As I write my first report as President of the Auditing Section, numerous thoughts are running through my mind. I want you to know how honored I feel to be given the opportunity to serve as the president of the Auditing Section. It is a humbling experience. As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Section, it is difficult not to think back to all the outstanding officers. Beginning with the first President, Fred Neumann, our Section has benefited from the extraordinary service provided by so many able people. I pledge to do my very best to live up to the traditions of our Section and provide the leadership that you have come to expect and so richly deserve. In this report I want to highlight some of the important Section activities and a few changes you will see within the Section over the next year. I will also discuss some of the initiatives that the Section will begin.

Midyear Meeting—In January, we will hold our annual Midyear Meeting in Houston. We all know that the Midyear Meeting is one of the major highlights of the year because it always has a great lineup of research papers, discussants, and special panels. I have been closely following the work of the planning committee, headed by Linda McDaniel, and I know they are putting together an outstanding program. There will be a plenary session on corporate governance with speakers from Enron Corporation. There will also be a special plenary session with Bob Elliott as the speaker. The planning committee also has put together several terrific panels, including one on international issues that has a great panel of speakers. Finally, because it is our 25th anniversary, there will be a number of special events that will honor the work of so many over the existence of the Section. Hope to see “y’all” in Houston.

Doctoral Consortium—Last year we held our first Auditing Doctoral Consortium just prior to the Midyear Meeting in Newport Beach. Mike Bamber put together the consortium and the KPMG Foundation funded it on a pilot basis. I am very pleased to announce that, based on last year’s success, the KPMG Foundation has agreed to fund the doctoral consortium for another three years. This funding will coincide with their recent renewal of a three-year commitment to provide financial support for the Midyear Meeting. Such support is a significant part of our ability to achieve a high level of excellence in these two important activities of the Section, and I know you join me in thanking KPMG for their generous help. This year, Rick Tubbs is planning another outstanding doctoral consortium, which will be held the day before the Midyear Meeting in Houston. This is a wonderful learning experience for doctoral students and I hope you will encourage your doctoral students to attend. Please look over the Consortium Announcement in this issue of The Auditor’s Report for further information.

By-law Amendments—This issue of The Auditor’s Report contains the Section’s Executive Committee proposal for amending our By-laws. The amendments are very important to the operation of the Section and require your attention and vote. Please read the amendments carefully and promptly mail your ballot to Audrey Gramling, Auditing Section Secretary.

Survey of Auditing/Assurance Services Courses—At last year’s business meeting I mentioned that with all the changes taking place in auditing and assurance services (i.e., practice changes, technological advances, etc.), it seemed to be a good time to conduct a survey of auditing and assurance services courses. That is, I thought it would be helpful for all of us who teach auditing/assurance services to share information about how our courses have changed over the past few years. I asked Eric Johnson, Chairperson of the Education Committee, to have his committee conduct this survey. They have obtained course outlines for approximately 200 courses offered around the country and are in the process of analyzing the data they collected. Watch for the results of this survey to be presented on the Section’s web site in the coming months. We are very grateful to Eric and his committee for undertaking this task.

Auditing Research Database—This past year the Research Committee, chaired by Ken Trotman, conducted a survey of the auditing literature. They have looked at most of the major accounting journals and have classified the auditing articles by journal and research methodology. They have compiled the results of their survey into a database that will be available for members’ use. The committee will have a final report ready very soon and the database is expected to be included on the Auditing Section’s web site. Watch for this valuable information to appear.

1999–2000 AAA Environmental Screening Committee Report—As I was finishing writing this report, I received a copy of the 1999–2000 Environmental Screening Committee Report. Joe Carcello, past Auditing Section Treasurer, chaired the committee. I call your attention to this report because it relates quite well to the Albrecht and Sack monograph that we all received at the AAA meeting in Philadelphia. You can read the report on the AAA web site under the headings: “About AAA, Committee Reports.” I encourage you all to read this report.

Evaluation of the Auditing Section Committee Structure and Operations—Over the next year the Executive Committee will take a look at the operation of our committee structure. While the committee structure has worked fairly well over the years and many committees have provided valuable information for the Section, we believe that it is appropriate to evaluate the committee structure and see if improvements can be made. We will be getting information from incoming and past committee chairpersons about how the committees can be more productive. We will also be considering ways in which the committees’ agendas and reports can be more effectively communicated to the members of the Section. For example, one of the ideas we are considering is to post each committee’s agenda on the Section’s web site. This should help members become aware of work that is in progress. If you have any ideas or suggestions as to how the committees can more effectively serve the Section, please let me know.

Auditing and Accounting Research—Whenever I go to conferences and talk with other auditing/accounting professors, one of the major topics of conversation involves concerns about research and publication. We all recognize that auditing/accounting research has come a long way over the past several decades. I think we all agree the auditing/accounting professors receive excellent training and are increasingly able to apply sophisticated research methods to important issues. Clearly, there has never been a time when more accounting and auditing research was being done. It is also true that we have accumulated a substantial body of knowledge over the past several decades. But, despite these positive developments, we all see how accounting journals seem to be shrinking in size while journals in other business disciplines seem to be expanding. Some of you are probably aware that the AAA’s Publications Committee has several task forces that are looking into issues related to processes involved in publishing. Hopefully, these task forces will provide some important insight, but there is also room to consider the research side of the issue as well as the publication side. I think we would all like to see our research be a source of excitement and to exhibit the vitality and growth characteristic of a vibrant field. I have discussed these general issues with Bill Wright, who is the incoming Chair of the Research Committee. We both believe that the research committee might be able to provide some important insight into issues relevant to the future of auditing research. At this point, the Research Committee has not yet determined the specific approach it will take in dealing with such a broad topic. However, Bill is very interested in having his committee give some thoughtful consideration to issues that could help revitalize auditing research. Please let me know if you have any thoughts that the Research Committee should consider.

In closing, I want to thank all of the members of last year’s Executive Committee, especially Karen Pincus, Tim Bell, and Jean Bedard. I have learned a great deal from them over the past year. I am also looking forward to working with the new Executive Committee that will include Mike Bamber (Vice President–Academic), Mark Beasley (Treasurer), Audrey Gramling (Secretary), Abe Akresh (Vice President–Practice), Jack Robertson (Historian), and Karen Pincus (Past President). What a pleasure it is to work with this very able group.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to serve as the President of the Auditing Section. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.