November 1999

FAQs, cyberspeak for "frequently asked questions," is a feature of The Trusted Professional that answers common questions about http://www.nysscpa.org. Members can post inquiries and comments about the Society's website by clicking on the Technical Problems and Website Suggestions links at the bottom of the homepage.

The following are recent inquiries posed to website editors:

I am interested in several of the Society's committees. I visited your website to obtain more information; however, the committee section is password protected and I have found it burdensome to remember my membership number. Is there any other way to obtain information about the committees from your site?

Good news. The committee section of the website is now available to the public (i.e., you can now access the section without a password). You will find meeting notices, agendas, minutes, and a list of members for each committee. And soon you will find each committee's action plan--a brief description of the range and extent of its operations--which should give you a general idea of what each committee does.

The Society has recently restructured its committees to eliminate overlap and facilitate communication. There now are six divisions: accounting and auditing, consulting services, operations, tax, industry, and future of the profession. You can learn more about the committee restructuring from articles in previous issues of The Trusted Professional. (See the July and September issues.) To access these stories online--or any other article from past issues of The Trusted Professional--simply click on The Trusted Professional link on the Find It Fast menu on the homepage and select Archive to access former issues. You also can search the newspaper's archives with the search function located on the bottom of the homepage.

We hope that surfing our website will give you an idea of not only how vital committee service is to our Society, but also how valuable NYSSCPA membership is.

I am a CPA in the insurance industry and would like to see more resources on the Society's website that would be of interest for my industry.

Thank you for your suggestion. The editors of nysscpa.org constantly look for ideas to make the website more responsive to Society members' needs. We recently created an Insurance Links section that includes hyperlinks to various sites of particular interest to the insurance industry professional. While the complete list of resources is too extensive to discuss here, the section includes links to insurance publications for the latest industry news; insurance companies; state regulatory entities; professional organizations and associations; and several insurance glossaries in areas such as pensions and benefits, property insurance, workers' compensation, reinsurance, and liability. You can access the link through the Find It Fast menu on the homepage. Simply scroll the Professional Library section and click on Insurance Links.

As a member of a small accounting firm, I can attest that the problem of workload compression is a very serious one for the profession, especially for the small CPA firm. I have seen coverage in several NYSSCPA publications of fiscal year reform initiatives that attempt to address this problem, but how can I find more information about this issue from the Society's website?

We recently introduced the Center for Fiscal Year Reform, a special section on nysscpa.org that offers a number of resources on workload compression and fiscal year reform, including related articles from various Society publications such as The Trusted Professional and The CPA Journal, discussion points, and background information. The site also allows members to send an e-mail directly to AICPA Chair Bob Elliott to encourage the AICPA to address the issue. You can access the center through a link on the Society's homepage or directly at http://www.nysscpa.org/society/fiscal_reform/reform.htm.

The website staff thanks you for all your questions and encourages members to send their comments to us at staff@nysscpa.org. You also may contact our web editing staff via the main Society numbers, (212) 719-8300 and (800) 633-6320. *