As the new century is just beginning, we mark the halfway point in the Auditing Section’s fiscal year. So far, it’s been a banner year.

What’s Gone By
If you didn’t make it to Newport Beach in January, you missed a great meeting. About 250 people participated. The 2000 Midyear Meeting kicked off with a well-attended CPE session on electronic commerce implications for assurance education and research presented by Glen Gray (California State University), Marilyn Greenstein (Lehigh University), and Tom McKee (East Tennessee State University). The day before the meeting also included the Section’s inaugural Doctoral Consortium, chaired by Michael Bamber, University of Georgia. The consortium exposed about three dozen students to ideas from leading auditing researchers and journal editors and provided many networking opportunities. This first consortium was so successful, the Section will continue the consortium next year.

The meeting’s plenary speaker, David Landsittel, set the tone with an insightful discussion of “Auditing: Some Current Challenges.” His remarks may be found in an article starting on page 12 and in electronic version on the Section’s web site. The core program included presentations of 28 research papers, as well as instructional cases, five panel sessions, and a working paper forum. Many of the papers are now available (for a limited time) on the Section’s web site. The meeting was also the occasion for presentation of four Section awards, which you can read about elsewhere in this newsletter.

The success of the 2000 Midyear Meeting was due to the contributions of the many reviewers, participants, and especially the efforts of the Planning Committee, chaired by Joanna Ho, UC-Irvine. Thank you all for an excellent job! The 2000 group has set a high benchmark for the 2001 Planning Committee, already hard at work under the direction of Linda McDaniel (University of North Carolina). The 2001 Midyear Meeting, to be held in Houston, will mark the Section’s 25th anniversary.

Another event that occurred during the first half of the fiscal year was the presentation of the views of Section members to the Panel on Audit Effectiveness during the Panel’s hearings in October. Thanks to all who took the time to email their thoughts on a variety of issues. My remarks to the Panel on behalf of the Section are summarized in an article beginning on page 23.

And finally, in January, the Section’s new web site was launched, as a combined result of the efforts of the AAA and Section webmaster Lyn Adair (Illinois State University). If you haven’t checked it out yet, do so soon. You’ll find it much easier to navigate and chock full of useful information.

What’s on the Horizon
If you did miss the Newport Beach Midyear Meeting (or even if you were there), you’ll find two more great meeting opportunities coming up later this year. In July, the Auditing Section is co-sponsoring the Year 2000 International Symposium on Auditing Research (ISAR). This sixth annual ISAR will by hosted in the Netherlands by the Maastricht Accounting and Auditing Research and Education Center of Universiteit Maastricht. Selected conference papers will later be published in a supplemental issue of Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.

For August, Bob Ramsay (University of Kentucky) and his committee are planning a full slate of activities for the Auditing Section sessions at the AAA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

At the Annual Meeting, we will welcome three new Executive Committee members elected at our January Business Meeting: Mike Bamber, University of Georgia, Vice President–Academic; Abe Akresh, U.S. GAO, Vice President–Practice; and Audrey Gramling, Wake Forest University, Secretary. Don’t forget to reserve your Monday lunch for the Section’s annual speaker event!

Due to a small glitch, the Fall 1999 newsletter included the proposed revised wording of Section bylaws, but omitted the brief article explaining the proposed changes. Even though the changes were only cleanup amendments, it didn’t seem appropriate to vote on them at our Midyear Meeting without better notice. So, we will postpone that vote until our 2001 Business Meeting. At our 2000 Business Meeting, the group discussed some possible substantive changes that could be made at the same time. In particular, there was a discussion of expanding the source of our nominating committee appointments to include all committee chairs as possible candidates (now it includes only regional coordinators). If you have any comments or other suggestions for amendments, please let me know by April 15 so a committee can get to work on proposing the wording and making sure we have adequate notice for a vote. You can email me at: kpincus@walton.uark.edu.

Other Items of Note

The Section’s dues for 2000–2001 will be $20, per a vote at our general business meeting in January. Dues have not increased since 1982, but rising costs (particularly for printing, postage, and distribution of our journal) make this increase prudent. Thanks to Treasurer Mark Beasley (North Carolina State University) for keeping us fiscally sound!

The Section is continuing discussions with the Management Accounting Section about the possibility of some joint sessions at our Midyear Meetings beginning in 2002. A conference call between the groups is due to take place this spring.

Beginning this summer, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory will be available as part of the AAA’s electronic publication options. We will start off with two years of issues on line and gradually add the archive. The electronic version will offer easy links and searching across all issues—and it will take up less space on your bookshelf! The Section appreciates both editor Arnie Wright (Boston College) and our Publications Committee for their help in making this happen.

Whew!! That seems like a lot for one fiscal year, doesn’t it? As always, the Auditing Section is an active and productive bunch. Thanks to all who keep us operating at this pace!

Karen Pincus
University of Arkansas