The Accounting EducatorThe Newsletter of the Teaching and Curriculum Section |
A Message from the ChairKevin D. Stocks, What a wonderful time to be alive and involved in education. I do not believe there has been a time when changes are occurring in such a rapid and dramatic fashion. I hope that you are enjoying the challenge of a new school year. The Teaching & Curriculum Section is doing well. Our membership is holding steady at about 1,600. Our financial status is great with a balance of $65,500 as of the July 1, 1998. We have had a number of committees working this past year providing direction and producing usable resource materials. As just one example, the Accounting Education Research Committee has had a two-part publication as the lead article of the Journal of Accounting Education in the Winter 98 and Spring 99 issues. These articles review and organize the existing literature from 1991-1997. If you have not taken the opportunity to read these articles, you should do so. I wish to express appreciation to those who served on committees and in other assignments during this past year. I want to give a special thanks to Sandra D. Byrd for her years of service as editor of the Section newsletter. As anyone who has been involved in publishing a newsletter knows, it is a monumental and generally thankless task. The 1998-99 school year presents challenges and opportunities for the T&C Section. One challenge and opportunity involves the recognition by the AAA of the importance of teaching and curriculum issues for all members. This has led to the proposal for an AAA course outline database and a teaching ideas and practices database. These are great ideas and as the T&C Section, we need to be in the forefront of the effort to make these operational. I have asked Chuck Malone at North Carolina A&T to chair a committee to work with the AAA staff in this effort. Chuck will be in contact with you regarding this effort. I do feel that it is important as a Section to be in the lead with any effort by the AAA in the teaching and curriculum area. We have heard for years the need to move beyond the traditional lecture/textbook style of learning. We address this challenge this year by asking D. Rama from University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth to chair a committee working on active learning models. They are focussing on differing aspects of service learning. This is an exciting area and one that we will hear a lot more about in the future. Another challenge we face as a Section is to increase our communication ability. We are working with the AAA staff to complete an email database for T&C members. As we increase our electronic communication ability, we will also increase our scope of influence and involvement. You probably have already received a couple of emails from me regarding issues or opportunities for Section members. Although we do not want to overload you with messages, we do want to keep you informed about Section issues and activities. Increasing member involvement in input is another challenge. If you are like me, I really only value my membership in any organization to the level in which I am involved in that organization. The more involved, the greater the interest and feeling of value. Billie Cunningham sent out an invitation to be involved in the last newsletter. She received numerous responses. I have emailed invitations for all of those who responded to serve on some committee within the Section. I am delighted that a great number of you are already participating. We have some great committees established, doing great work. We can always use more help. One last challenge we face as a Section has to do with our administrative structure and operating procedures. Upon doing some research, the most current Section by-laws appear to be written when the Section was organized in 1991 and are in great need of revision. Currently, we have no policies or procedures manual. This results in a great deal of inefficiency. We need to consider a breakfast or luncheon meeting as part of the national AAA meeting. Simply stated, we have grown up as a Section and we need to work on our administrative processes and materials. There is a lot to do, and a lot that can be done. I look forward to a great year. I want to thank all who are serving in the Section. If you are not currently involved and have an interest in serving on a committee or in pursuing an idea for which a committee does not currently exist, contact me:
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