February 1999 Issue

President's Commentary

By George T. Foundotos, CPA

On a recent rainy night, going home on the railroad, I had a moment to reflect. It came as a shock to me that I did not know what direction to take. The next day, I began looking for our mission statement, for that survey that would give me some clue. Well, I couldn't find it, but I found, in our handbook, our purpose, as embodied in the NYSSCPA's Articles of Incorporation, as last amended January 1929. (See accompanying box.) That is even before the "crash" and the acts of '33 and '34.

In those "goode olde days" when accountants were real accountants, the vast majority of our forefathers were engaged in public accounting (not too many foremothers then, in fact that is probably all we had--four). Of them, most were doing write-ups with pen and ink. The biggest service to most clients was to do a bank rec and check out the checkbook balance to the bank rec.

Times have certainly changed. What we were is not what we are and not what we will be. For starters, we are now 49 percent in public accounting; 35 percent in industry; 13 percent retired; and 3 percent in education, government, and miscellaneous. Sixty-two percent call New York City, Westchester, and Long Island home. Twelve percent of the public group are in the Big Five, or 6 percent of the total membership. And of course, there are many more than four women.

Within my remaining term of office, we will in all probability have a new accounting law, allowing new ownership and entity possibilities; a PAC; and new bylaws which will create new non-CPA membership classes. (See related stories on page 1.) And on top of all this, there is the never-ending surge of technology, which itself is transforming us from a labor-intensive profession to a capital-intensive one.

So, this leads me to think that we must redefine ourselves. Some of you will remember a major Society task force with four sub-task forces that issued the Evaluation of Professional and Member Services (EPAMS) Report--a huge effort that sorted out and reoriented much of what the NYSSCPA and FAE do. But the true underlying force was the attempt to stem the huge financial hemorrhaging of the Society and FAE.

What I am thinking of is a redefinition of our mission or purpose. What is it that we want the Society to be and to do, for who, how, and why? The how much will follow. If there is value in the who, how, and why, the how much is easy.

The AICPA is redefining the overall profession via the visioning process and it is best equipped for this task. The Society is best suited to meet the real needs of the grassroots members. So, let us do this. Notice, I said us. The board cannot do this alone and it will take more than the usual task force the president forms, often from the same small group of people.

This process, if it is to be successful, has to be broadly based. The more diverse, the better. Don't hide, folks. Have a good one. * president@nysscpa.org