The Financial Accounting and Reporting Section mission is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of education, research, and professional practice.

Dues: $20 ($6 for students)
Journal: The Journal of Financial Reporting

• Full Text

• 2014-2015

Charge of the Financial Reporting Policy Committee

Charge:

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.

In 1991, a member of the AAA proposed establishing a section on Financial Accounting and Reporting.  The AAA Executive Committee (EC) agreed that “the member be allowed to proceed as rapidly as possible towards the establishment of this new section with possible approval of the provisional section status coming at the April meeting of the Executive Committee.”  The EC further noted “…that the organizer of this section must obtain 400 expressions of interest prior to being established as a provisional section”.  (November 1991 AAA Exec. Comm. Meeting Minutes). 

Although not formally recognized in the minutes, AAA recollections are that the “member” we have to thank for establishing the FARs is Jerry J. Weygandt.

FARS was established as a “provisional” section in 1993 and the first President was John A. Elliott.  The other initial officers were James A. Largay III (Vice president academic), D. Gerald Searfoss (Vice president practice) and William A. Collins (Secretary/treasurer).  There were 49 members.  Today, there are over 2,000 members.  Dues were $20, which is the same today. 

The original mission of the FARs still stands today: The objective of the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section of the American Accounting Association is to give greater attention to financial accounting and reporting, and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of education, research, and professional practice by: (1) disseminating and evaluating teaching methods and materials; (2) encouraging, facilitating, and publicizing research interests and projects; and (3) creating opportunities for interchange and cooperation between academics and practitioners.

From 1995-2004, FARs published a Newsletter called the Financial Reporting Journal.  The first editor was William A. Collins.  The newsletter was replaced by a website, and the editor replaced by a webmaster, in 2005.

The midyear meeting is the FARs flagship event.  At the August 2000 AAA meeting, Jody Magliolo (President from 1999-2000) opened a discussion about a FARs midyear meeting.  Although steering board members proposed both pros and cons, minutes from the annual business meeting indicate that most members were in favor.  A consensus formed to design a meeting that would benefit junior faculty and doctoral students.  The first meeting was planned for January 2003.  Tom Linsmeier, as immediate past president, chaired the meeting committee.

The first midyear meeting included a doctoral consortium, consistent with its mission to provide opportunities for junior faculty and senior doctoral students, and a tradition continued today.  The meeting also included three teaching sessions and two plenary sessions, one related to standard setting and the other by an accounting “luminary,” initially TBD, which was Bill Beaver.

At the first meeting, 18 research papers were presented in six non-concurrent sessions.  In 2014, there were 102 papers in five concurrent sessions!

The meeting was also designed to provide opportunities for networking and social interaction for FARs members.

Mid-year meeting locations

January
Location

2003
Orlando, Florida

2004
Austin, Texas

2005
San Diego, California

2006
Atlanta, Georgia

2007
San Antonio, Texas

2008
Phoenix, Arizona

2009
New Orleans, Louisiana

2010
San Diego, California

2011
Tampa, Florida

2012
Chicago, Illinois

2013
San Diego, California

2014
Houston, Texas

2015
Nashville, TN

Past Presidents and Membership numbers

Year
# of members
President

1993-1994
49
John A. Elliott

1994-1995
715
James Largay III

1995-1996
1,049
Eugene E. Comiskey

1996-1997
1,385
Wayne R. Landsman

1997-1998
1,485
Robert J. Swieringa

1998-1999
1,539
Gregory Waymire

1999-2000
1,617
Joseph Magliolo III

2000 – 2001

Katherine Schipper

2001 – 2002
1,687
Thomas J. Linsmeier

2002 – 2003
1,659
Renee Price

2003 – 2004
1,660
W. Bruce Johnson

2004 – 2005
1,562
Terry D. Warfield

2005 – 2006
1,461
David A. Ziebart

2006 – 2007
1,510
Anne L. Beatty

2007 – 2008
1,674
Philip B. Shane

2008 – 2009
1,674
Christine A. Botosan

2009 – 2010

Teri Lombardi Yohn

2010 – 2011
2,031
Mike Kirschenheiter

2011 – 2012
2,031
K. Ramesh

2012 – 2013

Dawn Matsumoto

2013 - 2014

Cathy Schrand

2014 - 2015

Darren Roulstone

2015