It may be months away, but the start of a new school year always initiates the wheels to start turning and planning to proceed. Taxes are on my mind, especially volunteer recruitment. Our success is determined by volunteer numbers, quality and quantity of available trainings and supervisory support.

With UW-Madison and Madison College in swing again, opportunities to attend Volunteer Fairs, speak with student organizations and champion the VITA program with our most involved student organization, Beta Alpha Psi (a large accounting UW Madison organization)we go forth in marketing our program with flyers, revamping tax training content, scheduling training dates/times, and so many more details. As well, some recent communication from the IRS has indicated that standards for training volunteers will be alterred as well. The IRS is encouraging e-learning and most notably for volunteers to attend a mandatory ethics training. Changes are occurring but its to keep up to date with client needs' and IRS resources.

I myself will admit that I'm looking foward to reconnecting with past volunteers, speaking to potential new ones, and spreading the word of taxes through trainings. We can only hope that the IRS doesn't throw us too many curveballs with new tax law changes for the 2012 season.