Our first meeting for the 2002-2003 year was held during one of the worst storms our area has had in a while. As a Nor’easter descended upon Fairfield County, hearty meeting attendees braved the weather to hear about one of the hottest topics in the news today, financial reporting.

With the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) serving as the setting for our meeting, we were honored to have Robert Herz, chairman of FASB, address our group on October 16. Mr. Herz not only spoke about current events, he also explained how companies are expected to report their financials, and what it means when a company “restates” a financial report (companies restate a report to correct accounting errors, usually the incorrect reporting of revenues). He also discussed the importance of FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) working together to create standards for both US and International financial reporting, to “produce high-quality reporting standards worldwide, to support healthy global capital markets”. 

During this tumultuous time, the information professionals at FASB were faced with a new challenge: Monitoring and reporting relevant news and legislative events on a daily basis. Miriam Solomon, an Assistant Librarian at FASB, took us through an example of how their library approached this challenge, and provided a daily alert to senior management. Miriam and her team scoured government websites and subscription services to track changes in legislation, retrieve hearing transcripts, and locate reports. They collected any and all information including dates of committee meetings, topics discussed, and witnesses called to testify. They also had the staggering job of tracking and reporting articles that appeared in the press. Miriam and her team came through, and provided timely alerts that contained all of the pertinent information needed by senior management. Not a surprise from this seasoned Information Professional!

This meeting attracted several non-members from the financial and law departments of many area companies. Susan Edmands, who brought her husband, said “all of my husband’s questions were answered during Mr. Herz’s talk” Another non-member attendee said it was a great opportunity to hear from the experts in the field. 

 

Thanks to everyone who braved the weather, and a special thanks to Factiva for sponsoring this dinner meeting. What a great way to start our year!