Community Service

AmeriStride encourages its leaders and professionals to give of themselves to the communities where they live and work.

Jeff Epperson Serves on Board of The Center for Hope

Counseling is an integral part of today’s society. Now more than ever, individuals and families are exposed to additional stress as a result of domestic and world affairs. This can lead to depression, failing marriages, post traumatic stress, grief, anxiety and a host of other symptoms.  It affects individuals and families from all walks of life.

Located on the main campus of Hutcheson Medical Center effectively delivering the five C’s of counseling:

• Compassion
• Care
• Competency
• Correction
• Commitment

The Center for Hope dedicates itself to carrying out its mission of serving those that cannot serve themselves.  To learn more about The Center for Hope click here:  The Center for Hope

Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Society of CPAs – September 2009

Partner, Terry Massey provided CPE training to over 180 members of Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Society of CPAs. He spoke on the necessary disciplines required to move from a low impact company (97% of the businesses in the USA are low impact businesses) to becoming a high-impact business.

Terry shared with the group that currently Tennessee ranks 25th, Alabama 28th, and Georgia 49th, in states with the most high impact companies per total businesses in their respective states. Even so, studies show that the ratio of impact businesses is rather flat across the nation with less than 2% variance between last place and first place.

He challenged the group to be proactive and to imagine what our city and local economy would be like if we improved the percentage of high impact companies in our area from 3% to 6%.

Institute of Management Accountants—August 2009

Partners Terry Massey and Jeff Epperson lent their expertise to the Institute of Management Accountants at their August luncheon.

Insightful information was shared in how the macro economics that we see reported in the news each day is impacting our businesses and our families on a local level. Unless we can increase departmental productivity resulting in individual income growth the massive deleveraging in the credit markets threatens to continue to depress the current US economy.

It is agreed that Americans need to spend less than we make. All things being equal, for every 1% increase in annual savings, we reduce consumer spending by more than $100 billion each year. Therefore if we were to increase personal savings by 5% annually we would take over $500 billion out of the US economy. If we can grow personal incomes by 2% through increased productivity we could achieve the same income to debt ratio and only reduce consumer spending by $250 billion providing a much safer landing for our economy and improve our business and family stability.

Terry and Jeff shared with the group practical methods and principles for establishing accountability and self management of priorities within their teams moving the organization to be more productive and measure based.

Junior Achievement Day—Spring 2009

April rolled in and found partner and cofounder Terry Massey back in first grade. This time it was a lot more fun than he recalls from his previous stint. He was a little apprehensive at first—what are first graders going to understand about the world of business? However, five minutes into class, all concerns were gone.

“The kids were great. They were a pure delight. They were enthusiastic, energetic and engaged. Our half day together flew by. We had a great time of learning and lots of fun. I hope the kids enjoyed this as much as I did. This experience continued to ingrain in me the simple truth that abundance in life is measured by the relationships you create, cultivate and cherish. I’ll cherish the day I spent with these 1st graders for months to come.” —Terry Massey

Fort Oglethorpe Development Authority

There are a lot more challenges to renovating and reenergizing a community to the awareness of its past, as cofounder and partner Jeff Epperson has been realizing in the past year. Since his appointment to the Downtown Development Authority (a Development Authority of the City created by the State of Georgia) for Fort Oglethorpe, GA. The Authority has the task of creating more pride in the community by offering various improvements and economic stimulus and helps for bringing more vital living to the Historic Areas of the city.

“Creating a community sense of pride in those people and things that have come before us, allows for a more vibrant economy and a more exciting place to live and work.” —Jeff Epperson

Fort Oglethorpe Tourism Committee

Jeff Epperson, cofounder and partner began the new year with a group of people discussing how best to help local businesses in the area capitalize off of the natural assets of Chickamauga Battlefield and the various events already scheduled in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. As a member of the Fort Oglethorpe Tourism Committee, Jeff is involved in various ideas and planning phases to help bring a new energy and sense of belonging to the Old Historic town of Fort Oglethorpe, GA.

“We have a great history in our little town, emphasized by the largest and oldest Civil War Battlefield National Park in the US. It is great to be involved in what events and natural resources that draw people to this area.” —Jeff Epperson