From the Good Book to Web Clutter

July’s Publisher’s Column (“Peeling Away the Layers of CPA2Biz”) produced at least as much reader response as that backwards title on the August cover, but no one thought Lou Grumet’s take on the AICPA’s portal was a mistake. Here’s a sample of your responses:

I am relieved that I am not the only person who shares the concerns you expressed. I am particularly concerned about the conflicts of interest the AICPA will experience, namely: being divided between its mission and the profit motive of the CPA2Biz portal. To paraphrase the Good Book, “No man can serve two masters, either he loves the one and despises the other.” I believe that the organization’s mission is of utmost importance and not to be compromised, diluted, or threatened. Therein lies my bias.

We all know the potential corruptive effect the profit motive and money has on decision makers, therefore every effort must be expended to ensure that these temptations are avoided.

You raised a question regarding the stance of the NYSSCPA: principle or solidarity? I believe being principled is paramount. Should we follow the leader, regardless of whether or not we believe the leader is being principled? We have too many examples from history and current events of the outcomes from both choices to make the wrong decision.

I share the concerns Lou Grumet expressed in his column. The latest “flavor of the month” is for associations to create for-profit subsidiaries so they can enrich the association. Go public and feather the nests of the operating executives. Why the state societies, except for New York, went for this is mind-boggling.

As you point out, CPA2Biz will subvert the mission of the CPA membership organizations. While the AICPA wants to make the accountant a stockbroker, insurance broker, and so on, it has successfully debased the value of the CPA certificate from “your trusted advisor” to just another greedy member of the financial community.

I believe the best use of members’ dues and the Institute’s treasury is to rehabilitate the CPA’s good name—one that took generations to establish and only 10 years to destroy.

I visited the CPA2Biz website and found absolutely nothing useful there—just more useless Web-clutter. Like all CPAs, both in public practice and industry, I am currently inundated with business and professional news, subscription offers, conference and networking opportunities, course offerings, etc. I find it hard to believe the AICPA membership is clamoring for more such professional information (and sales pitches).

I attended the 2000 annual meeting of the Vermont Society of CPAs, at which an AICPA representative presented both the CPA2Biz portal and the XYZ designation (incidentally, I think members confuse these two projects because they are similarly inane). In any case, the reception he received was icy at best. Now that I’ve been to the website, I think our instincts were right on.

As a long-time member of the AICPA and the NYSSCPA, I applaud Lou Grumet’s columns. I hope that the NYSSCPA will continue to decline to participate in CPA2Biz, and that the NYSSCPA will stand firm in opposition to both of CPA2Biz and XYZ. In my opinion, CPA2Biz is not in conformity with the CPA mission, as well as a clear conflict of interest. As a CPA in industry, I am opposed to the proposed XYZ credential because I fail to see its relevance (present or potential) in today’s global business world.

XYZ? Global Chilling, Sure, but also a Hot Discussion Topic at Yahoo

I read and participated in the NYSSCPA survey on the global credential that The CPA Journal reported on in April. I was taken aback by AICPA Chair Kathy Eddy’s response to the poll. She responded to only the last of the survey’s 20 questions, which indicated that we need to know more about this new credential. Who cares that responses to five questions pertaining to whether or not the certification was worth anything were overwhelmingly negative, with 77.2% against it? These questions meant absolutely nothing to Ms. Eddy and the staff of the AICPA. Ms. Eddy is determined to ignore these results and continue to use the monies of the AICPA to pursue this madness of establishing a global credential that will end up sabotaging the CPA.

I am not a member of the NYSSCPA, and although for various reasons I have not been a member of the AICPA for several years, I am considering rejoining for the sole purpose of being more involved in the global credential and CPA2Biz debates.

While I agree with most of the reasoning for a global credential and the portal, I do not understand why there have not been more objections from AICPA members and state societies about nonprofit staff involvement and personal gain issues. As Lou Grumet stated, this raises conflict-of-interest issues of the first order. In addition, the public’s perception about our independence, objectivity, integrity, and dependability will inevitably be compromised.

I believe that the unique position that CPAs hold in the business world will be degraded by what I perceive as greedy, non-independent, non-objective, and disgraceful involvement in a profit-making activity.

I’m a big fan of The CPA Journal, and I compliment you on both your print edition and website. You may be interested in knowing about a discussion group at Yahoo.com set up by Kendall Wheeler, a member of the California Society of CPAs’ governing council, and devoted to AICPA endeavors. (To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to xyztalksubscribe@yahoogroups.com.) Most postings are somewhat anti-AICPA, but there is a lot of substantive discussion.

The CPA Journal is broadly recognized as an outstanding, technical-refereed publication aimed at public practitioners, management, educators, and other accounting professionals. It is edited by CPAs for CPAs. Our goal is to provide CPAs and other accounting professionals with the information and news to enable them to be successful accountants, managers, and executives in today's practice environments.