Associations

In a joint statement, the American Institute of CPAs, the Securities Industry Association and the Bond Market Association said they would start anew discussions on auditor due diligence.

The American Institute of CPAs and the United Kingdom's Chartered Institute of Management Accountants have agreed to collaborate on developing products and services for their members. This partnership will allow the AICPA to offer additional professional resources to members working in business and industry, who account for nearly 50 percent of the institute's membership.

The members of the American Institute of CPAs Governing Council approved the relocation of most of the institute's staff to North Carolina by an overwhelming voice vote.

It might not have been laid out in black-and-white anywhere on the agenda for the American Institute of CPAs' fall Governing Council, but as always, the profession's staffing issues rose to the tips of speakers' tongues before the meeting adjourned.

Located near a number of major universities and North Carolina's prestigious Research Triangle, Durham, N.C., could become home to a majority of the American Institute of CPAs' staff following a vote by the institute's governing Council.

In a unanimous voice vote, the governing Council of the American Institute of CPAs agreed to refocus the mission of its Center for Public Company Audit Firms.

CPA2Biz, the online marketing and technology portal for the American Institute of CPAs, posted a year-end net income of $150,000 for the period ended July 31 -- the first-ever profit since its inception just over four years ago.

The American Institute of CPAs will ask its Governing Council to consider relocating more than 400 of the trade association's employees from their Jersey City, N.J., offices to an undisclosed location in the Southern Atlantic region.

The American Institute of CPAs has released a nonpartisan tax reform report, titled, "Understanding Tax Reform: A Guide to 21 st Century Alternatives." The report is meant as an overview to understanding major issues in the debate over making changes to the country's system.

After trade groups went public with auditor guidance outlined by the American Institute of CPAs in a draft white paper, a number of groups on Wall Street have turned to the federal government with their own concerns.

Five female CPAs from Illinois and six from New Mexico are recipients of the first "Women to Watch" awards, co-sponsored by the Work/Life and Women's Initiatives Executive Committee of the American Institute of CPAs, the Illinois CPA Society and the New Mexico Society of CPAs.

Houses and offices under water. Looting in the streets. Factories on fire. What's an accountant to do?According to the Financial Accounting Standards Board's Emerging Issues Task Force, treat the situation as ordinary.

Accountants who lived and worked in the path of Hurricane Katrina are relocating, rebuilding and, very slowly, recovering from the unprecedented devastation that changed hundreds of thousands of lives last month."I used to work in New Orleans," said Mark Harris, CPA and secretary of the State Board of CPAs of Louisiana. "Somebody would say, 'Hey, there is a hurricane in the Gulf,' and we'd say, 'Is this supposed to be the Big One?' They'd say, 'No, it's only a Class 1 or 2' ... and we'd go right back about our business."

The expanding profile of women in the accounting profession will be the focus of the first Women's Summit hosted by the Work/Life & Women's Initiatives Executive Committee of the American Institute of CPAs.

The American Institute of CPAs and the Internal Revenue Service launched a partnership aimed at providing assistance to taxpayers at local disaster recovery centers established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The American Institute of CPAs has won a 2005 Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications for its national "360 Degrees of Financial Literacy" program.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Grant Ashley is the 2005 recipient of the Outstanding CPA in Government Award from the American Institute of CPAs.

The American Institute of CPAs has announced the winners of the 2004 Elijah Watt Sells Awards, presented annually to the candidates earning the highest cumulative scores on the four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination. The candidates must have completed testing during the previous calendar year and passed each exam section on their first attempt.

The American Institute of CPAs has finalized several documents that should improve the auditing of private companies and the development of nonaudit reports and compilations.

The Uniform Accountancy Act committees of the American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy issued an exposure draft of updated rules governing the profession.