Committee on Long-Range Objectives;

              The Committee
on Long-Range
Objectives
Robert M. Trueblood, Chairman
— Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart
Norton M. Bedford
— University of llliy\ois
Malcolm M. Devore
— Haskins & Sells
Clifford V. Heimbucher
Farquhar & Heimbucher
David F. Linowes
— SD. Leidesdorf & Co.
1.HE LONG RANGE planning which we endorse as a first
essential for business has not been lacking in our own
profession. For seven years, the AICPA's Committee on
Long-Range Objectives has studied the basic concepts
and trends that will influence the future of the profession.
They are now engaged in a two-year study of where the
accounting profession would like to be in 1975 and what
it will take to get there.
The Committee was created in 1956 by Marquis G.
Eaton, then president of the Institute. He was convinced
that the concept of planning and control, which had made
so much headway in business corporations in the previous
decade, was even more essential in the operation of a
non-profit, professional association than in a business
entity. There was no framework to deal with specific,
immediate problems. Allocation of resources or assign­ment
of priorities among projects was difficult without
general agreement on the end results desired. In a demo­cratic
membership organization rapid turnover of officers
and committees is characteristic, and objectives should be
stated clearly. Mr. Eaton concluded that what the Insti­tute
did today would have significant bearing on where
the accounting profession might find itself in ten, fifteen,
or twenty years.
From the beginning, the committee was composed of
thoughtful, studious, and articulate men who had occu­pied
leading positions in the profession—men of broad
experience and seasoned judgment, known to be objective
and skeptical of their own opinions.
The impact of the committee's work has been tremen­dous.
It has stimulated considerable and serious thought
on the philosophical problems of the profession. It has had
an immediate influence beyond all expectation on Insti­tute
policy and activity. For several years the agenda of
Council meetings have included major items arising out
of the work of the Committee on Long-Range Objectives.
A number of Institute programs now under way are the
direct result of the committee's recommendations.
Members of the Committee have set forth and published
articles giving their views on a variety of subjects and
problems now being studied. Much of this material has
been collected in a book edited by John L. Carey (Execu­tive
Director of the Institute) entitled "The Accounting
Profession: Where is it headed?"
When the work of the Long-Range Objectives Commit­tee
is completed, it will provide a framework for the
Institute to follow in redesigning its programs and projects
into an integrated, consistent pattern that will facilitate
achievement of the objectives with maximum speed, effi­ciency,
and economy.
18 THE QUARTERLY