Aug. 23

When to Start Your Succession

Aug. 30

How to Value Your Accounting Firm in Today's  

Marketplace

Sept. 6

Succession Planning: Tax Tips and Traps

Sept. 20

The Why, How, When and With Whom to Merge

Sept. 27

Keys to Include in Your Partnership Agreement

Oct. 5th

Payroll - You can be competitive

Oct. 11

New Audit Standards

Oct. 18

Transitioning Clients and Staff Through a Merger or Acquisition

Nov. 1

Analytical Procedures

Nov. 8

Integrating Financial Services

Nov. 15

Details, Details - Nooks and Crannies  

of Income Tax Act

Nov. 22

Determining if you can Execute an Internal  

Succession Plan

Nov. 29

Update on the C*PEM

Dec. 6

Shareholder Benefits and Appropriations

Engineers, Dentals Surgeons, Pharmacists, Veterinarians, Psychologists, Architects, Occupational Therapists, Opticians, Financial Planners, Physicians and Surgeons, Teachers, Dental Hygenists

Note that in every profession listed above there is both a regulatory body and a membership body for its members. (See table in the full article.)  The regulatory body owns, controls and grants the mark, and monitors its members through some combination of code of ethics, mandatory professional development reporting, etc. Membership in good standing in this body is required to practice in that profession.

The membership body represents a separate and independent organization. This body delivers membership services of professional development, practitioner assistance and, where needed, advocacy, etc. Membership in these organizations is voluntary, not mandatory, and thus it behooves those membership organizations to deliver value in order to promote membership and sustainability.

The twinning of regulatory and member services organizations in each of these professions brings both and commonality and duality of goals. There are occasions where the two organizations see things differently, creating conflict within the profession. However, ultimately, this is good, as isometric tension and tensile strength are often a positive force in finding equilibriums in controversial aspects of practice.

Now, please note: 

• Certified General Accountants Association
• Institute of Chartered Accountants
• Society of Management Accountants

Each of the accounting organizations has been constructed since their inception to house regulatory and membership in one organization. As you can see, this structure is contrary to every one of our fellow professions.

You may have seen a TV ad a few years ago, in which the tag line is spoken by a teenage girl who exclaims "That is SO not the question". Bi-partite or tri-partite merger, of course, has been formally on the agenda or at least on the radar screen forever in this country. While it indeed is very relevant, in my opinion, it is SO not the key question. It is fundamentally important in decision-making and problem-solving to get the question RIGHT.

And that RIGHT question is to address what the two tables above highlight. WHY are WE different to every other professional organization structure?  Do we even realize it?  If we DO, and believe that we are right and all of them are wrong, what is the basis for this authority of position? And if instead the answer is that their structures are right for their professions and ours is right for ours, again, what is the authority of that position.

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