Roundtable Roundup and So Much More!

Roundtable Roundup and So Much More!

By: Wing-See Fox, Commercial Partner Committee Chair 

As a long-time CSMFO commercial member and current Chair of the Commercial Partner Committee, I have witnessed a strengthening and expansion of the relationship between commercial partners and CSMFO over the years.  Commercial members are active in CSMFO leadership, serving on Committees and holding a Board seat.  Sponsorship at the Annual Conference remains at sold-out levels year after year.  Still, I believe there is room to improve the benefits of commercial membership, and one of the near-term goals of the Commercial Partner Committee is to restructure CSMFO commercial membership to enhance benefits for its commercial members while continuing to further the mission of CSMFO. 

As a first step, we gathered input from commercial partners by sending out a survey in May.  Then we held a Commercial Roundtable in September and conducted interviews with a variety of commercial partners in October.  We asked what benefits they valued the most and whether they would be interested in firm-level membership rather than individual membership.

Feedback from commercial members was clear that meaningful networking opportunities with current and potential clients and education/knowledge sharing are most highly valued.  Advertising, discount pricing for events, and leadership opportunities are also valued, but to a lesser extent.  A significant number of respondents were not clear what specific benefits were offered to commercial members but felt that it was important to maintain their membership to demonstrate support for CSMFO, since they consider CSMFO to be the premier public finance association.

Additionally, the majority of those we surveyed and spoke to are interested in firm-level membership, covering multiple employees, and support tiered pricing levels.  During the interviews, we also tested the idea of tiered annual sponsorship options that include year-round commercial membership benefits as well as sponsorship of the CSMFO Annual Conference.  In general, we found that commercial partners are open to different formats for commercial membership as long as they can understand and articulate the benefits and why they are worth the cost.

Over the next few months, Margaret Moggia, Executive Director of CSMFO, and the Commercial Partner Committee will work together to flesh out the benefits and pricing for firm-level commercial membership and annual sponsorship options for discussion with the Board of Directors.  Our ultimate goal is to present a proposed membership structure for Board approval that can be implemented for the 2027 membership year and Annual Conference.

If you are interested in contributing to this effort, please reach out to Margaret at margaret.moggia@staff.csmfo.org, myself at wfox@ufi.us, or any CSMFO Board member!

Wing-See Fox is the Managing Director of the Public Finance Group at Urban Futures, Inc. (UFI). Wing-See has over a decade of experience in the fields of municipal advising, public finance, and municipal securities. She has worked on over $3 billion in municipal debt offerings for cities and special districts in California. Prior to joining UFI, Wing-See was a Vice President at Raymond James Public Finance, and her investment banking experience also includes work in the Municipal Securities Group at UBS Investment Bank in New York. Wing-See received an MBA from Columbia Business School, a Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Stanford University. She is an active member of the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO) and the Northern California Chapters of Women in Public Finance (WIP) and Asian Americans in Public Finance (AAPF).