Continuing the spirit of profession-wide involvement, the National Future Forum, in January 1998, was an unprecedented gathering of 57 delegate members of the CPA profession who came from all states and 3 jurisdictions.

The Top Fives (values, services, competencies and issues) were presented at the National Future Forum as the foundation for the drafting of the Core Purpose and Vision Statement. The delegates performed implications studies on each of the Top Five core values, core services, core competencies, and issues in terms of desirability vs. risk and their impact on CPAs working in industry, government, education, and public practice.

The implications studies were performed using a method known as The Implications Wheelª designed by Joel Barker. The Implications Wheelª employs a graphic structure combined with a nonlinear thinking process for groups to strategically explore, identify, and evaluate possible implications.

Delegates worked in teams to create drafts of the Core Purpose and Vision Statement. Alternative drafts were discussed and evaluated by the full assembly of delegates. Further implications studies were performed to investigate the impact of the Core Purpose and Vision Statement upon each segment of the profession. Following this, delegates identified ways to improve the likelihood of positive implications and build barriers to negative implications.