On every important dimension, the 1999 Midyear Meeting of the Auditing Section was a huge success. Two hundred twenty-seven participants attended the meeting, which exceeds the next highest attendance for any past meeting by about 40 participants. The CPE session held at the meeting was over-subscribed, was standing room only, and we had approximately 40 people on a waiting list. The core program had a well-balanced mix of topical sessions: six on psychology-based research; six on economics-based research; two on modeling research; and one on education research. The meeting’s success is attributable to the diligent efforts of the 1999 Midyear Meeting Program Chair, Stan Biggs, and his program committee, and to Bill Dilla, our CPE Director, and his committee. On behalf of the Section members, I would like to thank Stan, Bill and their committee members for jobs very well done.

Progress on the Section’s Strategic Management Framework
The Section’s Executive Committee held a half-day strategic planning session at this year’s Midyear Meeting in Atlanta. During the meeting, the Committee reviewed feedback received from members on elements of our new strategic management framework that had been posted to the Section’s web site for membership review during Fall 1998. The Committee made some minor modifications to the framework in response to the feedback. Also, the Committee adopted a preliminary set of success measures that, when implemented, will help us track how well the Section and its committees are performing on the distinctive competencies that serve as the foundation for our Section’s strategy. During the coming months, the new strategic management framework—which includes the Section’s mission statement, our members’ shared values, our distinctive competencies, and our ongoing activities and initiatives—will be posted to the Section’s web site. Also, the success measures will be implemented, used by the Executive Committee to track Section and Committee performance and make adjustments where necessary, and will be refined on an ongoing basis to improve the effectiveness of our performance measurement. The distinctive competencies of the Section center on the processes it has in place to foster the connections of people to people and people to ideas. The primary processes are those we execute to deliver the Midyear Meeting, the Annual Meeting luncheon and paper sessions, and other mechanisms (e.g., our web site) and events that bring people together to share ideas about teaching, research and practice developments. Also, processes that develop and deliver the Section’s newsletter, our journal Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Section-sponsored monographs, and other authorings serve to connect scholars and educators to new knowledge and ideas.

During the strategic planning session, the Executive Committee discussed how best to proceed with a key strategic initiative that would build on our distinctive competencies—an OutReach Task Force whose charge would be to develop and implement new strategies for how the Section can better foster active engagement between our academic members and members of the practice and regulatory communities. Although we have not yet made a final decision about whether to move forward with the Task Force, our deliberations on the issue produced one possible OutReach strategy. The committee decided to investigate whether it is feasible to convene one or more facilitated working sessions that would actively engage academics, practitioners and members of the profession’s regulatory bodies to jointly develop research strategies and preliminary action plans for one or more timely and critical professional issues. Unlike past approaches where practitioners and regulators disseminate lists of research topics and very general calls for research on specific issues, this OutReach model would aim to actively engage academics in the development of research strategies and proposed research-project action plans.

During this period of flux, in which technological advances and changes in organizational forms and structures are motivating the profession to transform fundamental assurance concepts to better serve the changing needs of capital suppliers and business organizations, the Auditing Section has an opportunity to significantly and positively influence the evolution of assurance services through timely contributions of scholarly thought and research. More active participation by the academic community in the transformation of assurance services would serve to foster excellence in teaching, research and practice. For example, by becoming integrated players in the profession’s transformation, educators and scholars can more quickly adapt course content, business school curricula, and research agendas. This particular OutReach strategy, if it proves feasible, has the potential to position the Auditing Section to more effectively carry out its mission. During the coming months, Jerry Sullivan, our Vice President—Practice, Karen Pincus, our Vice President—Academic, and I will be working together to assess the feasibility of this particular OutReach strategy.

On behalf of the Section, I would like to thank Mike Moore, retired partner from Ernst & Young, and the Ernst & Young firm, for their participation in and support of the Section’s strategic planning initiatives over the past two years. The Executive Committee and the Section as a whole have benefited greatly from this support.

Luncheon Speaker at the AAA Annual Meeting in San Diego
I invite each of you to attend this year’s Auditing Section luncheon at the AAA Annual Meeting in San Diego. The speaker at this year’s luncheon will be Dr. Burks Oakley II, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Dr. Oakley holds appointments as Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; in the Departments of Computer Science and Management Information Systems at the University of Illinois at Springfield; and in the School of Biomedical, Health, and Information Systems at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The topic of Dr. Oakley’s speech is “Netlearning: The Impact of the Internet on Higher Education.”

Through his innovative use of technology in teaching, Dr. Oakley has earned a national reputation as a practitioner and promoter of Internet-based asynchronous learning environments. During the past two years, he has given more than 75 invited talks at national conferences and on university campuses. He continues to inspire faculty and administrators as Director of the new UI-Online initiative, a program designed to facilitate the development and delivery of University of Illinois courses, degrees and public service resources over the Internet.

Dr. Oakley received his B.S. degree from Northwestern University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. He has received numerous awards for his teaching and for his innovative use of technology in education, including the Luckman Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1993, the Outstanding Professor Award from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in 1993, the Educom Medal in 1996, the Educational Activities Board Major Educational Innovation Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1996, and the Meritorious Service Award from the IEEE Education Society in 1998. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the ASEE Board of Directors.

Other Announcements and Activities
I would like to report on three other noteworthy Auditing Section activities.

• Arnie Wright, the Arthur Andersen Professor of Accounting at Boston College, has graciously agreed to serve as the next Editor of Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory. Arnie’s continuing significant service to the Section is commendable. On behalf of all of our members, I would like to thank Arnie for agreeing to serve the Section in this new capacity.
• Beginning with the Section’s 2000 Midyear Meeting, we will hold an awards luncheon at which each of the Section’s awards will be presented. No Section awards will be presented during the 1999 Annual Meeting luncheon, thereby allowing more time for the luncheon speaker and for recognition of outgoing officers.
• The 2000 Midyear Meeting of the Auditing Section will be held on January 13th through 15th at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel in Newport Beach, California.

Again, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve as your president.

Timothy B. Bell President
1998–1999