Focus...

As mentioned in my previous blog, CPE is off and running! We’re using 15 cities around Georgia this year and offering over 400 courses. A couple of interesting CPE thoughts has caught my attention so far.

We have a class this week in our GSCPA facility that has 60 CPAs registered. Have a guess what topic would bring out 60 CPAs? Tax update? Audit related update? No…it is a course on the Economic Stimulus package passed by congress! The times we’re living in are interesting indeed.

Second item: we recently held two Peer Reviewer training classes. The first was the introduction to becoming a Peer Reviewer and the second was an update for those that do Peer Reviews. Not large numbers for either offering. The trend that has emerged is that the national pool of CPAs that do Peer Reviews is not growing; younger CPAs are not entering into this realm and those CPAs that currently do Peer Reviews are often doing fewer each year. This does not bode well for the Peer Review program over the next 5 years. Where will we be 5 years from now with this program? Will it become necessary to significantly modify Peer Reviews because of this dynamic? This could be a very serious change within the profession in the relatively short term; this won’t be the only change due to the Baby Boomer generation reaching retirement age. This is a dynamic that all of us must be aware of and it will be interesting and challenging to deal with and it emerges at a time in history that is calling for more regulation of the profession. Again, interesting times!

Well, as the summer goes into high gear work is picking up the pace and my golf game is slowing down. Such is the life of an Executive Director! No one pays me for golf, so I’ll keep my eye on work!

Heading to the Annual Convention on Saturday, so no blogging next week! Unless I can figure out how to engage my trusty Blackberry from the convention.
Hope you are having a great summer!

GJ