While it has been hinted at extensively over the past two years in various speeches by various AAA leader types, at the 2014 AAA Annual Meeting the vision for the future of the AAA in concrete terms was finally spelt out.  And it is intriguing. 

As I understand it the AAA would be organized around four themes, centers or “product lines.”  They are:
The production of knowledge – research;
The transmission of knowledge and skills – teaching;
The interface with the accounting profession broadly conceived – professional focus;
The interface with public policy and thought leadership based on accounting expertise – what they are calling the “public interest”.

While no doubt the devil is in the details, it seems like a reasonable approach on the surface.  Sort of a revised four pillars approach.  It will be interesting to see how it evolves over the next two years leading up to the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the forerunner of the AAA – the American Association of University Teachers of Accounting (I probably have that wrong but it is close).