FAE Trustees Approve Three-Year Business Plan

By James Hardenberg, CPA

FAE Board of Trustees President Barry Seidel (right) discusses the plan with NYSSCPA Executive Director Lou Grumet.

"We developed this plan in recognition that continuing professional education and its delivery has not adequately responded to changes confronting the accounting profession," FAE board of trustees President Barry B. Seidel (Nassau) said. "Compliance services are under fire. New consulting services and competitive pressures are redefining public accounting. More and more CPAs are employed in private industry. Yet with all these changes, the concept of an instructor in front of a classroom still remains intact today, even though new, innovative delivery systems are available."

The three-year plan includes a mission statement and 10 primary objectives:

Mission Statement

The mission of the Foundation for Accounting Education is to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skill by providing members of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and their staff with cost-effective, high quality, market driven educational services.

Primary Objectives

* Maintain a leadership role in providing continuing professional education for NYSSCPA members and their staff.

* Focus training services on the needs of NYSSCPA members, primarily those in
public practice, industry, education, and
government.

* Provide consistent educational opportunities throughout the state of New York.

* Maintain a wide array of timely, high quality educational offerings to properly serve the needs of a diversified NYSSCPA membership.

* Form strategic alliances with NYSSCPA members and other professional organizations to further advance the mission of the FAE and increase services.

* Establish cooperative relationships with academic institutions to enhance higher level learning standards.

* Benchmark FAE success and failure against NYSSCPA members' perception of value and quality.

* Form a working partnership with the NYSSCPA and regulatory bodies to further protect the public trust and the practice of public accountancy.

* Develop technology training courses and evolutionary CPE migration paths to move the FAE into the 21st century and beyond.

* Structure FAE administrative operations to break even and recover all costs.

The new business plan emphasizes that FAE must not only integrate new delivery systems for CPE, as well as new topical content, but also become more cost-effective in delivering services via the live instruction model. While adapting to changes in the marketplace, FAE will continue to offer the compliance-based training NYSSCPA members require, and will not eliminate live instruction and replace it solely by computer and web-based delivery systems.

The three-year plan also stresses that FAE will provide knowledge and skill regardless of the platform of delivery. Pricing of seminars, conferences, and other educational services must be perceived as valuable by NYSSCPA members and compete favorably in the marketplace. FAE must build cooperative bridges with both members and other organizations. Primarily, FAE must serve Society members and deliver educational services in a variety of formats, in each geographic location, and in an efficient, cost-effective, and quality driven manner.