Suitgate

For the bespoke suit competition, we have changed the prize to a MacBook Air. We are really sorry about our mistake. http://t.co/LCeG5oY4YG

— ICAEW (@ICAEW) January 20, 2015

The Emperor's New Clothes

As loyal readers know, I have often likened the ICAEW to a Victorian trading association (given its overpopulated council and the absurdly out of date rules for standing for election to council etc).

Yesterday the ICAEW and its member subsidised media organ economia managed to raise the bar on "Victoriana", with regard to a prize offered for completing a survey about the economia app.

The prize in question was a bespoke suit (up to the value of £1K) crafted by a London based tailors. So far so good, except that as Elaine Clark (British Accountancy Awards winner 2014) pointed out the tailors only make suits for men!

Errm, does the ICAEW not realise there are women accountants?

When Elaine raised the issue on Facebook and Twitter with economia/ICAEW, she was told that the tailors would make a suit for a woman (except that when she called the tailors, they said they don't make women's suits).

Economia then dug itself further into the hole of its own creation by calling Elaine, and asking her to remove her comments from Twitter etc.

I dare say some face saving amendment to the prize rules will now be made. However, the damage is done.

Once a brand is damaged it is very hard to undo that damage. The ICAEW should have learned that lesson a few years ago, when they tried to merge with Cipfa!

ICAEW Resorts To Cold Calling

I see that the ICAEW, despite still bearing an uncanny resemblance to a Victorian trade association, has picked up one of the more irritating "innovations" of the modern world; namely, it has resorted to cold calling.

This morning I received an unsolicited call from someone representing the ICAEW, who tried to sell me a faculty membership. A similar attempt, to sell and Excel course, was made in 2013.

Needless to say I put the phone down!

Be warned, the person said that the ICAEW was calling ALL members, as Della Hudson and Gary McCombe can attest to!

“@ken_frost: ICAEW News: ICAEW Resorts To Cold Calling http://t.co/yQABlwXrTF”I received same call @ICAEW #fail
— Della Hudson (@Hudsonaccountan) September 10, 2014

@cheapaccounting @Hudsonaccountan @ken_frost @ICAEW @economiamag @Goonerreed I had one of those - despite being a faculty member!

— Gary McCombe (@GaryMcC) September 10, 2014

Welcome Mr President

Welcome to Arthur Bailey new president of the ICAEW.

Can Accountants Be Trusted? - Misleading Debate

Economia has a rather misleading headline wrt a debate between Mark Spofforth, partner, Spofforths, and former ICAEW president and Ian Fraser, financial journalist and author of Shredded: The Rise and Fall of RBS.

The debate entitled "Can accountants be trusted?", aside from degenerating into a seemingly ill tempered slanging match, actually centres around the activities of large accounting/auditing firms rather than the activities and ethics of accountants per se.

A far more appropriate headline would have been "Can large firms be trusted?"

Next time economia might consider using the services of an invigilator in order to keep the debaters on topic, and calm.

Top 50 Most Influential On Social Media

The ICAEW is seeking nominations for the top 50 most influential people in finance on social media.:

"We want to gather the top 50 most influential names in finance on social media. Get voting now using the hashtag #economia50"

Congratulations to Liz Rylatt

Congratulations to Liz Rylatt (an ICAEW member) who will join the ICAEW as its finance director in January 2014 from the BBC.

AccountancyAge points out that the original advert for the job specified that candidates must be ICAEW qualified chartered accountants.

Are we to assume the any merger plans with non chartered bodies are well and truly on ice now?;)

Cold Calling

Why is did the ICAEW cold call me today to try to sell me an excel course?

Are membership fees now destined to finance the cost of cold calling members?

Advanced Stage Exam Results

The results of the ICAEW July 2013 Advanced Stage examinations were published by the ICAEW on Friday 30 August 2013.

In summary  the results were:

Paper	Entry	Pass Rate %
Business Reporting	2,472	78.7
Business Change	2,380	83.9
Case Study	2,116	75.4

Congratulations to those who passed, and commiserations to those who didn't.

Results of Bungled Elections

In May this year the ICAEW bungled the elections to council, and were forced to re-run the elections in S Essex, London, Manchester and N-W England.

The results of the re-run of the London elections can be seen via this link.