By: Melisa Galasso
NCACPA’s Accounting and Attestation Committee held their June meeting in Greensboro at the Greensboro Grasshopper game. The committee met at 3:30 to have their normal quarterly meeting and then enjoyed an evening of great food, camaraderie and baseball! The Committee meets three times per year in person and holds their busy season meeting via conference call.
Pictured above are members of the A&A Committee Jeff Carlini (Potter & Company), Wes Allen (Dixon Hughes Goodnman), Melisa Galasso (Cherry Bekaert), Nikki Vann (NCACPA, Staff Liaison), Sarah Bruce (Hutchins Allen & Company) and Gareth Montague-Smith (Chair) (KPMG). Not pictured is Heddy Catalan Wylie (Arthur Wylie Foundation). Nick Lombardi (Stancil & Company), Brad Johnson (Builders of Hope), Ashley Britton (Johnson Lambert) and David Jernigan (Thomas, Knight, Trent, King & Company) joined the meeting via conference call.
The committee could not have picked a better week to hold their meeting. Just two days earlier, the AICPA released their Financial Reporting Framework for Small and Medium Entities (FRF-SME) and the FASB had endorsed three major proposals of the Private Company Council. This made for a very busy agenda. The group’s mission is to support members with timely educational, professional networking opportunities, technical resources and local and national advocacy efforts. The committee monitors regulatory bodies for changes in Accounting and Attestation guidance and then discusses ways to inform NCACPA members. This ranges from writing blog posts (like this one), articles in Interim Report or contacting the Professional Development team to provide feedback on CPE topics for the membership. Just some of the topics discussed at the June meeting were the update to the Code of Professional Conduct, the PCAOB’s Related Party exposure draft, the updated attest standards, the refreshed COSO framework, the exposure draft on the Use of Internal Auditors for SASes, the FASB lease exposure drafts, the private company decision making framework, and of course private company reporting. Decisions were made regarding blog post topics, articles you’ll see in future IRs and items to pass on to the PD Committee.
Once the meeting wrapped, the group was treated to a lovely spread of food and a baseball game. The weather was definitely a bit tricky. When we arrived at the stadium it was nearly 100 degrees outside and HUMID. During our meeting we watched the clouds roll in. In 10 minutes, the temperature dropped nearly 20 degrees and we were treated to quite the thunderstorm and lightening show. However, about 40 minutes later, the skies cleared, the turf drained and it was time for a ballgame!
The group had a chance to chat and get to know each other outside the normal meeting environment. We were even treated to a visit from Guilford, the Grasshopper’s mascot.
Lots of great discussions were had. At one point Jeff pointed out that while other teams had bigger suites “none of them got to discuss accounting standards before the game”. So clearly we were the most fortunate group there. The Grasshoppers won the game with a score of 3-2 over the West Virginia Power. A great time was had by all!
The mission of the A&A Committee shall be to support and enhance the quality of accounting and attestation services provided by members of the NCACPA. The mission shall be accomplished by supporting members with timely educational, professional networking opportunities, technical resources and local and national advocacy efforts. For more information or to join the A&A Committee, click here.
Melisa is an Audit Manager in the Professional Practices Department at Cherry Bekaert, LLP, in Charlotte. She currently serves on NCACPA’s Accounting & Attestation Committee and is Chair-Elect of the Charlotte Chapter. Melisa can be reached at [email protected].