About Financial Accounting and Reporting Section

Charge of the Financial Reporting Policy Committee

Coordinate all FARS activities with respect to financial accounting standard setting. Specifically:

1. Evaluate selected official standard-setting releases (e.g., invitations to comment, discussion memoranda and exposure drafts) related to financial accounting and reporting as they are released by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and other accounting standard-setting groups. Provide timely, substantive, and constructive written feedback that is grounded in relevant academic research.
   
   
2. Seek meetings with the FASB (perhaps annually) to (a) obtain more insight into emerging standard setting issues and (b) to provide substantive, constructive, feedback on the issues. Seek similar meetings with the IASB and other financial reporting policy-making groups to the extent possible and considered beneficial by those groups.
   
   
3. Post final, written committee output to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and seek publication of selected responses by the committee in Accounting Horizons or other appropriate outlets that are readily accessible to the FARS membership.
   
   
4. Coordinate Committee activities with other academic groups providing feedback or input related to FASB and IASB activities, including the AAA Financial Accounting Standards Committee. In addition, consult with the FASB's Academic Research Fellow and Director of the Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative (FASRI) to (a) promote ways to increase the quantity and quality of academic input to the standard-setting process and (b) avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts.
   
   
5. Make the committee available to conduct a member-education session at the mid-year FARS meeting (preferably at a time that does not conflict with research sessions), with particular emphasis on describing the ongoing activities of the Committee and its responses to recent standard-setting proposals.
   
   
6. Provide progress reports to the FARS President, Steering Board and Executive Committee in time to be included on the agenda of the FARS annual business meeting.
   
   
7. During the 2007-2008 Committee year, develop a self perpetuating scheme for nominating and selecting academic and practitioner members of the Committee. This scheme should include the composition and charge of the Nominating Committee along with the characteristics that should be considered by the committee in selecting members of the FRPC. Given the academic research focus of the Committee, special attention should be given to maximizing the Committee's relevant research expertise among its academic members, while also representing the broad cross-section of schools included in the general FARS membership.
   
   7a. The nomination scheme is as follows. There will be nine members on the committee with three members having been nominated by the IAS. Three individuals will be appointed to the committee each year, each with three-year terms; one of whom will have been nominated by the IAS. The IAS will nominate at least two individuals for each seat, i.e., at least two individuals each year to fill the open IAS-designated position, who must be members of both FARS and IAS. The other two positions will be filled by the FARS President-Elect in consultation with the outgoing committee chair and the FARS Executive Committee. The FARS President-Elect will also choose the incoming committee chair from among the members that are entering their second year on the committee.