Publications
The ALGA Peer Review Brochure, which provides a brief overview of the peer review process, was updated to reflect current program information and revised administrative procedures. A pamphlet titled "What Small Shops Should Know About Passing A ALGA Peer Review" was also published. While this document was designed to address concerns expressed by small shops about perceived barriers to peer review, it contains information and guidance pertinent to shops of any size. A special thanks is due to Debbie Taylor, County Auditor of Jackson County, Oregon, and Susan Reed, County Auditor of Missoula County, Montana, both small shop auditors, for their efforts on this document. Both of these publications were distributed to all attendees at the Annual Conference in Lake Tahoe. In the short term, if you would like to obtain a copy of either of these documents, please contact Member Services. A current Committee project is to expand the availability of ALGA peer review publications and information on ALGA's web site.

Conference Activities
After a successful session last year in Long Beach, the Committee again conducted a full day pre-conference workshop on the ALGA peer review program. Mike Edmonds, Supervising Auditor in San Jose, California and myself, instructed the workshop. It appears that the peer review workshop will continue to be an annual event. A breakout session titled "Achieving Compliance with GAGAS in a Small Shop" was also offered at the conference to expand on the information included in the small shop pamphlet discussed above. Debbie Taylor, Susan Reed and Mike Taylor, City Auditor of Stockton, California, each gave presentations during the session and shared their perspectives and experiences with small shop peer review. Additionally, all ALGA members in attendance at the conference that so generously participated in our peer review program were recognized at a luncheon.

Yellow Book Revisions
The Peer Review Committee provided comments on GAO's exposure draft of revisions to government auditing standards to ALGA's Professional Issues Committee, which was responsible for coordinating and developing ALGA's response to GAO. The Peer Review Committee is currently planning for the peer review program changes that will be necessary to accommodate these Yellow Book revisions as well as the new Independence Standard issued by the GAO in January 2002.

Committee Organization
The Peer Review Committee implemented a Board directive to all committees to formally establish optimal committee sizes, composition and service terms. In doing so the Peer Review Committee recruited and integrated five new members including all four Region Coordinators. The peer review regions were also reorganized in order to balance the peer review workloads. You can find the current Peer Review Committee roster and the new region designations on the Peer Review Committee page.