The Board considered an 'initial communications document' on the joint conceptual framework project. This document is a staff paper which will highlight to interested parties the objective and intentions of this project. The target market for this paper is the parties who normally actively participate in the standard setting process by way of formal comment. The paper will be posted on the website and distributed to subscribers. The key points of the paper include a discussion of how principle based standards tie in to concepts, the difficulty of reaching joint conclusions when underlying concepts are different, and a discussion of the elements of the frameworks. The Board agreed the paper should acknowledge the intention to grab aspects of conceptual frameworks from other national standard setters in instances where those frameworks are found to be superior, and that national standard setters will be actively involved in this project.

The Board agreed that this document should be jointly issued as a staff paper, and agreed to provide drafting amendments out of session, and consider the re-drafted paper prior to issue. It was also agreed that a more high level document, targeted at the CFO level, would be prepared by a professional business writer, and common materials would be prepared for Board members to explain the project to such audiences. The Board noted that a detailed project plan for this project is currently being prepared, and indicated an intention to discuss this plan at the February meeting.