BAP Competitions

For deadlines and contact information please see the Competition Summary page.

Developing strategies for dealing with change
Change is inevitable. Being able to respond creatively to change is an important part of having a successful professional career and personal life. Describe how your chapter responded to an unexpected change in the chapter, college, or university or helped victims of illness, natural disaster or other misfortunes. What steps did the chapter take to respond? How did those steps benefit chapter members and others? Identify three actions other chapters could take to improve their readiness for change or to increase their ability to deal with uncertainty. For example, if you had known beforehand that a key Beta Alpha Psi officer was going to resign or fail to follow through on an assignment, how could you have planned to avoid the problem? What would you have done differently? What specific steps do you recommend other chapters take to benefit from your experience?

Best Practices in Social Networking
Social networking makes it possible for individuals and organizations to stay in touch, create a sense of community, share information, exchange ideas, and expand inclusiveness. How does your chapter use social networking or technology to share information, reach out to students or professionals who because of location or disability cannot easily attend Beta Alpha Psi meetings, stay in touch with alumni, forge relationships with students in other countries, help members learn about internship or career opportunities or otherwise achieve the chapter’s goals? How has your use of social networking benefited the chapter? What problems did your chapter encounter in expanding its use of social networking? What three recommendations or lessons learned can you share with other chapters about your experience?

Out of the Box Best Practice
Professionals often are asked to think outside the box. Yet most of us are given few opportunities to think or act outside of the box. What is a unique activity that adds value to your chapter but does not fit neatly into the standard best practices themes? How has this activity benefited your chapter? How could other chapters adapt it?

We are very excited to introduce the first Beta Alpha Psi Ethics Award, sponsored by Grant Thornton. A total of $20,000 will be awarded to up to four chapters in the amount of $5,000 each. Chapters will be awarded at the 2012 Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The purpose of the award is to help encourage ethical behavior throughout the accounting, finance and information technology professions.

An inclusive work environment that values and leverages the unique differences of a diverse team is critical for the future success of the global business community. Over ninety percent (90%) of the Fortune 500 companies have active diversity initiatives in place and most include diversity as part of its business strategy. Ernst & Young leadership fully understands the importance of an inclusive environment that values the contributions of all its people. The firm believes that a key element of effective teaming is the diversity of thought generated from team members from different backgrounds and perspectives. Highly effective leaders are those who are experienced at leading diverse teams.

Ernst & Young also believes that it is important for future leaders of the business community to have a great appreciation and understanding of how to successfully team in a diverse and inclusive environment. Accordingly, EY has initiated the “Ernst & Young LLP Diversity Award”.

BAP recognizes that many chapters often go above and beyond what is required to become a Superior Chapter. In an effort to reward these chapters, The KPMG Foundation is working with BAP to sponsor the KPMG Gold Challenge, a competition that will provide an annual monetary award to several top chapters. Eligible chapters will be required to submit a 10-minute video presentation which explains and/or demonstrates why their chapter deserves the KPMG Gold Challenge award. The winning chapters will be announced during a plenary session at the Annual BAP Conference.

“Project Run With It” is a case competition that is held during the BAP Annual Meeting. The competition brings BAP students from as many as 60 chapters together to develop solutions to real life business problems of actual not-for-profit (NFP) agencies. The NFP agencies provide background information and answer the participating students’ questions. Students, working in teams of four, have one day to develop possible solutions and present them to the organization that their team is assigned.

Beta Alpha Psi students are already “good” students. They have strong GPAs, they contribute to their communities through service, and demonstrate commitment to professional ideals and ethics. We want to encourage them to go the next level and strive to be “great.” An integral part of this encouragement is for students to hear life stories of other students who been particularly inspirational.

This year, Beta Alpha Psi and the AICPA are once again jointly sponsoring a program whereby such inspirational stories can be shared, thereby encouraging others to reach within and find the “greatness” in themselves.

Beta Alpha Psi and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have partnered to sponsor national awards for chapters participating in the VITA program.