SHARE:  Serving as NASBA chair has been a very rewarding experience. While the time allotted exceeded my original expectations, the NASBA staff, Board of Directors and committee volunteers displayed their dedication exponentially, which resulted in a wonderful experience this past year. Allow me to highlight some of what we accomplished this year. All of us have watched Sesame Street with our children or grandchildren. Our family’s favorite character is Cookie Monster! His video and song “C is for Cookie” was played numerous times over the years in our home. I mention this as “C” was the letter of the alphabet that seemed to be a theme for NASBA this past year. Our major initiatives included the launch of the new CPA Exam under CPA Evolution, and we established a CEO Selection Advisory Committee to perform the time-consuming process to provide finalists to the NASBA Board of Directors to vote on the new CEO to lead the organization into the future. And last but not least, was the Competency-Based Experience Pathway to licensure, an additional licensure model that was the charge of NASBA’s Professional Licensure Task Force. CPA Evolution At our membership meetings in October 2019, Laurie Tish and Bill Reeb, incoming chairs of NASBA and the AICPA, presented the concept of CPA Evolution. The initiative transformed the CPA licensure model to recognize the ever-changing skills and competencies that CPAs need to meet the future demands of the marketplace. The reason for the change was the shift in hiring by larger accounting firms to hire IT graduates versus accounting graduates. The design, development and launch of CPA Evolution was the biggest, most challenging, and expensive project NASBA has undertaken since the transition to the computerized CPA Examination more than 20 years ago. NASBA and AICPA staff worked tremendously hard to ensure that we launched on time, and on budget. NASBA cautiously monitored the launch of examinations in the early time zones in preparation for dealing with any unexpected issues. The launch’s progress across the country was seamless with no failures. The complexity of the transition to CPA Evolution caused an unprecedented number of inquiries and questions from candidates, which overwhelmed our systems and capacity. Due to the transition to the new Exam, a credit extension policy was recommended in 2022. Any candidate with CPA Exam credits on January 1, 2024, had their Exam credits extended until June 30, 2025. As of today, the majority of jurisdictions have adopted some form of extension to assist candidates with the transition. Historically, when there is a change to the Exam, there is a major increase in the number of candidates who test prior to the change, which we saw in the last quarter of 2023. Conversely, there is a major drop in candidates testing under the new Exam. Again, this happened in the first quarter of 2024, but I am pleased to report that the candidates sitting for the Exam in quarters two and three have continued to increase substantially across all sections. CEO Search As many of you know, our former President and CEO, Ken Bishop, announced his retirement at the NASBA annual meeting in October 2023. The NASBA Board was aware of his pending retirement in July 2023 and one of my first duties was to select a diverse group of NASBA members for the CEO Selection Advisory Committee for Board approval. NASBA’s culture, Mission, Vision, Values & Objectives included in our strategic plan was part of the process in selecting the CEO. Carlos Barrera, former NASBA chair, was the chair of this important committee and along with the other members spent many hours reviewing the job description and applications, developing interview questions, interviewing candidates, creating a decision matrix, and ultimately providing finalists to the NASBA Board of Directors. The Board’s choice and our new President and CEO, Dan Dustin, is continuing NASBA’s culture and is ensuring NASBA and Boards of Accountancy remain relevant, both nationally and internationally. Many of us have been through leadership changes and I believe this transition has gone smoothly due to Ken Bishop and Colleen Conrad’s willingness to share their institutional knowledge. In addition, Dan has done an amazing job and put together a top-notch team. CPA Competency-Based Experience Pathway In my inaugural speech last year, I announced the formation of a Professional Licensure Task Force (PLTF), which was comprised of a cross section of NASBA, state board and society executives and members, and AICPA members. The task force was charged to “consider new concepts for CPA licensure that may be included in the UAA to update the current licensure model.” This was a response to states considering legislation to allow licensure with 120 hours of education and two years of general experience, which is not currently included in the UAA and would threaten substantial equivalency and mobility. It took decades to achieve substantial equivalency and uniformity in every state and territory in the United States. We want to ensure that any changes we make do not disrupt the success that only the U.S. licensed accounting profession has been able to achieve. Throughout the year, the PLTF worked collaboratively with the AACSB Accounting Accreditation Policy Group, a group of state society government relations officers and NASBA’s State Society Relations Committee with a key moment coming on May 2, when a joint meeting was held between the PLTF and the National Pipeline Advisory Group’s (NPAG) Substantial Equivalency (SE) work group. During this meeting, it was agreed that a joint work group would be established between the PLTF and NPAG SE to further explore and develop an alternate off-transcript experiential learning pathway. The joint work group included some representatives of PLTF and NPAG along with additional stakeholders that included academia, a learning and development specialist and a government relations officer. Subsequent meetings of the joint work group resulted in the members agreeing to establish two sub-work groups to focus on (1) the development of common skills and competencies that a newly licensed CPA should have (model), and (2) a national framework and standards on how the program functions (standards). The culmination of the work of these sub work groups was a presentation to the PLTF on the Competency-Based Experience Pathway, which would be an additional licensure pathway defined in the UAA. The PLTF also supported and recommended the release of an exposure draft on September 12 with a comment period end date of December 6. A total of 22 meetings of the PLTF, the joint PLTF/NPAG group and its sub work groups were held during the year. And there will be more when we review the comments. During these meetings, not only did I share my views, but I also listened to the diverse group of volunteers who had different views. We had four name changes for the model pathway: Structured Professional Program (SPP), Professional Experience Program (PEP), Enhanced Experience and finally we agreed to Competency-Based Experience (CBE). The initial SPP was a more robust and complex program, and due to comments made during presentations, the joint work group looked at other examples. The result is the Competency-Based Experience model, which was based on the AICPA Foundational Competencies Framework for Aspiring CPAs, a Global Accounting Alliance competency framework, feedback from firms on-transcript firm models, and feedback from many other stakeholders. The current licensure model remains in the UAA but in response to market changes and trying to expand opportunities for the next generation of CPAs, the Competency-Based Experience pathway is an option for candidates who cannot obtain an additional 30 credits on a transcript. It provides flexibility for candidates without compromising the rigor required to protect the public. I want to thank the AICPA and those state societies for publicizing the CBE (Competency-Based Experience) as well as the UAA exposure drafts. We welcome your positive and negative comments, and any questions you may have. In addition, please know NASBA staff and volunteers are available to present to your boards and membership as well as answer any questions—at any time. As previously stated, serving as chair of NASBA has been my distinct honor and privilege. I look forward to witnessing the continued progression of NASBA, Boards of Accountancy and the accounting profession. Thank you, All. Stephanie M. Saunders, CPA |
