The Peer Review Committee is undergoing significant changes and is working on several important projects. Following is an update on the Committee's changes and projects.

Region Coordinators: 4-year terms, staggered.
Chair: 2-year term, selected from Coordinators.
At-Large Members: 2-year terms.

The Board recognizes that the Peer Review Committee oversees a technical program. While the Committee will endeavor to follow the above term limits, exceptions may be made, with Board approval, to help maintain the knowledge base needed to keep the program operating effectively.

New Committee Members
Shortly after our conference last June, two new Region Coordinators were added to the Peer Review Committee. Alan Ash, City Auditor of Gainesville, Florida, replaced Richard Wallace as the Southeast Region Coordinator. Mike Edmonds, Supervising Auditor in the City of San Jose, California, replaced Doug Norman as the West Region Coordinator. In addition, Bill Greene, Deputy City Auditor of Phoenix, Arizona, was appointed as an at-large member of the Committee in February 2002.

Doug Norman will continue to serve as Committee Chair until the conference in Lake Tahoe, at which time he will begin serving as an at-large member. Jim Williamson, Assistant City Auditor of Oklahoma City, will replace Doug as Committee Chair. To help our implementation of the Board-directed term limits, Richard Wallace and Deborah Taylor have agreed to move off the Committee in May. Richard, a Principal Auditor in Jacksonville, Florida, has served as the Southeast Region Coordinator since the Committee's inception in 1990. He has served as an at-large member this past year. Deborah, County Auditor of Jackson County, Oregon, has served as an at-large member since 1997.

In addition, David Jones, Deputy City Auditor in Seattle, Washington, resigned as an at-large member last August after serving on the Committee for three years. ALGA wishes to express its appreciation to Richard, Deborah, and David for their dedicated service on the Committee. We also appreciate the willingness of Alan Ash, Mike Edmonds, Jim Williamson, and Bill Greene to assume responsible positions on the Committee.

New Regions Effective May 2002
Due to an imbalance in the number of peer reviews conducted in ALGA's five regions, the Committee will be reorganizing the regions in May. Look for the changes in the June Quarterly and at the ALGA web site.

Peer Review Training in Lake Tahoe
Due to the popularity of our peer review training course in Long Beach, we will be offering the course again this coming May in Lake Tahoe. The course will be taught on Sunday, May 12, the day preceding conference. We will accommodate as many registrants as possible, but please sign-up as early as possible to secure a spot.

Small Shop Guide
Deborah Taylor and Susan Reed, County Auditor of Missoula County, Montana, have been working with the Committee and Board on a guide intended to help small audit shops meet Yellow Book standards and pass a ALGA peer review. The guide will be available for distribution at the conference in Lake Tahoe. In addition, Deborah and Susan will lead a breakout session at conference to discuss the contents of the guide. Auditors from small shops with an interest in peer review are encouraged to attend.

New Independence Standard
The U.S. General Accounting Office released a new Independence Standard on January 25, 2002. The Committee will be incorporating this new standard in peer reviews conducted in the future. In addition, an exposure draft of a new revision of the Yellow Book will be released in the near future. Once the Yellow Book has been formally revised, the Peer Review Committee will have a major project on its hands - revising the checklists and making improvements in the Quality Control Review Guide issued in 1995.