New Partners: Hector R. Anton, Raymond N. Foust;

              While almost everyone agrees that more stress should be
placed on communications skills, no really practical method
has yet been found to incorporate an evaluation of
communications skills in the CPA exam system.
If there are complaints that the AICPA moves too slowly on one
hand, there also are those who insist that it tries to change
policy and procedures too rapidly. The truth, as one might
expect, lies somewhere in the middle. In 1963, the AICPA and
the Carnegie Corporation of New York jointly financed a study
commission charged with fixing and determining the common
body of knowledge required of all practicing CPAs.
The group was headed by Elmer G. Beamer, at that time H&S
partner in charge of the Cleveland office. (Mr. Beamer
retired in June 1972.} The subsequent report, published in
1967 under the title "Horizons for a Profession," not only
triggered major revisions in education and experience
policies adopted by the AICPA, but continues today as a goal
and ideal toward which the profession is working.
I f history lends perspective to the present, can it also be
helpful in projecting what the future may bring?
Today's CPA exam is far more complex than in the past,
reflecting the growing complexity of our society, of business
and the regulations governing it and of the very function of
the CPA. This process can be expected to continue, perhaps
even to accelerate, and the CPA candidate sitting down to
take the 1980 exam may find himself faced
with questions undreamed of today.
The day may also come when the accounting student will work
toward his CPA, and the CPA will study for a "specialist"
certificate, much as a medical student works first for his M.D.
and then may continue on toward a recognized specialty.
The nature of business in the years ahead may demand the
skills not only of the CPA as we know him today, but also of
CPAs who have received considerable advanced training
in specialties such as taxes, law, management advisory
services or data processing. Such specialists already
represent a vital segment of the profession. All that would
be required would be establishment of minimum training and
educational requirements and formal recognition of these
specialties by the profession.
This ever-increasing complexity of life may also require that
tomorrow's CPA continue his education after he is certified.
Twelve states now insist that a minimum number of seminar
hours or college credits be taken by practicing CPAs if
they want to remain certified. It is quite probable that
continuing education requirements may eventually become the
rule rather than the exception.
The CPA examination is not simply a group of questions
designed to test an individual's familiarity with a common
body of knowledge. It also is intended to ensure that every
CPA possesses certain basic working skills and techniques.
Even more important, perhaps, is its challenging of CPA
candidates to measure their awareness of how outside
developments are affecting their chosen profession, to fix
their ability to grasp key concepts and apply them to
specific problems and, in the final analysis, to decide
whether a given individual has the mental capacity and
maturity to qualify as a certified public accountant.
The CPA exam tests far more than a candidate's memory
of what he was taught in school. Anyone who has qualified
has good reason to wear his title with pride. •
new partners
"Each year as we select new people for positions of leadership
in Haskins & Sells, I am impressed at the same time both with
the consistency and the diversity among the group....
There is a high degree of consistency in the qualities of
competence, dedication and vigor that they bring to their new
responsibilities. On the other hand, there is considerable
diversity among them in terms of background,
personality and even age'.'
So begins the statement by Michael N. Chetkovich,
H&S managing partner, in the 1973 New Partners and
New Managers announcement. Two of the men elected to
partnership in June 19" 73 come to H&S from distinguished
careers elsewhere and illustrate most clearly this diversity
of background and personality coupled with consistency in
terms of competence, dedication and vigor. On this page then,
special H&S Reports profiles of Hector R. Anton
and Raymond N. Foust, new partners of our Firm.
Hector.R. Anton Raymond N. Foust