June 2000

By P. Gerard Sokolski, CPA

This is a time of beginnings. I'm beginning my service as your NYSSCPA president. The Society is beginning its involvement in a great collaborative effort among the state societies to share costs of operations. And the state societies together with the AICPA have begun a venture to enable local CPA firms and their clients to join the revolutionary Internet way of doing business.

Before embarking on the beginning of my term as your Society president I want to acknowledge the dedicated and energetic efforts of my predecessor, Alan E. Weiner, on behalf of the entire membership. Alan spawned a number of projects designed to bring the Society and the CPA profession in New York to a higher level of public awareness. For that I, and the rest of the Society, will forever be indebted to Alan and his legendary attention to detail. I wish him well as he takes up the yoke of the FAE presidency. I feel confident that 2000­2001 will be a banner year for FAE.

In the last issue of The Trusted Professional, we reported on the reservations the Society's Executive Committee had regarding three proposals emanating from the other state societies and the AICPA. First was a proposal for the state societies and the AICPA to collaborate in an effort to share certain operating costs such as the maintenance of their membership databases. Second was an AICPA proposal to launch a vertical Internet portal that would offer CPAs and their clients the opportunity to join the Internet business-to-business revolution. And third was a proposal for a new, broad-based business credential, temporarily nicknamed the XYZ credential, which would place the CPA license inside a much larger professional context. The Executive Committee at that time decided insufficient information was available to justify our joining the state societies and the AICPA on the first two proposals.

As I write this, the Society's board of directors has just met and decided to join the other state societies and the Institute. What has changed in the interim? A great deal of information about the shared services company and the portal projects has been released. Concerns that the New York Society had regarding the structuring of the shared services project were met, and final documents regarding the licensing of our database to SSNI have been released and are acceptable.

Regarding the portal, the Institute permitted us to study a confidential 70-plus page business overview. Institute staff answered nearly all the Executive Committee's questions, providing a significantly higher level of understanding about the project. At the AICPA Council meeting, the AICPA staff announced that so far they have concluded deals with five co-venturers: Microsoft, Intelisys, Thomson, ADP, and Aon, who collectively have agreed to contribute $100.7 million. And perhaps most importantly, AICPA Council overwhelmingly approved the portal project.

The XYZ credential was the subject of much discussion at the May AICPA Council meeting. In October, the Council will decide whether to put the new credential to a member vote.

During my year as president, I expect to greatly intensify the Society's efforts to meet its primary mission: serving its membership. I want to share my objectives in achieving that mission this year. First we will continue to innovate and create meaningful CPE and other services that meet the needs of our members in industry. Members in industry make up more than a third of our membership. Still there is a widespread gap in the quantity of services addressed to them. The board of directors has approved a new staff position specifically to address services to members in industry.

Second, we must expand our outreach to high school and junior high school students to ensure that our profession is understood for what it is--a fantastic opportunity to be a key player in virtually every aspect of the great economic engine that has produced such unprecedented prosperity in our great nation.

Third, we must continue to take the steps necessary to ensure that the Society is fiscally sound. Our fiscal viability rests on our ability to attract and retain members with services that are relevant to their professional lives.

I will communicate further objectives in future columns. In the coming year, I trust that I can count on all of you to provide me with your honest assessment of these proposals. Please contact me at president@nysscpa.org. Undoubtedly, new and unforeseen challenges will present themselves. But, if anything, I firmly believe we have proven to be a dynamic organization that can rise to any challenge before it. Together we can and will move the Society significantly forward. *