The 13^th annual BASS golf tournament was held Friday September 30, 2016 at River Spirit Golf Club.  Thank you to the 36 professional accountants and 36 accounting students who made the tournament a success.

The annual tournament is designed so accounting students can spend a day networking with accounting professionals and learn more about working as a professional accountant.  BASS executive and members have designed the tournament to provide fun and friendly competition for players of all levels.

The tournament itself was sponsored by the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) of Alberta, the professional organization representing more than 28,000 CPAs across the province.  Representing CPA Alberta and speaking at the tournament breakfast was Farah Albert CPA, CA, CPA (IL, USA).  Sarah serves as Director Business Development at CPA Alberta.  Sarah spoke to recent and future CPA developments relating to articling pathways into the profession.  Her updates on the CPA qualifying experience requirements were well received by both students and professional accountants.  The audience was very attentive since half of Alberta articling students follow the pre-approved program route, with the other half following the experience verification route.

Gordon Turtle, Senior Vice-President, Communications at CPA Alberta spoke to tournament participants and guests at dinner.  Gordon provided a brief overview of the current priorities of CPA Alberta within the context of the evolution of the CPA designation in Alberta.  Reminding attendees that the accounting profession in Alberta was unified on July 1, 2015 Gordon stressed that any CPA candidate qualifying as a CPA after that date must brand themselves with the CPA designation following their name.  Following unification, brand value from the each of the CA, CMA and CGA designations is transferred to the CPA by members appending their relative legacy designation in the style of “CPA, CA”, “CPA, CGA”, or “CPA, CMA” after their name.  Gordon also stressed the importance of professional ethics as practiced by CPA Alberta members.  In order for CPA Alberta to continue as a self-regulated profession serving the public, maintaining high ethical standards within the profession is critical.

Many thanks to the following professional accounting organizations who supported our students in this tournament by providing professional accountant golfers and acting as hole sponsors:

• CPA Alberta*
• Critical Mass**
• BDO
• Crescent Point Energy**
• EY
• PCL Construction
• Deloitte
• Collins Barrow
• ARC Resources**
• KPMG
• Phillips 66
• MNP
• Western Energy Services**
• Gregory Harriman & Associates LLP
• JMH & Co.
• CPA Alberta
• Mount Royal University

*Event sponsor,  **Hole sponsor