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Highlights from 11 and 12 July

23 Jul 2009

The first full meeting of the Council year is traditionally structured to allow more time for Council members to discuss ACCA's future strategy.
 
On this occasion, Council was pleased to welcome one of its most senior members in Ireland, Gary McGann (chief executive of the Smurfit Kappa Group), who set the scene for the discussion groups on strategy by giving a comprehensive presentation on emerging global economic trends and what the business environment may look like in the future.
 
In the subsequent discussion groups, Council members debated the possible impact of these trends on ACCA's future strategy. There were also discussions around what opportunities there might be emerging for ACCA and its members in the post-crisis environment.
 
Council considered a number of other issues in its plenary sessions.

• Council received a comprehensive presentation from the Helen Brand, ACCA chief executive, on the major outputs of the Fit for the Customer programme, aimed at maintaining ACCA's competitiveness within the global profession. The report also covered major strategic developments as well as providing a summary of organisational performance to date.
• It endorsed a revised proposal for choosing Council's preferred candidate for vice president. The enhanced process will see the Nominating Committee providing an indication of the attributes that it believes will be the best fit with the strategic needs of ACCA at the time, and will allow candidates the opportunity to make a presentation to Council in support of their nomination.
• Following the success of international Council meetings held in Kuala Lumpur in 2006 and Beijing in 2008, Council agreed that its June 2010 meeting should be held in Prague. It also agreed that post-meeting visits should take place to Warsaw, Kiev and Bucharest.
• Since 2007, ACCA members have been able to opt in to receive AGM papers and related notices electronically. Given the increasing numbers using this service, and ACCA's continuing commitment to developing sustainable and environmentally friendly processes, Council agreed to a change in the regulations that will see, with effect from 2010, AGM materials being distributed electronically to all members. The exception will be those who choose to receive AGM documentation in hard copy format and those (relatively few) members who have not provided ACCA with an email address.
• Council received a further paper on a new suite of technician level qualifications and gave its support to the continued development of the project.
• Council also considered, and supported, a series of actions in relation to the future of audit regulation in the UK.
• It received a presentation from Kevin Kernan, head of ACCA Ireland, on the challenges and prospects for ACCA in Ireland.