The American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (AICPA) council has revised its membership categories
to draw a wider field of qualified people into the accounting
profession.

The AICPA’s membership will be organised
as:

  • regular/voting members – individuals with
    full membership privileges and voting rights;
  • affiliates – non-CPA relationships with
    non-voting status, including students, CPA-exam candidates and
    pre-college educators; and,
  • associates: CPA peer of professional peer
    relationships, including international professionals and non-CPA
    associates.

The council also authorised a bylaw change
permitting professionals to qualify as a voting member of the AICPA
as long as they hold a valid CPA certificate or meet the
requirements of the Uniform Accountancy Act.

A motivation for the membership shake-up is
that accountants are increasingly entering the profession in
streams other than public accounting, such as management
accountancy.

“The changes aim at maintaining the prestige
of the CPA and keeping the inflow of new members steady and
strong,” AICPA president and chief executive Barry Melancon
said.