Continuing professional education.

Sue Marcum, CPA, tax manager, Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Circus, Vienna, Virginia.

More and more of our tax department members are certified, so we look for CPE that's available in a group setting. Our solution was to subscribe to the Financial Executives Institute's (FEI's) Financial Management Network video series. We get one videotaped session a month on a variety of topics including tax, accounting and management. We watch it together and each earn 4 credits per month for a total of 48 a year.

I need courses on international taxation and multistate income tax and sales tax issues because Ringling Bros.' Circus is presented in almost every state and we produce Walt Disney's World on Ice in over 30 countries and in most states. To keep current, I attend Ernst & Young's monthly roundtables on international tax topics. Last year I took a World Trade Institute seminar on Australian and Asian tax planning. Another source of CPE is the American Society of Women Accountants and American Woman's Society of CPAs annual and regional meetings and local educational seminars.

Patrice E. Elliott, CPA, fiscal officer, Caribbean Women's Health Association, Brooklyn, New York.

I generally fulfill my CPE requirement through conference mailings I get from the American Institute of CPAs or the New York State Society of CPAs. Most of the conferences I go to are geared toward nonprofit accounting. I attended the Institute's not-for-profit conference in Washington D.C., in July because it's rare that you find seminars relevant to nonprofit organizations.

For a job-related conference I get time off--it's a day of work. For an unrelated one, I take a vacation day, although in the past two years I haven't had to do too much of that since most of my CPE involves nonprofit accounting. I fill in remaining credits with self-study.

The financial assistance I get from the Caribbean Women's Health Association depends on how clearly a conference falls within the realm of the programs we offer. We are a small community-based organization--we provide outreach and education for AIDS, prenatal care and community health.

If a conference is job-related, we probably can get one of our funding sources to pay for it. Our organization is about 85% funded by the city, state and federal governments, with the balance coming from foundations and corporations. Unfortunately, it's hard to get government agencies to pay for something for which they don't see a benefit.

Lawrence M. Kean, CPA, CMA, secretary and controller, A&A Manufacturing Co., Inc., New Berlin, Wisconsin.

As A&A's chief financial officer, I focus on CPE programs that give me an overview of accounting and tax issues, management topics, computer technologies, employment law, insurance and worker-safety issues and quality improvement activities. My duties involve a wide range of business areas, including banking relations, tax planning and administration, risk management, order processing and customer service, credit, employee benefit plans, international trade and information systems.

The Wisconsin Institute of CPAs has been my primary source of formal CPE for the past few years. The organization's southeast chapter offers good conferences and seminars and has monthly meetings on various topics that provide 3 or 4 hours of credit. I also have attended the Wisconsin Institute's monthly luncheon meetings and annual conferences for CPAs who are in industry.

The Illinois Society of CPAs offers two annual three-day conferences that earn 10 or 15 credits each--the Midwest Computer Show, which focuses on information systems, and the Accounting and Business Management Show. I also attend some of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce monthly seminars for manufacturers and the service industry on the quality improvement process and customer satisfaction. In addition, although I don't do it for credit, I read extensively--mostly accounting-related journals and business periodicals and books.

The company supports my and others' CPE activities. A&A recognizes its employees must expand their knowledge and skills constantly to help the organization improve its competitiveness and meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. I make the time I need to attend CPE programs and my company pays all the costs involved. Because I am located in a major metropolitan area with some excellent CPE providers, I usually can find helpful, convenient and very affordable programs nearby.

Karen L. Hooks, CPA, PhD, professor, School of Accountancy, University of South Florida, Tampa.

I have three sources of CPE credits: teaching, attending conferences cosponsored by my university and participating in other organizations' symposiums and conferences.

At USF I get credit for CPE when I teach a new course or include new material in an existing course if the subject qualifies for CPE with the Florida Board of Accountancy. For example, when I teach a new advanced auditing course or include material on new attestation or auditing standards, I receive CPE credit for twice the number of classroom contact hours.

I attend the conferences USF cosponsors at no cost such as those cosponsored with the school's chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, the honorary accounting fraternity; the local chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants; the Florida Institute of CPAs; and our Accounting Circle, a group of business professionals in the Tampa Bay area who serve as the advisory council for the School of Accountancy.

I also attend symposiums and conferences sponsored by accounting firms or organizations on nontechnical, professional issues. For example, I've just come back from a symposium on accounting ethics cosponsored by Ernst & Young and the Center for Ethics and Business at the School of Management of the State University of New York (SUNY) in Binghamton; I also attended a seminar on professionalism and ethics sponsored by the American Accounting Association. These were held consecutively at SUNY, so I was able to go to both on one trip.

USF is supportive of my CPE activities and understands that both technical and behavioral subjects are relevant to my work. Either the registration fee is waived for faculty, if USF is a cosponsor, or the university pays for my registration; it also pays for travel costs. I generally don't have to take time from my classes since the conferences usually are not scheduled during class time.

Gaylen N. Larson, CPA, principal, Coopers & Lybrand, Chicago.

Although I recently rejoined the public accounting profession, I spent a significant portion of my career in industry. As a senior financial officer of Household International, I maintained my license as a CPA even though meeting the related CPE requirements seemed irrelevant to my position. Unfortunately, most CPAs in industry have little reason to maintain their licenses.

Of course, the need for CPE--whether you're a public practitioner or an industry accountant--does not cease. Although there are many opportunities to obtain CPE, many of the most relevant offerings don't qualify for credit. This probably is because many in the target audience for such programs either are not CPAs or are CPAs who don't need the credit. I was fortunate: It was not hard for me to accumulate CPE credits because I have been very active professionally. But that isn't true for many of my CPA associates. For one thing, it's difficult to justify expenditure of time or money when the result does not clearly add value--from the employer's point of view. At Household, we helped solve this problem by having in-house training courses for CPE credit. Our internal courses not only were relevant to our jobs but also were of excellent quality.

Even when industry CPAs find a way to continue to meet CPE requirements, though, one wonders why they should. Very few of them ever return to public accounting.

As chairman of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission, I can think of at least one good reason to maintain professional qualifications after joining industry. When members in industry sign management reports to shareholders, Securities and Exchange Commission filings or other important communications as CPAs, the designation could add value to the communications. If using the CPA designation increases investor confidence in the quality of management reports and internal controls underlying them, we may be sending the business community an important message that will not only raise the value of the profession in general but also increase its value to industry.

I hope to pursue these important issues further when I begin my term this fall as a member of the AICPA board of directors.

Ramona Henderson Pearson, CPA, auditor general, Wayne County Government, Detroit.

My job responsibilities have increased, so my ability to find time for seminars away has declined. Audiotapes are very convenient for me. I listen to them on my way to and from my job as well as on my way to meetings. I also use self-study courses for nonaccounting and nonaudit topics that interest me such as strategic planning and personal financial planning.

State CPA society seminars are affordable, but national accounting organizations' seminars are not so affordable. However, what they both have in common is group interaction. I tend to stick with accounting and auditing topics for this source of CPE. I like the advantage of bouncing live, work-related issues off others, and many business problems often can be solved in a group-study environment.

Teaching is near and dear to me, so the opportunity to earn CPE while teaching accounting and auditing subjects is a double-win situation.

Because I work for a government, and because budget constraints have been an issue over the past several years, my participation in in-house seminars has increased. We have used material prepared in-house as well as video course materials from the AICPA and IIA.

J. Robert Arthur, CPA, director of tax, systems and planning, Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

I prefer the seminar approach to CPE. What I learn from a seminar comes from the audience as much as from the speaker. That's why I do less self-study work; with self-study, I can get only my view and the view of the presenter, whether it be on videotape or on paper.

The Johnson & Johnson finance department offers an accounting and auditing CPE program that allows employees to review videotapes once a month. Someone usually acts as a discussion leader, or sometimes a speaker will be brought in to augment what is reviewed on the videotape.

I also go to courses and seminars sponsored by the Tax Executives Institue, World Trade, George Washington University and the AICPA. For example, every December GWU and the Internal Revenue Service sponsor a two-day seminar that has government speakers as well as practitioners on the panel, resulting in a very interesting dialogue.

Since my field is taxes, I spend a lot of time reading new regulations and I prefer to use the outside courses to keep current on subjects that I otherwise may not have read.