaps. Groups of this size are large enough to offer diversity of opinion and experience, yet small enough to allow detailed brainstorming discussions among the participants. Each Roundtable group will meet either two or three times during the year as voted by the members. Meetings will be held in a centrally convenient Georgia location. The members will select meeting dates and agenda topics. The facilitator is responsible for coordinating meeting details, providing resources and handout materials, guiding the group discussion, and delivering post-session follow-up items. GBA will assist the facilitator in organizing the groups but will not be represented at the meetings.

Your Facilitators for the Roundtable Sessions

Elaine Demarest & Chrys Henderson

Demarest Strategy Group, Inc.

We are especially pleased that the Roundtables are being facilitated by Elaine H. Demarest and Chrys Henderson of Demarest Strategy Group, Inc. based in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Elaine, a Georgia Certified Public Accountant, is principal and owner of a consulting and accounting firm, Demarest Strategy Group, Inc. Her practice, which she formed in 1984, is devoted exclusively to management advisory services for banks and bank holding companies in the Southeast, with a clientele of over 150 financial companies ranging in size from de novo start-ups to $3 billion in assets. The firm’s specialties include all aspects of strategic planning, financial advisory services on mergers, branching and expansion decisions, capital planning, risk assessment, improving regulatory standing, evolving organizational infrastructure, staff talent development, financial support functions for banks & holding companies, budgeting, profit improvement, funds management and operations support, product development, performance-based incentive systems, and preparation of federal and state regulatory applications. In its history spanning almost three decades, the firm has gained a reputation of aiding community bankers to analyze opportunities logically, to use solid strategic business judgment, to build and enhance shareholder value, and to seek practical solutions that work.

Elaine is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants. She holds a BBA degree in accounting and a BS degree in mathematics from Mercer University. The firm is an Associate Member of and frequent speaker for the Georgia Bankers Association, where Elaine has served on the GBA Board of Directors and the Community Bankers Committee. The firm is now facilitator for the GBA President / CEO and Finance / Operations Officer Roundtable peer groups across the state. Prior to forming her practice, Elaine served the industry for ten years in CFO and operations capacities for a large multi-bank holding company in Macon, Georgia.

Chrys Henderson has 30 years of practical experience in the banking industry in Georgia. Her industry background at a mid-sized metro community bank encompassed all levels of audit, accounting, in-house data processing, operations, investment portfolio management, financial planning and asset / liability management. For the past 16 years, Chrys has teamed with the Demarest firm to provide consulting services to Georgia community banks of varying asset sizes. Her projects with the firm include personnel utilization studies, work flow analyses and systems design, budgeting, asset / liability reporting packages and administration, profit enhancement, CFO training and support functions, data processing vendor selection, analysis and implementation, product evaluation and development, and assisting banks in setting their strategic direction. She has managed and implemented conversions of all types, from simple data conversion to complete data, operational, and financial systems for a start-up bank. One of her passions is finding and helping to develop a bank’s shining stars to accept new challenges and grow to fit evolving company needs.

Sample Discussion Topics

Location: Meetings are held at the Idle Hour Country Club in Macon, Georgia as a central location for the state.

Meeting Schedule

9:00 a.m. Coffee, Light Breakfast and Networking

9:30 a.m. Roundtable Convenes

Noon       Working Lunch

3:00 p.m. Adjourn

Registration

The annual participation fee is $1,200 for groups that choose to hold three meetings per year, and $800 for groups that have chosen two meetings per year. The fee includes on-site facilitation, meeting materials, meals, year-round e-mail Q&A support with your peers, and customized follow-up from the facilitators.

If you would like to be part of a Roundtable, please complete the online Finance / Operations Roundtable application and we will get back with you to discuss the details. For more information, please call Susie McGehee at 404.420.2010.

Or you may fill out the interactive Finance / Operations Roundtable application, print and return it via mail or fax to:

Susie McGehee

Georgia Bankers Association

50 Hurt Plaza, Suite 1050

Atlanta, GA 30303

smcgehee@gabankers.com

Phone 404.420.2010

Fax 404.522.9848