A few years ago, computer innovator David Packard expressed his thoughts about the 21st century. “Everywhere I look,” Packard noted, “I see the potential for growth, for discovery far greater than anything we have seen in the 20th century.” As the Auditing Section begins its 1999–2000 year, we can look back at our past with pride and forward to a promising future.

A Look Back
The Auditing Section was born in the last quarter of the 20th century. Over the years, we have grown to a membership now over 1,500 strong. We have given birth to and nurtured to maturity a very successful section journal, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, currently under the leadership of editor Arnie Wright (Boston College). We have established a long-running reputation as one of the most active sections in the AAA, as evidenced by our continuing large number of paper and panel submissions for the annual meeting, which will be directed for the coming year by Robert Ramsay, University of Kentucky. We also have a history of very strong mid-year meeting programs (directed this year by Joanna Ho, UC-Irvine), regional meeting coordinators, and CPE activities (directed this year by Dana Hermanson, Kennesaw State University). And, of course, there is the very popular Auditor’s Report newsletter, edited this year by Gary Braun (University of Texas at El Paso).

One of the section’s strengths is its attention to strategic planning. During the last year, the Executive Committee worked on an update of the Section’s strategic management framework: our mission statement, shared values, organization-wide measures, distinctive competencies, and critical activities and initiatives. As our historian’s records show, the Section’s strategic management framework has significantly evolved over time in response to changes in our environment. As part of our strategic planning efforts, one look back at the past—a reading of our Section bylaws—made the Executive Committee aware that no document lasts forever. There are a number of changes needed to bring our bylaws into the next century. See the article on page 22 about a proposed revision.

A Look Forward
As we move into the next century, the Section will continue to build on its past, and will build new bridges to the future. In the 1999–2000 year, the Section’s website will be relaunched after a redesign to improve usability and make the site easier to keep current. The Communications Committee, headed by Ted Mock, University of Southern California, will be making recommendations about the design and suggesting new guidelines for electronic dissemination.

We will build a bridge to doctoral students with the inaugural offering in January 2000 of an Auditing Section Doctoral Consortium, under the leadership of Mike Bamber, University of Georgia. We will also explore building bridges to other parts of the AAA. One example is a new exploration with the Management Accounting Section about exchanging sessions of mutual interest at our mid-year meetings. We will also continue our efforts to build bridges between practice and academia. For example, we will represent the AAA at the October public hearings of the Public Oversight Board’s Panel on Audit Effectiveness. As another example, efforts are currently underway to appoint a new Practice Advisory Council, building on a successful innovation in our recent past. And as a final example, our Auditing Standards Committee will have a new charge: reacting to the newly-established “Auditing Profession Project Inventory” on a quarterly basis, providing selected projects with a summary of relevant research, helping identify potential academic members for some projects, and sending quarterly emails to Section members highlighting new projects that may be of particular interest. This committee is chaired by Peter Gillett (Rutgers University, New Brunswick), with Kay Tatum (University of Miami) as Vice-Chair.

To welcome the new century in style, the 2000 Mid-Year Meeting in Newport Beach, California, will have an exciting program, including the presentation of a new Notable Contributions to the Auditing Literature Award, as well as our well established awards for the outstanding auditing dissertation, outstanding auditing educator, and distinguished service in auditing. The inaugural Auditing Doctoral Consortium will also take place in conjunction with the 2000 Mid-Year Meeting. The year after this one marks the Section’s 25th anniversary, which will be celebrated in style at the 2001 mid-year meeting, now being planned by a committee headed by Linda McDaniel (University of North Carolina).

One Year At a Time
One last thought about the Auditing Section’s 1999–2000 year: With a presidency that lasts only one year, I find I am very dependent on realists. American newspaper columnist Sydney Harris once explained the difference between idealists, cynics, and realists. “An idealist,” he wrote, “believes the short run doesn’t count. A cynic believes the long run doesn’t matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.” I am grateful to the many realists who are members of the Auditing Section’s Executive Committee. Especially to new members President-Elect Stan Biggs (University of Connecticut), Treasurer Mark Beasley (North Carolina State University) and Historian Jack Robertson (University of Texas at Austin) and outgoing members Past-President Barry Cushing (University of Utah), Treasurer Joe Carcello (University of Tennessee) and Historian Jack Krogstad (Creighton University)—and to all the volunteers who work so hard on Section committees.

Karen Pincus
University of Arkansas