From 15 Attendees to 300: How Caryl Coronis Rebuilt the CFMA Lone Star Conference

<p>Caryl Coronis, CPA, CCIFP, has served CFMA at every level — Houston chapter president, co-founder of the resurrected Lone Star Conference, and most recently national chair. But her construction finance career started with a surety agent telling her, &quot;You&#39;re going to have to do percent complete,&quot; and an invitation to a chapter meeting.</p><p>In this episode, Caryl joins Rishi Srivastava to talk about what a commercial landscape company taught her about equipment: when one riding mower goes down, four people with push mowers finish the job, and that labor is where the money quietly leaves. Those fundamentals scaled all the way up to cranes at a specialty bridge builder, where shaving one or two points off equipment cost meant real dollars in a thin-margin business.</p><p>She also shares how three chapter presidents brought back a regional conference that had died at 15 attendees and grew it to roughly 300 — and why sponsors willing to risk their money made it possible. Then the conversation gets candid: navigating owner politics from the finance seat, the family business where Friday decisions got reversed after Sunday dinner, the son who bought a two-seat sports car on the company&#39;s dime, and the quiet way tasks stop getting done when one person leaves and nobody plans the handoff.</p><p>We also cover the CCIFP exam at regional conferences (with a free retake), why the certification still matters when AI models can pass it, the CFMA heavy equipment comparator (hecomparator.com), and Caryl&#39;s pitch for why the regionals — at half the cost of national — are the best first step for anyone in year one.</p><p>Topics covered:</p><ul><li>Percentage of completion accounting and how CFMA fills the training gap</li><li>The real cost of equipment downtime and the repair-vs-replace decision</li><li>Rebuilding the CFMA Lone Star Conference from 15 to 300 attendees</li><li>Offering the CCIFP exam at regional conferences</li><li>Keeping the CCIFP relevant in the age of AI</li><li>Owner politics, family businesses, and being the outsider in the room</li><li>Why handoffs fail and how job descriptions, task lists, and software training fix it</li><li>&quot;Yes, it integrates&quot; — the ERP bolt-on reality</li><li>How to get involved with CFMA at any level</li></ul><p>Resources mentioned: CFMA Connection Cafe, hecomparator.com, cfma.org (search &quot;regional conferences&quot;)</p><p>Beiing Human will be at the CFMA Carolinas Conference in Greensboro, October 22–23. Stop by the booth.</p><p>Finance at the Jobsite is hosted by Rishi Srivastava, founder of Beiing Human. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or watch on YouTube.</p>