On the last day of the American Institute of CPAs Fall Meeting of Council, members elected a new chairman and adopted a resolution supporting the Blue Ribbon Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies.
Paul Stahlin CPA, 58, is regional president of Skylands Community Bank in Chester, N.J. He will serve a one-year term.
Stahlin said over the next year he will focus on taking a fresh look at the AICPAs strategic plan, The CPA Vision Project. The initiative, which began in 1996, concludes in 2011. He said back then, Google was just a startup and there was no Twitter.
We as CPAs have the unique ability to make sense of a constantly changing complex world, Stahlin said. Employers, our clients and our country turn to us to make sense of the most complex developments in business and regulation. We best understand how a business ticks.
He touched upon the compelling issues facing the industry, including private company reporting standards. Too much of the content prepared using U.S. GAAP is not relevant to the owner, not relevant to the user, and not relevant to the preparers, he said.
He said the AICPA will launch a new IFRS certificate program that will demonstrate knowledge and competency in applying International Financial Reporting Standards. We once considered international standards a convenience, he said. Now they are a necessity.
In other news, Council members voted on a resolution that expressed its appreciation of the work of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies. The CPA profession stands ready to help implement a differential GAAP model for private companies, as determined by a separate private company accounting standards board, said the statement.
