Journal Entries

This recurring website feature highlights articles from The GASB Report, the GASB’s monthly newsletter. The current article appeared in the February 2012 issue.

Fair Value Measurement and Application Task Force Formed

GASB Chairman Robert H. Attmore recently announced the appointment of a task force to assist with the Board’s fair value measurement project. Members of the task force are:

• Pete Anthony, chief accountant and manager, King County, Washington
• Michelle Camuglia, director, New York State and Local Retirement System
• Robert Donahue, director, Municipal Bonds Group, DWS Investments
• Matt Fabian, managing director, Municipal Market Advisors
• Kathy Ketchum, senior accountant, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Office of the Controller and Accounting
• Chris Mier, managing director, Analytical Services Division, Loop Capital Markets
• Kristen Orrell, director, Transaction Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Hon. Catherine Provencher, state treasurer, state of New Hampshire
• David A. Vaudt, auditor of state, state of Iowa
• Michael G. Wolfe, partner, National Office Accounting & Auditing, BKD. 

What Do Task Forces Do?

The GASB assembles task forces for most major current and research projects. Task forces serve as a sounding board, providing suggestions and feedback to the GASB as a project progresses. Task force members review the papers the GASB staff prepares for Board meetings and monitor the Board’s deliberations, commenting as appropriate.

How Are Participants Selected?

Task forces are officially appointed by the GASB chairman after consultation with the other GASB members and the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (GASAC) chairman, and GASB staff.

Task force members typically have a particular expertise or experience with the issue being addressed in the project and also are capable of articulating the views of other, similar constituents. They can identify possible implementation difficulties, assess the potential cost of proposed standards, or opine on the usefulness of the information that will result from those standards.

Potential participants are primarily identified from the GASB’s constituent database, from the GASAC, and from the lists of persons submitting comment letters in response to proposed standards. The GASB attempts to maintain an appropriate balance of financial statement preparers, auditors, and users on each task force. In addition to identifying persons that possess relevant knowledge and experience and that are representative of various types of constituents, the GASB tries to select persons it believes will actively participate by reviewing papers and proposed standards prepared for the Board and by providing regular feedback to the project staff.