Is Your Board RIPE?

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***Responsive-Informed-Participatory-Engaged****

As state legislatures have ramped up licensing reform in recent years—which often includes proposals to consolidate accountancy board duties/responsibilities with other boards—a recent NASBA study conducted by John Johnson, NASBA’s Director of Legislative and Governmental Affairs, identified:

29 Boards of Accountancy have a dedicated executive director
26 Boards of Accountancy have an executive director that services multiple boards

The research also showed that of the 29 jurisdictions with a dedicated executive director (ED), the turnover rate for this particular group of EDs over the last five years was 1/3 less than of their counterparts at the 26 jurisdictions that oversee multiple boards. More specifically,

29 boards with a dedicated executive director have had a total of 14 turnovers in the last five years (eight of the 13 retired with a combined service of 102 years)
26 boards with an executive director that services multiple boards had a total of 38 turnovers in the same period, with three of those jurisdictions having multiple turnovers in the same years, while six or those jurisdictions had turnover at that position in consecutive years. One of those boards had six new executive directors over the last five years.

In 2023, NASBA hosted a Conference—specifically for EDs—to assist in their growth and development on issues important to the regulation of the accounting profession, and for NASBA to obtain their input on how each jurisdiction is addressing these important issues. When examining participation and engagement at these conferences:

100% of the boards with a dedicated executive director attended both meetings, either in-person or virtually; 93% of these executive directors attended both meetings in-person.
Of the 26 boards with an executive director servicing multiple boards, less than 50% (14 to be exact) did not attend either meeting in-person or virtually. It should be noted that the virtual option is at no cost to any stakeholder (board member, executive director, board staff, department staff, etc.) who wants to attend any NASBA conference. Furthermore, to encourage each board to be present (in-person) at any NASBA conference, NASBA provides a scholarship for one person to attend any NASBA conference.

The question that arises: “Is your board functioning at its highest capacity?” If not, could this have an impact on public protection? To learn more about Johnson’s preliminary RIPE report, click here. To provide feedback, contact John Johnson at [email protected].