With nearly a dozen major changes in accounting coming in the next year, folks in public accounting and finance may be wondering what the heck they’re thinking over at the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Chairman Robert Herz recently gave a window into the thought process in a speech at a recent accounting conference at the University of Southern California.

FASB has dramatically stepped up its joint sessions with the International Accounting Standards Board to hash out the details of nearly a dozen major standards that are due to be finalized in 2011. The original deadline was June 2011 for all the targeted standards, but the boards are updating their plans and deferring at least a few of those projects into the latter part of 2011 to give preparers and users of financial statements a little more time to digest it all.

In part the boards are working to meet a mid-2011 timeline set by the Group of Twenty Nations, who asked the boards to make it a little easier on companies in Brazil, Canada, India, and Korea, as those countries adopt International Financial Reporting Standards in 2011 or 2012. “If at all possible, it would make sense to have the new standards issued before their companies have to make the change to IFRS in order to avoid them having to switch twice,” Herz said, according to his prepared remarks.

But there’s also the pending retirement of IASB Chairman David Tweedie along with the planned departures by retirement or term expirations for five other IASB members. “These people have been at IASB throughout the development of these projects, and board member turnover can significantly delay or change a project,” he said.

Herz said FASB is not merely allowing itself to be dragged on a fast pace to accommodate international concerns. Many of the standards that are changing are long overdue for improvement, he said, and FASB is mindful of its duty to balance the convergence objective with the interests of U.S. investors and the U.S. public. “So our aim is to try to achieve both improvement and convergence together,” he said. “Not always easy.”

The FASB chairman acknowledged the work that is going into the breakneck pace and admitted it can’t continue indefinitely. FASB has never issued more than four major standards in one year and it’s never had more than two to three major exposure drafts out for comment at one time, he said.

“I am proud to say that so far my fellow board members and our staff, both FASB and IASB, have risen to the occasion,” he said. “But I do fear potential burnout, as it’s not so easy to be running a marathon at sprint speed.”

He reminded that the European Union and many other countries have made wholesale adoptions of IFRS and done so successfully. And he acknowledged change can be difficult, but said it will lead to progress if users and preparers work with the board to help get the rule changes right.

“If you care, and I think you should care, get engaged,” he said. “I know there are other priorities and issues beyond accounting and financial reporting that require your attention. But this is important. It matters.