Dear ACUA Friends and Colleagues,
 

As we begin the New Year, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on ACUA’s Strategic Goals. ACUA will:

ACUA has several committees dedicated to helping achieve its strategic objectives. I would like to highlight three of ACUA’s Committees in this article; the Professional Education Committee, the Standards and Best Practices Committee and the Communications Committee.

Since the Professional Education Committee (PEC) is one of the largest committees, I will start there. The PEC is primarily focused on Goal #1, professional knowledge exchange and education content. This is the committee that organizes the Annual and Midyear Conferences including schedules, classes offered, securing the speakers, coordinating the networking opportunities, and so on. The PEC also provides the webinar opportunities recognizing that is a valuable benefit that is often maximized for members who are unable to attend conferences or other training that requires travel. I am sure you will all agree that the bar has really been raised the last couple of years with the webinar offerings!
 

The PEC also manages the ACUA Faculty program. Our ACUA Faculty members provide a great service as speakers during ACUA conferences and with outreach to raise awareness of internal auditing and recognition of ACUA as a leading expert in internal auditing. Our PEC Committee is chaired by Nicole Pittman and includes Monica Moyer (Annual Conference Director), Will Hancock (Midyear Conference Director), Jana Clark (Distance Learning Director), and Deb Dahlke (ACUA Faculty Director).

The Standards and Best Practices Committee, chaired by Brian Mikell, is busy providing the latest tools and trends in our profession. Auditing and Accounting Principles Director, James Ponce, leads a team that looks at new exposure drafts of professional standards and frameworks that guide our work. Leigh Goller is ACUA’s Liaison to NACUBO providing insight and internal audit perspective and Heather Lopez is the new Director of Best Practices leading the development of whitepapers on important topics effecting all our institutions.

The Standards and Best Practices Committee also includes the Risk Dictionary tool being led by Dick Dawson and Kim Turner. The Risk Dictionary is undergoing lots of updates and expanding its scope particularly for IT and medical risks. The committee is looking for volunteers to assist with this effort. If you are wanting to get involved, you won’t want to miss this opportunity which can be found on the front page of ACUA’s website!

Last but not least, the Communications Committee has so much going on that I get tired just thinking about it! ACUA has been consistently publishing its journal for the last couple of years,the Committee has established a presence in social media and spent numerous hours updating the ACUA website. If that’s not enough, they are implementing Connect-ACUA, ACUA’s new online community.
 
We are very excited about Connect-ACUA and the flexibility it provides in delivering member communications and networking in multiple ways. Connect-ACUA gives the option of using the tool like a listserv or a web-based community or both with a better response time. There will be more to come on when Connect-ACUA will be launched.

Don’t forget to register for the upcoming Midyear Conference being held in Austin, Texas, March 26-29. The Midyear has 7 tracks to choose from, 3 of the tracks are new this year. This conference will be a great learning and networking opportunity that you won’t want to miss!
As you can see, ACUA Committees are very busy working on those important strategic objectives that make ACUA a valuable and important resource for its members. I am truly privileged to be working alongside such a professional and giving group of people.

All the Best,
Pam
 

Pamela Doran CIA, CISA, CPA ACUA President
Executive Director, Audit & Advisory Services
University of South Carolina