Chair's corner.

• Author: Ezzell, William F.
• Position: Column

This is our first issue of The CPA Letter published electronically and available online in full text. I hope you find this format useful and convenient. This change is one more example of how the AICPA staff constantly looks for new and better ways to communicate with all our members.

We have just finished the four regional Council meetings and the third board of directors meeting this year. As you know, there are many issues to be addressed, and I thought we had very productive regional Council meetings. We had excellent attendance and significant dialogue and input from the members. In addition to addressing the many implications of the changing regulatory environment at both the federal and state levels, we had discussions about the current credentialing programs and proposed changes to some of the existing ethics rules.

Each year, management and the finance committee evaluate all our programs in preparation of the coming year's budget and as a means of assessing member satisfaction. Credentials have been part of that annual review since inception and this year we are taking a hard look at the status of each credential program. At the regional Council meetings, we discussed the level of resource commitment and the success of each program. The input from Council members has been shared with the National Accreditation Commission, which will give further consideration to the issues and points of view expressed by Council and other members who have written on this subject. Any decision to continue or curtail the current credentials will be made by Council at the fall meeting after a full evaluation of all relevant data.

We are in the second year of our student recruitment campaign and the initial results are very exciting. This project was established to generate increased interest in...