“We are happy to report that on January 31, 2010, the ASA Board of Governors voted overwhelmingly to reject a merger with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS),” writes John Barton, Chair of the ASA BV Committee, in the group’s weekly E-Alert (Feb. 17, 2010). Over the past year, ASA leaders have considered several alternative strategic directions, including a proposal by which RICS, a U.K.-based surveying and real property professional society, would acquire the ASA. “[Although] such a merger may have had some benefits for a small minority of ASA members, it offered no benefit for a majority of our members,” Barton says. “Hence, we feel that the Board’s decision was a major positive for the Business Valuation Discipline and the ASA.”

One step for the ASA—a larger leap toward professional unity? The Board also renewed its commitment to the “long-term coordination of appraisal organizations leading to a unified voice.”  In March, it will vote on the proposed initiative with the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators (CICBV) (see BVWire# 81-4). “Under the proposal, the CICBV and ASA would create an international business curriculum in Valuation Principles and IFRS 3 [Business Combinations] to be offered first in the European market, but soon throughout Asia, Australia, Central and South America,” Barton explains. “The ASA and CICBV hope to project our combined intellectual capital into these markets through the formation of an umbrella organization of societies, the International Institute of Business Valuators (IIBV)…As valuation societies form around the world, they will be invited to participate with us in the IIBV.”