What would one bad piece of regulation or legislation cost your firm? Your professionals?

How much is a positive piece of legislation like CPA mobility worth, one that enables your CPAs to practice more easily across jurisdictions?

What about the value of the reputation of all CPAs in the eye of the public? Or the value of accounting as one of the top majors on college campuses, up from the bottom only a few years ago?

In short, all of these are due to the combined efforts of the AICPA and your local state CPA associations. That’s right, it is due to both — or as Jim Collins likes to say, the power of AND (versus OR). The bottom line is that collectively, we do the things that you cannot do alone as CPAs.

This was the message I gave at the Association for Accounting Administration‘s National Practice Management Conference in New Orleans. I was there on behalf of CPA-SEA (the CPA State Societies Executives Association). You can view a copy of my presentation here and download the AAA Conference handout here. The value of investing in the future of your profession is critical, and your state CPA associations cover areas that no one else will cover for you. Check out my friend Clarke Price (CEO of the Ohio Society of CPAs and former chair of the American Society of Association Executives) on the value of associations in this short video clip.

1. Maintain CPA infrastructure –- legislative and regulatory
2. Support the highest standards of professionalism –- peer review and ethics
3. Build and maintain the CPA pipeline –- students and young professionals
4. Leadership experience and training (most AICPA chairs come from state society leadership positions)
5. Protect and promote the CPA image and reputation
6. Serve the public –- financial literacy (locally and nationally)
7. Connect you to resources (locally and nationally)
8. Training and learning –- technical and soft skills
9. Developed a vision for the future with the AICPA
10. Creating a learning and performance management system for CPAs (with the AICPA)

The AAA is another investment that you should be making as well. Your CPA firm administrator or COO should be a member of this group and should make this conference a must attend. (Next year’s conference will be held from June 21-24 in Louisville, Ky.)

They have tremendous resources that will make your firm more competitive and your firm administrator more successful. 

I was humbled and very honored to be recognized for building the relationship between state CPA associations and the AAA. (Pictured is me accepting an award from AAA Executive Director Kim Fantaci.)

The point is that the relationship between our organization and the AAA is a very important one. In Maryland, we have developed seperate CPA firm administration functionality for managing memberships with the MACPA, and we host and support AAA chapter meetings from both the D.C. and Baltimore areas at our offices. Many other state CPA societies are doing the same.

The AAA and CPA-SEA will continue to work together to promote the awareness between our respective groups.