The AICPA honored R. Glen Berryman with its Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award in recognition of his excellence in teaching and his national prominence in the accounting profession.

Berryman, CPA, CIA, taught at the University of Minnesota for 37 years, serving as chairman of the accounting department for 10. He retired in 1995 and is currently professor emeritus of accounting at the university.

During the last three decades, Berryman was active in a broad range of professional groups. His contributions to accounting organizations included service as a member of the Institute’s board of examiners, a member (1979-82) and chairman (1982-83) of the AICPA accounting theory subcommittee and chairman of NASBA’s CPA examination review board. He was also active in the Minnesota state society and state board of accountancy.

Berryman earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University and received a doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1958.

The Institute’s internal audit and quality assurance staff won top honors this summer for a unique software application in the second annual ACL User Challenge. The international competition recognizes innovative applications of ACL’s audit and data-analysis software.

The AICPA group developed a fully automated decision support system that permits the organization to continuously monitor and analyze data from more than 20 databases.

ACL LTD., a privately held company based in Vancouver, Canada, is an international audit software and technology company.

The AICPA board of directors approved a restructuring of the Institute’s volunteer committees, adopting, in their place, a new task-force-based model.

As a result of the changes, about 50 committees will not continue in their current form. However, the Institute will review their in-progress initiatives and continue important projects using the task-force approach. This approach relies on project-oriented member groups, which can be appointed to achieve a result and then disbanded.

Standing committees will remain under the new structure. Those committees will support four specific functions: bylaw-required committee operations, strategic initiatives, quality assurance and public-protection functions and member benefits/coordination matters. Also, specialized market-segment panels will be set up to handle specific technical issues.

In addition to the new task forces, standing committees and market-segment panels, a cross-functional group of members from various segments of the profession will be established. This new group will be responsible for identifying emerging issues and for capturing the most significant marketplace concepts. Those issues identified will be quickly and effectively transformed, by yet another group comprising volunteer leadership and AICPA senior management and staff, into opportunities for generating member benefits.

The AICPA board based its decision to move to the new model on extensive research that included a committee on committee operations pilot study involving three separate committees. The new structure will increase the Institute’s ability to keep pace with rapid changes taking place in the profession and the marketplace.

The Institute has developed a new training package, Meeting the Media: A Guide to Working Effectively With Reporters, to assist members in creating successful media relations campaigns. The package, which consists of a 32-minute video and a 22-page booklet, offers guidance on such topics as shaping a message, responding to confrontational questions and establishing relationships with both electronic and print journalists.

Meeting the Media (product no. 890931JA) is available for $15 to members and $18 to nonmembers. To order, call the AICPA at 1-888-777-7077.