OXFORD, Miss. – Two University of Mississippi accountancy professors
are preparing to see the fruits of their labor after months of work as
program co-chairs for the American Accounting Association’s annual
meeting, scheduled Aug. 3-6 in Anaheim, Calif.
Dale Flesher and Tonya Flesher, husband and wife and longtime faculty
members in the Patterson School of Accountancy, have juggled more than
1,400 professional papers and panel-session proposals submitted for
possible presentation. Expected to attract 3,000 accounting
professionals from around the world, the meeting promises to be the
largest attendance in the organization’s 92-year history.
The association’s president Gary Previts, of Case Western Reserve University, praised the Fleshers for their work.
“Dale and Tonya Flesher have orchestrated and coordinated the single most important annual event in terms of our discipline,” Previts said. “They have had to interact with scores of people from around the world, screen hundreds of submissions and plan a program on numerous topics that will appeal to different nationalities. It’s a terrible responsibility, and they have done a magnificent job.”
The program features some 900 presentations, many of which have two or three co-authors. Besides plenary sessions for the entire assemblage, several mini-plenary sessions for groups of about 1,000 are planned. The remainder of the program each day consists of around 45 concurrent sessions held in 90-minute presentation periods.
An undertaking of this magnitude by the two faculty members provides great opportunity for UM’s accountancy school, Dean Mark Wilder said. “Having two of our faculty members co-chairing the AAA annual conference further enhances the Patterson School of Accountancy’s position as a leading research group. The visibility this provides is huge.”
Putting together a successful conference for accountants is difficult because of the broad topical coverage of the field, said Tonya Flesher, Authur Andersen Professor of Accountancy.
“Some people specialize in taxation, while others conduct audits and prepare financial reports, and still others emphasize the managerial uses of accounting or are concerned with governmental accounting,” she said. “A successful conference has to consider all of these interests. And since it is an international conference, there has to be something for the Chinese, Japanese, Scandinavians, Australians and every other nationality.”
While the work has been intense and time-consuming, the rewards have been great, said Dale Flesher, associate dean, professor and Arthur Andersen Alumni Lecturer.
“Working together with the leading accountancy thinkers in the world is a joy,” he said. “We have communicated with leaders of the major CPA firms, large corporations, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Government Accountability Office, various accountancy professional groups and other organizations to be sure that the most up-to-date regulations and pronouncements are incorporated into the meeting program.”
The Fleshers have been at UM for 31 years. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ball State University, and his doctorate is from the University of Cincinnati. She holds a bachelor’s from Ball State, master’s from Appalachian State University and doctorate from Ole Miss. Formerly dean of the School of Accountancy, she was the first woman to be appointed to a deanship at the university.
To learn more about the American Accounting Association, visit http://aaahq.org/ . For more information on the UM School of Accountancy, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/ .