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 Even during the summer, when many of us have additional opportunities to get out of the office to spend more time with friends and family, there is seemingly never a dull moment in the profession with so much going on with standard setting, regulation, current trends, and events. From speeches such as the one delivered recently by PCAOB Chairman Doty on, "Rethinking the Relevance, Credibility, and Transparency of Audits," to concept releases on the auditors reporting model, to IFRS convergence (or endorsement or "condorsement"), to the ASB's clarity standards, to continuing fallout from the liquidity crisis, and to PCAOB's attempt to bring audits of global SEC issuers under common auditing standards it continues to be a time of change and much activity. The Section has likewise been busy on a number of fronts as outlined below. I continue to be impressed with the energy, dedication, and talent of so many of our members as they provide outstanding service on a volunteer basis.
The Section's publications are always a great source of relevant and useful information. Let me draw your attention to a recent publication in Current Issues in Auditing that provides the first public glimpse of the nonpublic portion of the PCAOB inspection reports, "Increasing Transparency: A Prototype of the Nonpublic Portions of PCAOB Large-Firm Inspection Reports," co-authored by Rachel Evans, Ron Boster and Bill Gradison.
Webinar
In June the Section sponsored a very informative webinar entitled, "The ASB Clarity Project: Historical Perspective, Clarity Conventions, and the coming Adoption." This change by the ASB will impact everyone teaching auditing in 2012.
The program featured the following presenters:
- Ahava Goldman, AICPA Senior Technical Manager
- Darrell Shubert, Partner in the Professional Practice Group of Ernst & Young's National Office and Chair of the Auditing Standards Board
- Professor Mark Taylor, Case Western Reserve University and Member of the Auditing Standards Board
The program was hosted by the Wiley Faculty Network. It was a great session. We would like to thank the presenters, our CPE Committee, and in particular our CPE Committee Chair, Rick Lillie. If you have suggestions for webinar topics, please contact Rick Lillie, Chair of the CPE Committee at rlillie@csusb.edu or (909) 537-5726.
Audit Educator's Bootcamp
The third Audit Educator's Bootcamp was successfully held in June in the Grant Thornton office in Chicago. The two primary presenters were Christine Earley, Providence College, and Frank Buckless, North Carolina State University. A number of high-level practitioners also presented. Scott Showalter, our incoming President, participated in the bootcamp as a bridge between practice and the classroom. Based on participant course ratings and feedback, the workshop was very well received. One of the participants indicated, "Lots of useful teaching tips and resources, and practical information from practitioners. [This was the] most directly useful meeting I have attended in a long time." We appreciate Grant Thornton for hosting the workshop and for the efforts of Jay Rich, Jay Thibodeau, and AAA staff in organizing the workshop as well as Christine and Frank and a number of practitioners for presenting.
PCAOB Synthesis Projects
As announced in April, the Section is assembling teams of researchers to develop syntheses of existing research related to key PCAOB standards-setting projects. As you may know, the Auditing Section, in coordination with Gary Holstrum and staff of the PCAOB, facilitated a similar synthesis effort with 9 research teams in 2005. It is a credit to Gary and the scholars participating in the first round of synthesis papers that we are embarking on a second round. We appreciate the strong interest and even though the number of topics has expanded to 13 and the team sizes also expanded, unfortunately we were not able to accommodate all applicants. We appreciate the PCAOB's support and assistance with the topics and look forward to seeing the resulting papers. This is an outstanding example of pursuing our strategy to be thought leaders influencing practice.
2011 Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, August 6-10
We look forward to seeing you in Denver. Karla Johnstone and Marsha Keune, our Section's meeting directors, have put together an outstanding program with over 130 papers and five panel sessions. You can review the Auditing Section's part of the annual meeting program by clicking here and selecting "Auditing Section" from the drop down menu.
Please plan to join us for the Auditing Section's luncheon on August 8th for an update on Section activities, to hear from our guest speaker Bob Moritz, the Chairman and Senior Partner of PwC, and to reconnect with old, and not-so-old friends. If you haven't registered for the meeting yet, you can do so by clicking here.
Strategic Planning
We continue to make progress on our Strategic Plan and related initiatives that were communicated during the Midyear Conference. The input provided during lunch has been very helpful in moving our strategic initiatives forward. We appreciate all the time and effort team members are donating to advance the initiatives. We will provide an update on our efforts at the luncheon in August.
The Passing of the Gavel
At our lunch meeting in August, I'll be passing the gavel and section presidency to Scott Showalter of North Carolina State University. It has been my pleasure to work with Scott on the Section's Executive Committee and let me assure you that the Section could not be in better hands. I'm amazed at Scott's energy, commitment, insight, talent, and ability to deliver. He is an exceptional leader and as a bonus he also happens to be a really great person; as are all of the members of the Section's Executive Committee. Speaking of the gavel, I should note that my son believes our Section's presidential gavel is due for an upgrade so watch for that in August.
The Executive Committee service terms of Urton Anderson, Past President, and Chris Hogan, Treasurer, will end in August. The Section owes a great debt of gratitude to Urton and Chris for their significant contributions and fine service. We will welcome to the Executive Committee, Karla Johnstone, Treasurer, and Roger Martin, Vice Chair Academic. We are grateful to Karla and Roger for their willingness to serve in these capacities.
It has been my privilege and honor to serve the Section. Serving as President this past year, I have seen the time and effort required by so many to successfully pursue the Section's vision and mission. I want to thank members of the executive committee, editors, associate editors, reviewers, committee chairs and committee members, task force members, moderators, presenters, discussants, and all of you for your contributions. We are fortunate to be able to rub shoulders with such an outstanding group of colleagues.
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