Fridays After 5 Featuring Marsha 

Witherspoon

SDA’s member spotlight Fridays After 5 showcases the varied creative, fun, adventurous, or exciting achievements our members accomplish after business hours.

Just in time for tax season, meet two-time SDA National Treasurer Marsha Witherspoon, CDFA. Marsha knows a thing or two about dollars and taxes. She was a banker for over 30 years before moving to the A/E/C industry. After 20 years with Cole & Denny Architects in Alexandria, Virginia, she retired and relocated to Ohio. 

A not-too-taxing project.

For the last seven years, Marsha has volunteered with the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program. The Tax-Aide program helps low-income Americans over 50 years old file their taxes. Assistance may be in person, low contact, contact free or self-prepared. The tax assistance is free of charge and you do not have to be a member of AARP to access the services.

Specific training is required to volunteer. The IRS and program providers both offer training. Experienced volunteers can take classes in-person, or they can take an online refresher course. After completing the training, volunteers must pass the Volunteer Standards of Conduct Certification before working at a site. Returning volunteers must certify themselves on an Intake/Interview and Quality Review Form and tax law before signing the appropriate forms to return as a volunteer. Credentials must also be approved by a site coordinator, sponsoring partner, instructor, or IRS contact before you can prepare tax returns for others.

There are challenges with this type of volunteer activity. As Marsha explains, “volunteers can only prepare tax returns for the years in which they are certified to prepare the return. If a client has not filed a tax return for several years and one of those years is one for which she is not certified, she cannot file the return. Clients may become unhappy if they have to wait for a volunteer certified for that year or even come back another time.  Also, in the not-so-fun column, is telling clients they will not be getting a refund or that additional taxes are due.”

The difference Marsha makes in the lives of others is what Marsha finds most rewarding about volunteering.  As Marsha describes, “It makes me feel good that the skills I possess can be of benefit to someone else.  When their tax return is completed, the joy on a client’s face is priceless, especially if they will get a refund, no matter how large or small.  It is gratifying when a client specifically requests that I be the volunteer that prepares their return each year.”

Advice for the tax-averse.

Forosophobia, the fear of taxes, plagues many people, including me. For us, Marsha has this idea: “A suggestion I’ve made to family and friends is that they immediately set up a file for the following year’s tax return once they have filed the current return.  Drop all the data, receipts, pay stubs, etc., you think will be needed to file your next return in that folder.  At least when it’s tax time again, most of your information should be in that one file, and you don’t lose a lot of time trying to gather what you need to do your return.”

Marsha shared this Forbes article that she says has some good advice to prepare for tax season. Lucky for many of us is that Congress recently extended the tax filing deadline for individual tax returns to May 17, 2021. 

Besides volunteering with Tax-Aide, Marsha enjoys walking, reading, crossword puzzles, word searches, and other word games. Currently, her favorite word game is the New York Times Spelling Bee. She and her hubby look forward to more face time with their six children, 11 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. 

You know how you start noticing a lot of red cars on the road, especially after you just bought yourself a red car? That’s what has been happening to me lately: I’m noticing a lot of sentences that have the word “may” or the word “might” in them. It started when I wrote this:

I recall Emily saying that you guys may be able to let us view a whiteboard or something on Saturday . . .

 I’m not sure why, but I waffled between writing may and might. I started with might, and I sent the message using may. It’s been bugging me ever since. What is the difference between may and might?

And then the red-car scenario happened; I was getting hit with various messages and posts using both words:

So where might we help members find some solutions?

A simple coaching tip that may surprise you

. . . there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress . . .

Happy New Year! Thought you might be interested in this.

There’s more to MS Teams than you may know.

Sooner or later, your employees may seek reimbursement from you.

I was pretty sure there’s a correct way to use may and might in a sentence, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. So, I searched and found this:

• Use “may” when something is more likely to happen. 
• Use “might” if something is less likely to happen or in a hypothetical situation.

In the sentence I wrote about the whiteboard, I was correct in using the word may, because it was very likely that we would be able to view a whiteboard on Saturday.

If you need more explanations and examples on when to use may or might, you may find these sites useful in helping you understand the difference between the two words:

https://writingexplained.org/may-vs-might-difference

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=may+versus+might&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_TtEBYNzHOdC40PEPwMK4-AM16

https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/vs/may-vs-might-grammar-guidelines-in-simple-terms.html

Judy Beebe, FSDA, serves as our resident Word Nerd author.

She currently serves as the SDA Seattle Chapter President. 

Fridays After 5 Featuring Judy Beebe

SDA’s member spotlight Fridays After 5 showcases the varied creative, fun, adventurous, or interesting achievements our members accomplish after business hours.

This week’s Fridays After 5 features Judy Beebe, FSDA.  Judy is an administrator at the Seattle, Washington office of WSP and president of the Seattle chapter of SDA. She’s also a jewelry designer!

Judy’s workplace can actually be credited for her passion. At the firm’s 2016 Secret Santa exchange, she received a bead board and a few beads. Back home, she relied on YouTube videos for instruction. “The first piece I made was a necklace,” she explains, “I had to watch YouTube videos to learn how to finish the ends of the necklace.”

After mastering those early techniques, Judy continues to learn new skills and ways of fabricating her designs. More recently, she’s focused on improving her wire-wrap stones proficiency.

Judy initially crafted  from the dining room table. Today she uses a home office / desk setup she added. When she’s ready to create, pushes aside her electronics and begins crafting from her work-from-home desk.

Judy finds jewelry design a great way to unwind. In Judy’s words, “It's very relaxing to sit by myself and play with beads and pendants, seeing what design I can come up with.” After getting any necessary errands and housework done, she tries to spend some time crafting on Saturdays or Sundays. While her schedule may not always allow the time,  Judy expresses, “If I can squeeze in a couple of hours either day, I'm happy dancing!”

Her favorite medium of the moment is polymer clay and gemstones. Once she discovered polymer clay, she really found “claying” incredibly calming. So, she admits, “I’ve been making a lot of clay jewelry!” Her favorite online store for gemstones is Magpie Gemstones. 

Color plays a large role in her design inspiration. Judy reveals, “When I'm buying gemstones, I tend to go by color first. I love the deep jewel-tone colors - blue, purple, red, black. Same thing with polymer clay - I'll pick colors I like and start messing around with them. I do a little happy dance when I realize that what I made in clay, will pair nicely with the stash of gemstones I have.”

Lately, she also started drilling rocks that she then tumbles, polishes and turns into pendants. For this new skill, Judy gives an enthusiastic “Shout-out to SDA Seattle chapter 2020 board for giving me a gift certificate that I used to buy a bench drill press (another tool I can use), so I can drill the rocks I've been polishing!”

In her hubby’s eyes, “He would prefer if I could recoup some or all of the money I've invested in supplies by selling all of the pieces I am making.” But, for Judy, sharing her creations brings her tremendous satisfaction. She points out that “giving my items away, especially to people who don't know they're getting it - it just shows up in their mail.” She’s not naming names, but there are a number of SDA members who have benefitted!  She also likes to donate jewelry to causes she supports including women’s shelters and even SDA’s PPC (Past national President Council).

People who have purchased some of her designs did so through word of mouth or from inquiries by fans of her Pinterest board.

For anyone who wants to try jewelry making, Judy suggests, “start with inexpensive items first (e.g., hobby store beads) to see if you enjoy doing it, and if you're reasonably good at it. Then invest in better quality beads and findings, and tools.”