A major issue for CPAs in the late 1970s was how to protect the interests and reputation of the smaller local accounting firm (with 1-10 employees) in terms of competing with the well-known and powerful ‘Big 8’—referring to the top public accounting firms of the day. At the time, the AICPA was a champion of the Big 8 and had divided its membership into 2 categories: firms whose clients were publicly traded and all others. The medium-sized firms felt threatened and put to the side; and smaller firms virtually had no voice. There was no competition, no other independent accounting association to serve the needs of the independent CPA. In 1978, NCCPAP was formed to address this gap. One of the first issues NCCPAP took on was to stop the employment ads in the New York area which stated that ‘Big 8 experience’ was a requirement. According to Peter, “We opposed this because, as smaller firms, we are also fully qualified CPAs, subject to all the same requirements and training.” Eli Mason, NCCPAP’s founder, took on this issue and won. Peter continues,
“We were renegades and decided to do something for ourselves. NCCPAP representatives went to Washington, D.C. and Albany, NY to represent themselves. Then others in the Mid-Atlantic region heard about us and began to establish their own chapters; NCCPAP became national.”
Peter and the other charter members found that recruiting new members was fairly easy because they knew so many other small CPA firms and networked regularly. Peter feels that he now wants the younger generation to run things, even though he is proud of his accomplishments and role in growing what is now the Nassau/Suffolk Chapter on Long Island, New York.
From Peter’s perspective, the accounting field is constantly changing. “The way we practice now is so different than 20 years ago—it’s now very specialized. Unfortunately, the colleges still grade themselves on the number of people who get placed in the larger firms—that’s wrong. The CPA career path offers a tremendous opportunity, but different than the larger firms. I always wanted to be my own boss. I never wanted to work in someone else’s company. I like to be near the action.”
Peter Ciccone, CPA, still practices his profession as partner in his own firm in Ronkonkoma, New York.