In the face of such change, it can be difficult to maintain ones focus. What can we rely on? Where do we fit in? How do we keep up?

The CPA profession must not only maintain its focus but also unite as a group to sharpen and mold it. While the marketplace has already determined the CPA profession is and should be diversified, the key to future success is a shared vision of this broad role and the related skill sets and market and public interest issues.

To help develop that vision, the CPA profession has embarked on a professionwide venture, the "CPA Vision Project," which will seek grass-roots support from CPAs nationwide and the professional organizations that act on their behalf. The goal is an integrated vision created by CPAs that is a roadmap to the future.

The project will address the social, economic, technological and regulatory changes and how they are affecting the profession. We will seek views on the professions future and plan how to achieve it. CPAs will be able to plan more effectively for themselves, their clients and their employers. The project will help the profession perceive opportunities and challenges, navigate the changing demands of the marketplace and leverage CPAs core competencies and values.

CPAs nationwide, with support from the AICPA, its council and the state CPA societies, will drive the project. Other strategic partners, such as associations of CPA firms and other professional accounting organizations, are being sought.

Focus groups and forums
First, the project is consolidating and building on an extensive base of research into marketplace issues to be addressed in a series of CPA "Future Forums." Yankelovich Partners, a professional market research firm, is conducting focus groups to elicit not only members views on the needs of clients and employers but also the opinions of current users of CPA products and services. An external advisory council, consisting of 17 prominent business, government and education leaders, also is being developed to cull outside perspectives.

Future Forums, facilitated by state society appointees, will be held in every U.S. jurisdiction. They will explore the forces changing the business world and the values and competencies needed for the future. Also planned are Leadership Future Forums for AICPA committees and ad hoc Future Forums for state societies to enhance information gathered from segments of the profession. A National Future Forum in January 1998, with delegates from each state, will consolidate professional perspectives and build a draft vision report for wide exposure. A special Web site (http://www.cpavision.org) will be a key focal point for all CPAs to participate to an extent never before possible.

No other profession has ever undertaken such a massive grass-roots effort to address dynamic change. We must be progressive as well as aggressive.

By working together, the profession can control its own destiny. Otherwise, well spin our own little circles and go nowhere. We then risk becoming an anachronism in our own time.

Sincerely,

Barry C. Melancon, CPA