Happenings at spring Council meeting.

• Position: Chair's corner - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants - Statistical Data Included

Here are some of the more significant actions and events that took place at the governing Council's meeting May 19-21:

* Council was told of the success of Year 1 of the AICPA's $25 million, 5-year CPA student recruitment campaign. Wunderman (the agency that developed the student recruitment campaign) highlighted the major accomplishments, which included reaching an audience of 8 million high school juniors and seniors and 1.2 million college students, establishing benchmarks to measure success in changing awareness and perception about the profession, and building the infrastructure to support activities in the program throughout the five years. Results learned from the first year will be used to refine plans for Year 2 and beyond. We will continue to improve perceptions of the CPA profession among students, develop awareness and understanding about what CPAs do and career opportunities available, establish a dialog with our target audience ("Generation Y"), and ultimately increase the number of students pursuing the CPA credential and careers in the profession.

* The Professional Ethics Division updated Council on its current projects. Among them, the Division is modernizing its Code of Conduct to make it easier to follow and understand, is developing a conceptual framework for independence, and is crafting best practices guidance on significant client fees.

* Discussions about the "New Economy" and appropriate financial reporting occupied a significant portion of the meeting. Council heard about developments in approaches to respond to demands for assurance in an Internet-speed business environment that would continue to protect the public interest. The current financial reporting model is seen as the foundation for a move to a real-time reporting model that looks at financial and non-financial measures, offers understandable disclosures, uses reliable systems, demonstrates corporate accountability and provides for instantaneous information dissemination.

* Another highlight of the meeting was hearing the progress of CPA2Biz, which includes significant improvements in registered users, visitors to the site, page views per week, and online transactions/sales. New strategic alliances have greatly increased offerings available to CPAs for their small business clients and employers.

* Members of Council participated in "breakout" meetings to discuss issues pertaining to ethics and fraud detection and to see where modifications may be needed...