According to Executive Director Jeanne Patton, an integral part of the CPA Vision Project is the companion website, www.cpavision.org. The site offers resources, information, and interactive exchanges for CPAs who want to stay abreast of not only the Vision Project in particular but also future-oriented trends in general.

The website is designed primarily to promote dialogue about the future of the accounting profession. On the "Talk to Us" page, CPAs and others can participate in Web Views, a forum to post questions and provide answers to issues about the future. Another area features an online poll to comment on and rank CPA core values, services, and competencies. Updated results are also available.

The online edition of Horizon Perspectives, the Vision Project's monthly newsletter, and archived past issues, are on the site for reference, and users also can subscribe to a monthly e-mail version that links directly to the site. Among the monthly features is the "Pathfinder Profile," an article on an innovative CPA, which helps tie visioning concept to real people working in the profession. The site also includes additional "Pathfinder" stories published exclusively online.

The "Resources" section features a diverse body of data, facts, and news. In addition to details about the Vision Project itself, including downloadable text files on the visioning process, "Resources to Visioning" provides executive summaries and full text versions of several white papers, including a study of how values and competencies influence the CPA profession and how multinational companies have used visioning to improve the bottom line.

"Future Focused Links" is a collection of useful paths to organizations involved in the Vision Project, and includes materials to help CPAs supplement their own understanding of the future. Similarly, the Online Bookstore lists titles under "Highly Recommended Reading" and "Suggested Reading," with direct links to purchase books at Amazon.com.

Contributors are encouraged to add new material, links, and updated information not only to enhance the Vision Project, but also to provide CPAs with reasons to take a serious look into the future. Users can offer feedback via e-mail at horizon@cpavision.org.

The Vision Project has now conducted hundreds of "Future Forums" across the country and recently held the National Future Forum on January 12-13 where representatives from each state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico gathered to study the results and develop a working hypothesis on a vision for the future of the profession. This document is scheduled to be presented this spring during the regional AICPA Council meetings. At its May 1998 meeting, the council will discuss the project recommendations and provide guidance for a draft vision report that the AICPA intends to present to a wide range of individuals and groups in the summer.