VSCPA 2030: What will our future hold?

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been five years since the VSCPA undertook a comprehensive strategic planning process. This year, the Board of Directors, with Jennifer Lehman, CPA, at the helm as chair, will guide the Society to identify its newest priorities in the VSCPA 2030 visioning process.

Managing Editor Jill

Edmonds

disclosures@vscpa.com

Disclosures is published four times a year by the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants (VSCPA). The magazine’s mission is to communicate information of value to VSCPA members, including professional issues and VSCPA initiatives. The materials and information in Disclosures are offered as material only and not as practice, financial, accounting, legal or other professional advice. Statements of fact and opinion are made by the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of VSCPA officers, members or editorial staff. Publication of an advertisement in Disclosures does not constitute a VSCPA endorsement of the product or service. Copyright © 2023 Virginia Society of CPAs.

Our previous strategic plan, VSCPA2025, was developed in 2018 to guide the accounting profession and Virginia CPAs toward a successful, vibrant future. Of course, we couldn’t know that two years later we would be challenged in completely unforeseen ways with the pandemic.

Still, the VSCPA2025 vision has served us well. We updated our mission and vision and identified four bold strategies to help you thrive: create a culture of learning, influence students to become CPAs, drive innovation and vision, and advocate for members’ interests. Two years later, we added a fifth strategy: increase the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the profession.

With those strategies as our guideposts, we’ve accomplished so many things to be proud of. To name only a few, we’ve embraced digital learning, committed ourselves to CPA pipeline solutions, successfully lobbied for rolling income tax conformity in Virginia, and become a national leader in promoting DEI in the accounting profession.

As we develop a new plan for the rest of this decade, we’ll consider the reality of today’s working world. The business environment is rapidly evolving — artificial intelligence, offshoring, and so many other factors affect how you and your organizations will succeed in the coming years.

And we want your input too! Last month we asked you in a quick poll to tell us your top pain points and vision for the future of the CPA profession. As the Board of Directors dives into the visioning process this year, we’ll use your input, as well as drivers of change like the global economy and changing market demands, to craft a useable plan that will carry us into the future.

Missed our poll? Send me your thoughts anytime to speters@vscpa.com. We can’t wait to bring you VSCPA 2030 at the end of this fiscal year! n