President's message [1981, vol. 4, no. 1]

              PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
The annual Trustees meeting and business
meeting will take place at the Executive House, 71
Wacker Drive, Chicago, on August 6, 1981. The
hotel is adjacent to the American Accounting
Association convention center at the Hyatt
Regency. Ken Elvik did an excellent job making
these arrangements. The Trustees' meeting begins
at 7:30 a.m. and includes a sumptuous breakfast.
As a result of last year's decision not to affiliate
with the AAA, the Academy is no longer provided
facilities by the AAA. Consequently, there will not
be an "Academy Session" at the meetings.
However, Tom Johnson has done a splendid job
organizing an accounting history session under
AAA auspices.
The financial position of The Academy looks
pretty good at this point. Thanks to Dick
Vangermeersch, we are not only getting timely
reports but we are also investing wisely. Dick put
$10,000 into a CD earlier this year. Al Roberts
reports that our demand schedule is reasonably
inelastic, i.e., the increase in fees to $20 did not
materially reduce our membership. In addition, we
received (or are about to) checks from Arthur
Andersen ($2,000) and Professor Osamu Kojima
($2,000) to support research projects. At the
Trustees' meeting we will discuss the idea of
putting part of this money into an endowment
fund. All of our cost or profit centers seem to be on
target for 1980, and 1981 budgets have been
prepared. We have gone to what is essentially cash
flow accounting and I am confident that this
system will enable us to improve our financial
controls.
MANUSCRIPTS AND SHAGGY DOG STORIES
Anyone wishing to submit article manuscripts,
short notes, news items, cartoons, shaggy dog
stories, letters to the editor, or other filler to THE
ACCOUNTING HISTORIANS NOTEBOOK
should send the material to the editor, Dale L.
Flesher, School of Accountancy, University of
Mississippi, University, MS 38677.
The Accounting Historians Notebook, Spring, 1981
Other events to report include the planning for
the Centenary of the American Association of
Public Accountants. Gary Previts agreed to head a
working committee which includes Art Wyatt and
Phil Pomerantz. On the publication front,
Littleton's classic work, Accounting Evolution to
1900, has been reprinted and Kohler's anthology,
edited by Cooper, Ijiri and Previts, appeared earlier
this year. Jim Gaertner has taken over the
Monograph Series from Gary Previts, who
organized it several year's ago.
We need a volunteer for a project to increase
membership. Anyone interested should contact me
or Al Roberts. Specifically, I think that if we began
to match individual memberships with
institutional (library) members we would find that
many of our own libraries are not getting The
Accounting Historians journal. For example,
neither of New York University's business school
libraries are subscribers. Does anyone have an
interest in marketing?
The Academy, thanks to its Officers; Trustees;
Journal Staff; Editors of the NOTEBOOK,
Working Paper Series, Monograph Series and
Classic Reprint Series; and to many others, is now a
"going concern." I would like to hear your ideas
and suggestions for further improvement.
Richard P. Brief
THE ACCOUNTING HISTORIANS NOTEBOOK
The Academy of Accounting Historians
Box 658
Georgia State University
University Plaza
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Editor: Dale L. Flesher
School of Accountancy
University of Mississippi
University, Mississippi 38677
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