History of the Organization

BEGINNINGS

The New England Association for Financial Professionals has a very interesting history. New England AFP is now, as of 2015, the third largest regional of all 64 regional associations of the AFP. The organization was founded in the late 1970’s by a group of new cash management professionals who were challenged at the time with historically high interest rates and a new asset class called “cash”, which had never before been viewed having significant value. Exceedingly high interest rates in the late 1970’s resulted in unprecedented potential for high returns on cash balances, even based on mere fractions of a day. The ability offered by growing mutual fund advisors to invest company’s idle funds as early in the day as possible became available to institutions of all sizes. Electronic and paper-based services were being developed by banks and software vendors to help speed up the receipt of incoming cash and to slow down the disbursement of outgoing cash. The banks formed divisions called variations of “Cash Management” where they formed sales forces and technology groups to provide accurate and timely account information delivered electronically on a daily, and even hourly, basis. Associations of professionals in the “cash management” field sprung up all over the United States at that time.

NAME TIMELINE:

1981: CMANE: Incorporated as Cash Management Association of New England, or CMANE, by the founding group of practitioners and bankers to provide education to the rapidly growing industry of cash management. The group was led by William E. Donoghue (The Cash Manager Newsletter), and included: Ray Cioci (FNB Boston), Ellen Hurley (EG&G), Jerry Jussaume, (Idle Wild Foods), Richard Kelly, (then Assistant Treasurer, Commonwealth of Massachusetts), Robert Mayer (Coopers Lybrand), and Fred Williams (ITT Sheraton).

1994: TMANE: After 13 years, the name changed to Treasury Management Association of New England, or TMANE, reflecting the broadened scope of education beyond Cash Management to all aspects of the treasury function. As TMANE grew, conference attendance spiked to over 800 individuals as this rapid expansion took place requiring the increased dissemination of education about more timely information and customer facing technology being deployed.

2014: New England AFP: After 20 years, the name changed again to New England Association for Financial Professionals, or New England AFP, reflecting New England prominently as the primary importance of the membership and the affiliation with the national association, AFP, both reflecting the further expansion of the scope of education being provided and the exponentially broadened subjects and specialties within the finance function in the office of the CFO. The conference venue, after being in the same Boston location for over 30 years, moved to a destination venue in Connecticut providing the attendees with updated conference facilities, more opportunity to network, and ability for vendors to entertain their corporate customers on site. Those practitioners in southern New England have an opportunity to attend the conference more easily.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE and Education Meetings:

The Sources of Education conference, held annually in Boston from 1986 until 2014, attracts over 500 participants from throughout the United States and Canada. In April 2015, the conference moved to Mohegan Sun Conference Center in Uncasville, CT, where attendees  enjoyed the more expansive exhibit hall and the state of the art break-out rooms and broad array of on-site options for networking and vendor sponsored events. Annually in the Fall, New England AFP also holds full day FUNDAMENTALS OF TREASURY MANAGEMENT course and an INTERMEDIATE TREASURY MANAGEMENT course for members and non-members. In addition, bi-monthly educational sessions have been held in various locations around Boston featuring subject matter experts presenting relevant topics to members and non-members. In 2015, New England AFP  expanded its educational events through its new Ambassador program, with education programgs held from Connecticut to Maine.

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