Report of the President

It is hard for me to believe that my term as Section President is about to come to an end.  It has been a pleasure to serve as president of the Section and to work with so many of you. I look forward to continuing to serve on the Section’s Executive Committee as Past President once Urton Anderson takes over as our new president in August. As I look back over my term, I continue to be grateful that so many of you have been so willing to actively participate and take leadership roles in the Section’s activities. Thank you!

In the rest of this report, I summarize some recent activities and preview some future events.

A change to the Bylaws and a Call for Nominating Committee Members: Thank you to the section members who took time to vote on the proposed by-laws change.  The change passed with a vote of 143 for the change and 11 against the change.  Because of this change, we are announcing a call for nominations for the Nominating Committee. Please consider nominating yourself or another member of the Auditing Section. The Nominating Committee’s duties include soliciting candidates from the membership for open offices and preparing a slate of at least one candidate for each of the open offices. Consider becoming involved in selecting the next leaders of the Auditing Section. Additional details on the by-laws change, and the responsibilities of the Nominating Committee, are available at http://aaahq.org/audit/ByLawsProposal2009.pdf. Nominations for the Nominating Committee should be submitted to Mark Peecher by July 15 at peecher@uiuc.edu.

2009 PCAOB Symposium: In late April, the PCAOB hosted its fifth annual symposium, titled The PCAOB and the Future of Auditing Practice, Research, and Education. The PCAOB invited individuals from our Section, as well as representatives from the broader AAA, FASB, GAO and the SEC. The symposium featured sessions on inspections, standards setting, enforcement, the current economic crisis and the profession, and future academic research. On behalf of our Section, I want to express our sincere thanks to Gary Holstrum and Greg Scates for their work in continuing the collaboration between the Auditing Section and the PCAOB. Thank you to PCAOB Board and staff members for your continued interest in interacting with the academic community.

AAA Annual Meeting — August 1-5, 2009
I hope you plan to join us at the AAA's 2009 Annual Meeting. The meeting’s theme is “Accounting at a Tipping Point”, and it will be held in New York City. Tim Louwers, the Auditing Section's Annual Meeting Coordinator, is heading up the Auditing Section’s program at the AAA meeting, with the assistance of Kenny Reynolds.  Thank you to the many of you who served as reviewers, and have agreed to serve as moderators and discussants.  Our annual Section luncheon will be held Monday, August 3. This year's luncheon speaker will be Donald Nicolaisen.  Don has served as Chief Accountant of the SEC. More recently, Don served as co-chair of the Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. We are fortunate that Don will be sharing with us his perspective of the profession. I imagine that after listening to Don’s insights, many of us will want to reflect on what we cover in our classrooms and in our research. I hope to see you at our luncheon and other Section activities at the Annual Meeting!

2010 Auditing Section's Midyear Conference
Jennifer Joe and Susan Shu have already started working hard to coordinate the Auditing Section’s Midyear Conference to be held January 14-16, at the Westin in San Diego. As in prior years, we plan to hold a Doctoral Consortium, which is being chaired by Brian Mayhew. Also, we are planning on offering the third Excellence in Audit Education workshop as part of the conference. For more information, please check the Section's website.

Outgoing and Incoming Officers
I want to end by expressing my sincere thanks to the Section’s outgoing officers. It has been a true pleasure to have served with Mark Peecher (Past-President), Mark Taylor (Treasurer), and Jean Bedard (Historian).  They will rotate off the Executive Committee at the August AAA meetings. The next time that you see one of these individuals, be sure to thank them for having worked so diligently on behalf of the Section. We are fortunate to have benefited from their insights, enthusiasm, and dedication. While we will miss their contributions going forward, we are very pleased to welcome three new members to the Executive Committee: Steve Glover — (Vice President – Academic), Chris Hogan (Treasurer), and Linda McDaniel (Historian). I am looking forward to working with each of you in the upcoming year.

Again, I want to thank you for providing me with the opportunity to serve as the President of Auditing Section. I hope that the Section has been successful in meeting your needs as a scholar. Hope to see you in New York City in August!