Looking for more expertise among our membership in a pivotal year for XBRL.

Guest blogger Michelle Savage – Chair of the XBRL-US Adoption Working Group - writes an open letter to the membership of the XBRL community world wide.

This promises to be an exciting year for XBRL and the consortium; with the SEC Voluntary Filing Program kicking off earlier this year and the FFIEC global repository database becoming a reality in October, we are at a real turning point in the adoption of XBRL as a financial reporting platform. The work of the consortium to date has been instrumental in moving us closer to our goal of making XBRL the de facto standard for financial and business reporting.

But there is still much to be done and we need more input and more expertise from our membership. This is your opportunity to influence the growth of XBRL as a reporting standard and we need your help.

The mission of the XBRL-U.S. Adoption Working Group in 2006 will be to facilitate the adoption of external and internal reporting in XBRL, continue building awareness among regulators, the analyst community, public companies, software vendors and the government sector, and actively engage outside organizations that can help influence the adoption of XBRL. We have already taken the step of establishing a new position to focus on engaging more government agencies in XBRL. Leanne Travers, as the new Chair, Public Sector Adoption Working Group, reporting into the Adoption Working Group, plans to focus her energies on increasing government representation among our membership and identifying opportunities for demonstration projects that can help illustrate the importance of XBRL among this critical constituency. We will also develop a marketing and publicity program to ensure that the message of XBRL reaches all key audiences and to help boost attendance at our events. And we will focus on outreach to the analyst and lending communities to get more end-users aware of the benefits of XBRL.

And of course, we will continue to support the SEC Voluntary Filing Program, getting more public companies engaged and encouraging more participation from the SEC. We have a significant task ahead of us and I ask you as the members of XBRL-US to get engaged and become active members of the adoption group. We need your help to push XBRL forward and make it a reality in the near future. I am excited about the prospect of working with others in the consortium on what I believe will be a critical year for XBRL.