Highlights of October governing Council meeting.

Here are some of the more significant actions and events that took place at the governing Council meeting Oct. 21-23:

* Randy Fletchall of Connecticut was elected chairman of the AICPA Board of Directors for 2007-2008 and Ernie Almonte of Rhode Island as vice chair.

* A name change was approved for the Business Valuation and Litigation & Forensic Services Membership Section. Now called Forensic and Valuation Services, the section will continue to serve the growing group of CPAs practicing in these areas. In addition, the new FVS executive committee has been designated as a senior committee reporting directly to the AICPA Board of Directors. The FVSEC also was authorized to set standards and make public statements without prior clearance of the board or governing Council.

* Council heard a report on the plan for release of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification[TM] for verification by constituents. During the one-year verification period, the FASB will make the Codification available through a new Web-based research system to solicit feedback from constituents to confirm that the Codification accurately reflects existing U.S. GAAP for nongovernmental entities. The FASB is pursuing the Codification to make the existing U.S. GAAP structure less confusing, more understandable and more user friendly in terms of information retrieval.

* Council members provided feedback on the SEC Concept Release on International Financial Reporting Standards for U.S. public companies. The AICPA Board of Directors is issuing a comment letter addressing core issues and is working with the Center for Audit Quality on more detailed comments. (See related article on page 5.)

* An update on eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) discussed the recent development of a comprehensive set of taxonomies for U.S. GAAP, as well as the implications of XBRL adoption for the CPA profession.

* Council members received a report on the Private Company Financial Reporting Committee (www.pcfr.org) that addressed its history, structure, focus and operations. Members also were...