Cynthia ‘Cindy’ Brown
For many years we visited Charleston with our sons’ soccer team and in 2005, discovered and fell in love with Seabrook, purchasing a Summer Wind Cottage. We became permanent residents in November 2016 and are currently building our forever home on Seabrook Island Road.
During my 35+ year career, I focused on helping businesses with financial accounting and human resource issues. I worked as a consultant for both an international employee benefit consulting firm and public accounting firm in addition to my consulting practice. My experience dealing with diverse personalities, in a multitude of industries, with varying problems enables me to quickly evaluate people and situations to determine and implement solutions. These skills can be applied to serving on SIPOA committees where volunteers are required to act as fiduciaries of member’s money and property.
I believe in participating in and giving back to the places where I live, work and play. Since moving permanently to Seabrook, I have taken the position of secretary/membership on COVAR and am a member of the SIPOA Finance Committee. I volunteer with AARP-TaxAide preparing tax returns for citizens of Charleston County and serve as the Treasurer for the Fleming Tennis Tournament next year. Prior to moving to Seabrook, I served on various boards and committees most notably with the NC Association of CPAs where I held the positions of Chairperson, Treasurer and Director and was a representative CPA to the AICPA Council for many years. I recently completed my three-year term as a member of the NC State Board of CPA Examiners which licenses and regulates CPAs in North Carolina and accepted the treasurer position on the board of the NCACPA Foundation which provides scholarships to NC accounting students. I also served as treasurer on two homeowners associations and a club soccer team.
The majority of Seabrook Island property owners fell in love with the community and environment that is Seabrook. The ultimate goal of SIPOA and individual owners should be to maintain and enhance that community. As a community, we need to make decisions that are best for the community as a whole. And each individual must also take full responsibility for their own actions and take care of personal and community property and environment with that common goal in mind. If the answer to the question “does this enhance the community as a whole?” is yes, then an allocation of resources (time and/or money) should be considered along with other competing demands. There are many needs and wants for this community and it is the job of its leaders to determine the prioritization that will ultimately serve our long-term well-being. To be successful, we must have the best, most diverse group of leaders to achieve the optimum results. As a member of the Nominating Committee, I would like to help identify and recruit these individuals. To that end, I plan to leverage the relationships I have developed as the COVAR secretary to encourage COVAR members to volunteer for SIPOA positions.
-Submitted by Cynthia Brown
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