Corporations need to see the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as more than just added bureaucracy—they should see it as the driving ethic in a change from greed.

Albert L. Wallace, CPA
Orange, California

First, management needs to limit the extent to which internal audit is used for “special projects” simply because it has available resources. While these projects are important, they detract from the department’s ability to execute its audit plan.

Second, in many companies the internal audit management and much of its staff are ex-employees of the outside audit firm. Overreliance on such employees is a form of “incest” to a company—it hinders the independence of the internal audit function. Companies need to improve their policies in these two areas to have a truly effective internal audit function.

Jimmie Wayne Knowles, CPA
Spicewood, Texas

Since extending our professional responsibilities can be risky to the clients we serve, the recommended resources for training in meeting facilitation should prove to be valuable tools not only for practitioners who market themselves as meeting facilitators, but for all CPAs who regularly attend and lead meetings.

In the 12 years since I founded a consulting firm focusing on families who own and manage assets together, it has become clear to me there are specific skills and knowledge relevant to working with client families, particularly when facilitating their business meetings. The best resource for awareness and training has been the Family Firm Institute (FFI) ( www.ffi.org ). FFI is a nonprofit professional membership organization that provides interdisciplinary education and networking opportunities for family-business advisers, consultants, educators and researchers. The relationships I have developed through this organization have been valuable, both professionally and personally, and I would encourage other CPAs to investigate its relevance as well.

Mark B. Rubin, CPA
Founder and Senior Consultant
Metropolitan Group LLC
Cresskill, New Jersey

Here is mine—becoming a CPA is not easy and never should be easy. I sat for the exam on a hard chair in a cattle barn on the Indiana State Fair Grounds in 1984 for 2 1/2 days without a calculator. I wanted very much to be a CPA. I knew there would be long hours in public accounting and that I would be required to spend my own time continuing to educate myself on various issues.

I do not agree with the easy way out for the exam. Our profession needs to get harder on our members to uphold our standards, not make the exam “a piece of cake” (in pieces, by the way) to pass.

Debra J. Duncan, CPA
Carmel, Indiana

Thank you for taking the appropriate steps to let readers know of this graphic misrepresentation.

Christian Paschoud
Fairhope, Alabama

To suggest that investors can be stereotyped and segregated by gender is absurd. There may be some men who don’t communicate well with females, just as there are some women who don’t communicate well with men. But a good planner or adviser, man or woman, always seeks the client’s objectives in well-thought-out communication.

Can we keep the Psychology 101 articles out of the JofA ?

O. Nelson Auer
Grandview, Missouri

At first, the suggestion made sense. But, then I asked myself, “What does being a man have to do with enjoying golf?” and “Why is there an assumption that my target market is composed of men?”

Professionally, I interact with many women who enjoy golf as much as, or more than, men. More and more women are playing golf, not only for the enjoyment of the game, but also for the significant business-networking opportunities it affords. We would be foolish not to recognize the amount of business transacted on the golf course. The historic exclusion of women from these informal business sessions has been a limiting factor in their reaching the highest echelons of the professional business world.

My issue with the article’s language may appear petty, but these supposedly “little” things add up in big ways. Bottom line—being male or female has nothing to do with someone’s interests. I would like to think our accounting profession is more enlightened and less sexist than the article implied.

Steven E. Rovner, CPA
Tampa, Florida

As a 34-year-old female CPA, I have been fortunate to have my career in a time when sexism is considered unprofessional and intolerable. Consequently, I have never felt discriminated against, and I have never had to be a feminist. I am, however, an avid golfer. So imagine my surprise when I read the statement, “For instance, if your target market is made up of men and you find out most of them like to golf, you could hold spring golf tune-ups.”
Please find out which of your editors was responsible and get them a cup of coffee so they don’t fall asleep at the wheel again.

Jennifer Postoak, CPA
San Antonio, Texas