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to the Table of ContentsI would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve as President of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association and I welcome Barry Cushing, President-Elect, Dennis Schueler, Vice President from Practice and Lisa Koonce, Secretary as new members of the Executive Committee. I am honored to be in this position and in return for your vote of confidence, I pledge to do my very best to ensure that the Auditing Section continues to grow into one of the premier Auditing Associations in the world. In so doing I want to continue the work of past officers and to forge new directions in the face of continuing challenges and revolutionary changes in the business world.
The Section has already taken bold steps to be proactive in establishing our destiny. Ira Solomon developed the task force chaired by Gary Holstrum to evaluate the implications of the work of the AICPAís Special Committee on Assurance Services (also known as the Elliott Committee). That task force will issue its final report this year.
Arnie Wright has worked on establishing better communications between the practice and academic worlds. It is hoped that Arnie's work will result in better ways to communicate auditing research results to the practice world. More open communications can help the practice world appreciate the necessary rigor of academic research and can also help the academic world appreciate the necessity of addressing current practice problems and issues and communicating our research results in a way that becomes meaningful to the practice world.
Tom Powell has also worked on establishing open lines between practice and the academic world with the establishment of the Professional Advisory Council. Tom has done an outstanding job in establishing this body and in convincing them of the importance of their work. There is no doubt that this is an opportunity for the Section to grow by leaps and bounds in its mission of serving a broad section of its membership.
Mike Groomer brought us into a new age of communications by establishing our Web site. Our home page is one of the best I have seen and I am very grateful that Mike is willing to share his considerable talents with the section. I have asked Mike to chair a task force to study electronic communication-related issues. It is important for the section to determine the most effective and efficient way to communicate with its members and Mike and his task force will help the Section to move forward. They will be calling upon you, the members, for input, so please be prepared to help them with this important work.
I would like to continue this proactive stance and set into motion actions that will help us meet the challenges of the rapidly changing business and academic worlds. We are all aware of the declining relative importance of financial statement audits and the effect that has on our curriculum, on job opportunities for our students, on support from public accounting firms, and the like. This can be viewed as bad news but also as a challenge and a great opportunity to grow. I believe this challenge can be met and the organization can grow by adopting a more holistic view of auditing.
The dictionary defines auditing in its first level as a systematic examination of the financial records of an enterprise. The second-level definition, however is as follows:
A recent definition of assurance services from the Elliott Committee is as follows:
A combination of the two definitions yields a holistic view of auditing:
If we view auditing in this context, a whole new world beyond financial statement auditing opens up. Now we are talking about systems auditing, operational auditing, ethics auditing, risk auditing, management auditing, business process auditing, etc., etc., in addition to financial statement auditing. This not only provides a vision for new services to be offered but also, and perhaps more important for our organization, provides a whole new vision for curriculum and research issues.
This view I call holistic auditing and believe it can expand our horizons indefinitely. Indeed I believe we must embrace this viewpoint to survive and to serve all of our constituencies. During my term as president I intend to bring this focus to all my activities. I am currently reviewing our committee structure and will ask all committee chairs to plan their initiatives around the idea of holistic auditing and to determine how best these committees can serve you the membership with a focus on all types of auditing. I would also like especially to see an increase in membership and interaction with auditors from internal auditing, governmental auditing and fraud auditing circles. I will establish a committee to review and revise A Statement of Basic Auditing Concepts so we will all have a document to use as guidance in forging new directions in research and in designing learning opportunities for our students. I will forge new relationships with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Internal Auditors, the National Association of Fraud Auditors and any other auditing association that will help us better serve our members, those who conduct audits and those affected by audits. I would like to call upon these organizations to work with us as we investigate new ways to prepare our students for careers in auditing and as we conduct research that helps us better understand auditing and its effects on auditees and users of information enhanced by the auditing process.
I will, of course, work with the Executive Committee in accomplishing these initiatives. I also intend to call upon the considerable talents of the Practice Advisory Council. Finally, and perhaps most important, I call upon you, the members, to become proactive in forging new directions for the Section and in adopting a much more holistic view of auditing services in your research and teaching activities.
I look forward to seeing all of you at our third annual 1997 midyear meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. Urton Anderson and his committee are planning an outstanding program. This has become an increasingly useful way for auditing professionals from all areas to focus on auditing issues and to interact in a way that can only enhance the work of the academic world both in conducting research that helps us to better understand and improve the audit process and also in preparing students for careers in auditing. Details of our 1998 midyear meeting to be held in Mesa, Arizona will be forthcoming from Bill Messier and his committee.
Thanks again for your confidence in me. I will serve you in the best
way I know how. Please call, fax or email
me or any of the executive
committee members at any time with any comments or concerns you may
have.
Jane Mutchler
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