Page 19 - Volume 8, Issue 1 Winter 2013

requirement for consensus, although failing to achieve con- sensus in the WG would not bode well for the draft standard when it progresses to the Committee Draft (CD) stage.
When the WG believes the draft is ready for input from a larger audience, it is circulated for voting by the national member bodies of that specific committee or subcommittee as a CD. The CD must be registered for ballot within twelve months from the approval of the new work item proposal. The CD ballot lasts three months. Once again, during this period, each member body conducts national consultations to determine its national vote. The ASA Standards office con- tacts the members of the U.S. TAG to invite them to review and comment on the draft. You can see that being a member of the TAG allows U.S. stakeholders—even those who cannot participate on the WG directly because of constraints on time or travel—to have a voice in the voting. This is the best time for TAG members to submit substantive comments—the document is mature but still malleable. The CD is approved when, in the judgment of the TC or SC chair, consensus has been achieved. (This is usually considered to require approval by at least 2/3 of the P-members voting, but other factors may also be weighed by the chair.)
The comments that arise from the CD ballot are collat- ed and returned to the WG for consideration. The WG dis- cusses and provides a written response to each comment. (Depending upon the number and nature of the comments, this comment resolution process may be accomplished at a face-to-face meeting, a web or teleconference meeting, or by e-mail.) If a comment is accepted changes usually are made in the draft to address it. The revised draft is prepared for circulation to a wider audience at the Enquiry Stage— called Draft International Standard (DIS) in ISO and Committee Draft for Vote (CDV) in IEC—when it is pre- sented for voting to the entire membership of ISO or IEC for a five-month voting period. The DIS or CDV must be registered within 24 months after approval of the new work item proposal. National consultations are conducted and U.S. TAG members are invited to review and comment. (At this stage, many of the national member bodies will trans-
Fig. 2. Process for developing the U.S. position on the International Standards Organization (ISO) or International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) draft.
addressed. The proposal usually includes a draft, or at the least, an outline of the proposed project. The proposal is bal- loted, for a three-month voting period, among the national member bodies that participate in or observe that particular technical committee or subcommittee. During this period, each member body conducts national consultations to deter- mine its national vote. At this point, members of the U.S. TAG will be contacted by the ASA Standards office and invit- ed to review and comment on this proposal. Although it is often overlooked, this is a good time for TAG members to submit comments. It is easiest to have a big impact on the final document by making your needs known at the outset— before too many decisions have been made. Approval of the NP requires that it be approved by a simple majority of the members voting and that five of the members agree to par- ticipate actively by naming at least one expert to work on the project. These experts form the working group (WG) that will see the project through to the end. Approval of the NP ballot starts the ISO time clock.
Working within the defined scope, the WG iterates a working draft (WD) and continues to work on it until they are satisfied. There is no formal voting in a WG and no
HOW TO SUCCEED IN STANDARDS WORK
• Know your goals. Focus on what is most important.
• Be willing to compromise where you can. Listen care- fully to make sure you understand what is important
to others in the group.
• Propose work items that have value to you. Don’t wait
and hope that someone else will do it.
• Be willing to serve on the Working Group (WG)—bet-
ter yet volunteer to chair it.
• Attend WG meetings—wherever they are.
• Offer to write text or provide graphics.
• Provide constructive and specific comments and
input.
• Provide input at the beginning of the process.
18 Acoustics Today, January 2012