Yesterday, I blogged about the PCAOB’s new staff publication “2025 Conversations with Audit Committee Chairs,” which presents high-level observations and takeaways from the PCAOB’s engagement with 250 audit committee chairs. The CAQ also recently released a report on the views of audit committee members, titled “Voices of the audit committee: A supplemental report,” which supplements the findings from the Audit Committee Practices Report published by the CAQ and Deloitte’s Center for Board Effectiveness.

The report “reveals strategies that can elevate meeting quality, deepen member engagement, and strengthen governance practices,” highlighting the following key takeaways:

1. Improve presentation quality: Presenters should assume members have read pre-read materials and focus on summarizing key points to allow more time for discussion. Lengthy readouts of routine communications should be avoided. Chairs can enforce time limits and manage the agenda to ensure meaningful engagement.

2. Increase member engagement: Audit committee chairs play a key role in fostering discussion by encouraging participation, briefing members beforehand, and involving them in agenda setting. Engagement tends to decline during repetitive or highly technical topics but can be improved through active chair facilitation.

3. Enhance pre-read materials:While the quality of pre-read materials is generally considered adequate, the volume can be overwhelming. Encourage executive summaries with detail in appendices, along with highlighted changes and concise formats to aid comprehension and minimize legal risks. Timely delivery—ideally about a week in advance—is important for preparation.

4. Manage meeting time: With back-to-back scheduling of board and committee meetings, they should start and end promptly, focusing on discussions and priority topics. Allowing non-committee members to attend may extend meetings but can reduce committee reports in the full board meeting.

The respondents also referenced the following topics when answering questions about meeting effectiveness:

– Better leverage of internal audit: Many ACPR respondents and interviewees see untapped potential in internal audit, with some functions still centered on operational audits. In some instances, interviewees thought there were opportunities for the internal audit organization to provide more support to the external audit.

– Address cybersecurity oversight: Cybersecurity is recognized as a critical issue, with many audit committee members pursuing relevant training. Boards rely on senior management and specialized external consultants for their specialization, rather than appointing dedicated cybersecurity experts, due to the rapidly evolving nature of the field.

– Consider emerging technologies: Oversight of artificial intelligence is becoming more prevalent, with some industries further along than others. Quantum computing has not yet been addressed by many boards or audit committees but is identified as a topic needing future education and discussion.

On a separate note, I would like to offer my congratulations to my former SEC colleague Julie Bell Lindsay, who recently stepped down from the position of CEO of CAQ. During Julie’s tenure, CAQ has been an outstanding resource for auditors, public companies and audit committees. I wish Julie all the best in her future endeavors!

– Dave Lynn