The Accounting Educator

The Newsletter of the Teaching and Curriculum Section
American Accounting Association
Vol. XII No. 3 – Spring 2003

T&C Connections
Interim Report - Spring 2003

Donald Wygal, Chair

Our committee has continued to explore ways to better connect our members to the Section leadership and to developments in education and accounting practice. A primary focus has been on how best to utilize web and related technology for these purposes.

We have identified a large number of potentially very good ideas, many coming from Section members. Our hope has been to identify at least several of these possibilities that could be recommended to the Executive Committee for action. For the sake of brevity, this report identifies only a few major themes. As noted below, we will very much appreciate your insights on these and other possible venues.


  • Connecting Regional and National Leadership to Members

    • Meet the T&C Executive Committee
      We feel that it will be fruitful to explore means, perhaps a web-based event or discussion, for members to get to know and share insights with our national leaders.
    • Connecting Regional Leaders
      There are potential gains in a developing formal means for regional directors and associate directors to compare notes on plans for the regional meetings. Such a mechanism should involve the T & C Vice Chair, whose primary role pertains to regional planning. Such a means could lead to the gains of one region being transferred to others and/or an avoidance of similar problems. Such a connection should also better prepare the associate director for the year ahead.
  • Connecting Members to Emerging Issues
    There are many possible opportunities here. The three noted below appear to be quite appropriate. Each would involve the cooperation/work of Section members and the probable partnering with other stakeholders.
    • Dialogue on Ethics
    • Gearing Up for the Computerized CPA Exam
    • Using the AICPA Assessment Tools
  • Connecting Members to "Connections"
    To state the positive, very good ideas will work if members get involved and participate. For this to happen, members will have to be aware of the available platforms and actually make use of them. Any attempt at synchronous dialogue will be disastrous if no one is responding. A forum approach will also only be as good as the participants make it.
    Therefore, we feel that it will be necessary to enhance the awareness of members to any such endeavors. In that regard, we see merit in having at least one hard copy of the newsletter to be sent to all members. Cyber technology is wonderful and is even better if more of our members know of the possible benefits. Our hope is that as we make small steps to move forward, there will be increasing member participation and additional web links to relevant sites. In the interim, a hard-copy "advertisement" of the opportunities available on the web could enhance the overall effectiveness of staying connected.
  • Member Feedback
    We would like to know your views. We have touched only a few possible ideas in this report and would like to hear from you. Please help us to help you to be better connected with your colleagues and the changing work environment. Contact any of our committee members as shown below:
T&C Connections
 Barbara Scofield  scofield_b@utpb.edu
 Terry Ward  tward@mtsu.edu
 Cindy Seipel  cseipel@nmsu.edu
 Gail Cook  gcook@taro.bus.BrockU.CA
 Gail Kaciuba  gkaciuba@depaul.edu
 Nashwa George  georgen@mail.montclair.edu
 Don Wygal (Chair)  wygal@rider.edu


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