William H. Watson, Jr. the President of the North Carolina Association of CPAs, has sent a heartfelt letter to all members of the association emphatically asking them to vote "NO" on the issue of the AICPA's proposed global business credential, recently named Strategic Business Professional (IISBP).

The letter points to what Mr. Watson feels is misleading information accompanying the AICPA ballot, due to be received this week by all of the AICPA membership. "The information you will receive with the ballot will state that 71% of the AICPA Council voted in favor of XYZ. While I can assure you that 71% of the members did vote to support the bylaw amendment, it was clear from talking to other members of council that some members thought the vote was on sending the ballot to the membership - not on support of XYZ."

Mr. Watson cites the following reasons for encouraging members to vote against the proposed global credential:

• "NCACPA’s board believes that it is inappropriate to bring non-CPAs into the credential and to give them equal standing to the CPAs pursuing the credential, a move that would essentially empower millions of non-CPAs to compete at the same level as CPAs.
• The proposed credential is in direct conflict with the CPA Vision Project that states, 'CPAs are the trusted professional advisors who enable people and organizations to shape their future.'
• NCACPA disagrees that the CPA brand cannot be stretched any further and feels that the resources needed to promote the global credential would be better spent increasing the value of the CPA brand.
• We feel strongly that student recruitment is a higher priority than the global credential and a much better use of AICPA staff resources and members’ dues dollars."

So far, eleven states have weighed in against the proposed global credential, while five have indicated they favor the credential. You can see the tally of state societies that have taken a position on the credential, and read news and information about the credential at AccountingWEB's 'XYZ' Global Credential Resource Center.