Our History
Late 1960s – Members of the Connecticut Society of CPAs (CTCPA) form the largest participating group of professionals in the Hartford Human Relations Commission’s small business aid program.
1968 – Twenty-five New Haven-area CPAs volunteer to help prepare loan applications for the underprivileged.
1969 – CTCPA creates the ad hoc Committee on the Disadvantaged (later the Community Service Committee), offering up to 80 hours per year to each minority entrepreneur.
June 1974 – The Community Services Committee raises $28,000 from the CTCPA, the AICPA, seven national accounting firms, the Ensworth Fund, and the Ensign Bickford Fund. With this support, the storefront office of Community Accounting Aid and Services (CAAS) opens at 1229 Albany Avenue, in Hartford’s North End. Isadore Sherman is the first executive director of CAAS.
1976 – CAAS handles its 100th case, with volunteers averaging 40 hours per client.
1977 – CAAS reaches its 150th client, presents seminars on taxes and recordkeeping, and hires a professional bookkeeping assistant with funds from The Hartford Foundation.
1979 – In September, Terrence M. Fox succeeds Sherman as executive director.
1980s – CAAS becomes part of the University of Connecticut Small Business Development Commission and moves to 61 Woodland Street in Hartford. Richard “Dick” Rogers, Col., US Army (retired) succeeds Fox as executive director. CAAS now serving approximately 100 clients annually.
CAAS moves to the West Hartford Campus of the University of Connecticut.
1990s – Col. Rogers retires from CAAS, and Nancy K. DeAngelis is named his successor.
January 2000 – John “Jack” Collins follows DeAngelis as executive director.
April 2000 – CAAS totally revises its popular Starting a Small Business in Connecticut manual, with John Purtill taking over as editor from the book’s creator, University of Connecticut Accounting professor Mohamed Hussein.
June 2004 – CAAS celebrates its 30th anniversary of service to Connecticut.
Tax Season 2005 – CAAS provides free income tax return preparation to the families of troops deployed in the first Gulf War.
2014 – Collins retires from CAAS, and the CAAS Board of Directors administers the organization on a volunteer basis, primarily led by CAAS President Richard Merrick, CPA and Board of Directors members John Purtill, CPA and Patrick McMahon, CPA. Purtill designs and maintains a CAAS website, and both he and McMahon rejuvenate fundraising efforts.
2014 – CAAS begins its formal affiliation with VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance).
February 2015 – Sheryle McMillan is hired as the sixth executive director of CAAS. CAAS recruits several new members to its Board of Directors, including marketing executive Jeffrey Wilson of GE Capital, who chairs the communications committee. The committee shortens the CAAS name to “Community Accounting Services” (CAS), updates the CAS mission statement, and volunteer Amanda Bedard of Marketing Atlas creates a new CAS logo and works with CTCPA webmaster Caitlin Bailey O'Neill to design and build a new website.
Tax Season 2016 – CAS expands its role in VITA, providing site coordinators and volunteers at seven sites in seven towns and cities, assisting a projected 1,400 disadvantaged individuals and families to file their state and federal income tax returns.
1968 – Twenty-five New Haven-area CPAs volunteer to help prepare loan applications for the underprivileged.
1969 – CTCPA creates the ad hoc Committee on the Disadvantaged (later the Community Service Committee), offering up to 80 hours per year to each minority entrepreneur.
June 1974 – The Community Services Committee raises $28,000 from the CTCPA, the AICPA, seven national accounting firms, the Ensworth Fund, and the Ensign Bickford Fund. With this support, the storefront office of Community Accounting Aid and Services (CAAS) opens at 1229 Albany Avenue, in Hartford’s North End. Isadore Sherman is the first executive director of CAAS.
1976 – CAAS handles its 100th case, with volunteers averaging 40 hours per client.
1977 – CAAS reaches its 150th client, presents seminars on taxes and recordkeeping, and hires a professional bookkeeping assistant with funds from The Hartford Foundation.
1979 – In September, Terrence M. Fox succeeds Sherman as executive director.
1980s – CAAS becomes part of the University of Connecticut Small Business Development Commission and moves to 61 Woodland Street in Hartford. Richard “Dick” Rogers, Col., US Army (retired) succeeds Fox as executive director. CAAS now serving approximately 100 clients annually.
CAAS moves to the West Hartford Campus of the University of Connecticut.
1990s – Col. Rogers retires from CAAS, and Nancy K. DeAngelis is named his successor.
January 2000 – John “Jack” Collins follows DeAngelis as executive director.
April 2000 – CAAS totally revises its popular Starting a Small Business in Connecticut manual, with John Purtill taking over as editor from the book’s creator, University of Connecticut Accounting professor Mohamed Hussein.
June 2004 – CAAS celebrates its 30th anniversary of service to Connecticut.
Tax Season 2005 – CAAS provides free income tax return preparation to the families of troops deployed in the first Gulf War.
2014 – Collins retires from CAAS, and the CAAS Board of Directors administers the organization on a volunteer basis, primarily led by CAAS President Richard Merrick, CPA and Board of Directors members John Purtill, CPA and Patrick McMahon, CPA. Purtill designs and maintains a CAAS website, and both he and McMahon rejuvenate fundraising efforts.
2014 – CAAS begins its formal affiliation with VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance).
February 2015 – Sheryle McMillan is hired as the sixth executive director of CAAS. CAAS recruits several new members to its Board of Directors, including marketing executive Jeffrey Wilson of GE Capital, who chairs the communications committee. The committee shortens the CAAS name to “Community Accounting Services” (CAS), updates the CAS mission statement, and volunteer Amanda Bedard of Marketing Atlas creates a new CAS logo and works with CTCPA webmaster Caitlin Bailey O'Neill to design and build a new website.
Tax Season 2016 – CAS expands its role in VITA, providing site coordinators and volunteers at seven sites in seven towns and cities, assisting a projected 1,400 disadvantaged individuals and families to file their state and federal income tax returns.