President's Message

December 2010

Seasons Greetings and warmest wishes for a safe and happy holiday season!  

It has been an exciting time at the CAAA. We just celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the CAR Conference in Kingston, Ontario a few weeks ago. Highlights of the Conference, elaborated in the report below, included the appointment of the first three CAR editors (Haim Falk, Bill Scott and Mike Gibbins) to honorary positions with CAR. I would like to thank Steve Salterio for his vision and strong leadership and his team of associate editors, editorial board members and ad hoc reviewers for their hard work and dedication under tremendous time pressure. A conference of this size however is not possible without the generous financial support of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, which has been the exclusive sponsor of the CAR Conference over the last few years. I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the CICA for their continued support of the CAAA in general and CAR in particular. This year’s CAR Conference was once again preceded by the CAR Ph.D/Junior Faculty Consortium. I thank the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec, the CA School of Business and the Atlantic School of Chartered Accountancy for their financial support. As always, our Executive Director, Lesley Falkner, along with Nicole Nurse, Louise Laroche and Nancy Shield, provided outstanding logistic support for both events.

It has also been a very busy time at the CAAA. We have been working closely with Wiley Publishing to enhance the production of AP and CAR, and with our auditor and lawyer to assess the implications of the newly enacted HST in Ontario and the New Not-for-Profit Corporations Act that will come into effect around June 2011. The CAAA Visual Identity Task Force (comprised of two journal editors and executive committee members) was also hard at work this fall. Its efforts culminated in the selection of Idea Design as the firm to lead the CAAA’s Visual Identity Rebranding Project. Following the board’s approval at its October 29 meeting, the project will soon commence. The task force will continue to work closely with Idea Design over the next 4-6 months to produce the following four deliverables: a new visual design including logo; a Brand StandardsGuide for the CAAA; revamped stationary and marketing materials to incorporate new visual design elements; and website templates to incorporate new visual design elements.  

Finally, the preparation for the 2011 CAAA Annual Conference is well under way. As discussed elsewhere in the newsletter, the conference organizer (research), Samir Trabelsi, and Education Committee chair, Sandy Hilton, have already put together an excellent lineup of keynote andplenary speakers. I encourage all of you to come and explore the amazing new frontiers for accounting with colleagues from around the world at the Toronto Hilton hotel on May 26-29, 2011.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a healthy and successful year in 2011!

Best regards,

Jennifer Kao  
President, The Canadian  Academic  Accounting  Association