Welcome - A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
August 2008
Greetings to Members of the TLC Section
Having just returned from the 2008 AAA annual meeting in Anaheim, the largest meeting in the Association’s history, I find myself energized by the excitement generated at the meeting. As we begin the 2008-09 academic year, I want to thank each of you for the opportunity to serve as chair of the Teaching, Learning & Curriculum (TLC) Section.
Technically, I suppose that I am the first chairman of the TLC Section, because the Section has, since its founding in 1991, been known as the Teaching & Curriculum Section (T&C). The change in name is significant. We previously were only concerned with what our schools offered (the curriculum) and what we did (teaching). Now, we have recognized that the students have a role; what they get out of our courses (learning) is just as significant as what we teach. Assessment of output is a critical factor in accreditation, and now this is a part of our Section’s domain as well. Also, the new name makes for a great acronym. What do most people think of when they see TLC? Hopefully, we provide more than just tender loving care to our students.
Salute to Our Past Chairman
Our immediate past chairman, Larry Crumbley, of Louisiana State University (LSU), is to be saluted for his accomplishments on the Section’s behalf during the past year. Dr. Crumbley shepherded through the name change and a change in the Section’s bylaws. He appointed a committee (chaired by Don Wygal of Rider University) to create an institutional memory. That committee’s 20-page history of the organization through 2001 is available on the TLC website. Crumbley found there were no “charges” for the TLC committees, so he developed objectives and goals for every committee, most of which can be used in this and later years.
Crumbley also inaugurated a “Hall of Honor” Award to be given to members who have made great contributions to the Section over a long period of time. At the annual meeting, four of the Section’s previous Service Award winners were grandfathered into the Hall, while Don Wygal was this year’s inductee.
Crumbley also obtained funding for the Hall of Honor Award and for the Section’s other awards.
Membership was also one of Crumbley’s major goals, and successes. As he often pointed out, every academic member of the AAA should be a member of the TLC Section. In fact, teaching and learning is the biggest part of all of our jobs. This Section should therefore be a key component in the career of every academic accountant. Because of Larry’s efforts, membership in TLC has increased substantially during the past year. TLC should be the largest AAA section, because we cross all disciplines.
Larry’s other contributions during the past year included pushing ahead the Section’s project to publish a monograph on measuring learning. That volume will be distributed to members sometime during the coming year.
Projects for 2008-2010
Crumbley’s leadership will be a hard act to follow, but someone has to do it. At the breakfast meeting in Anaheim, I outlined several of our plans for the future. First, I will continue the initiatives started by my predecessors, including the aforementioned monograph. I have also reappointed a committee to look into the publication of a journal, which might be an on-line journal. Another committee is charged with bringing the TLC history up to date since 2001.
A new project in the coming year will be a mid-year meeting. Most of the AAA sections have mid-year meetings in January or February, but the TLC has never had such a meeting. In early 2009, we are going to have a TLC Mid-Year Meeting, but it will be different—it will be an on-line meeting. With the high costs of travel, an on-line meeting seems to be a way for us to get ideas, CPE hours, and credit for presenting papers, but to do so at no cost. Some of you may have participated in some of the one-hour CPE programs sponsored by the textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons. Our meeting is expected to be similar in approach, but with numerous presenters throughout the day. A committee will formulate the details, but members need to be thinking about a research paper or teaching technique that can be presented electronically.
Another initiative for the coming year is a Video Digitization Project. For many years, Bob Jensen of Trinity University videotaped plenary speakers and some concurrent speakers at meetings of the AAA. Upon his retirement in 2007, Jensen donated those videotapes (about 1,000 hours of content on 250 tapes) to the National Library of the Accounting Profession at the University of Mississippi. The library staff now has plans to digitize some of those tapes and make them available on the Internet. The TLC will provide some limited funding for the digitization and will determine which tapes should be digitized.
Another initiative for the coming year will be to figure out a way to utilize the new “AAA Commons.” Those who attended the annual meeting know that the Commons is the AAA’s attempt to facilitate an on-line social network (sort of like Facebook). Any member can go on the Commons website and put up any type of content he or she desires. The question is, can we as the TLC Section use the Commons to enhance teaching, learning, and curriculum development. For example, I was thinking we could have a site devoted to the sharing of syllabi for various courses we teach. Once the site is set up, members can add their own syllabi, or can look at anyone else’s syllabus.
In conclusion, I pledge to work with the other officers, and with you, to make the TLC a meaningful organization in your life. Please share with me acdlf@olemiss.edu your ideas for things the TLC should be doing. We can make the TLC the strongest and most active AAA section. You can help.
Thank you,
Dale L. Flesher
Arthur Andersen Alumni Professor and Associate Dean
Patterson School of Accountancy
University of Mississippi
University, MS 38677
Email: acdlf@olemiss.edu
Telephone 662-915-7623