Page 29 - Volume 8, Issue 1 Winter 2013

and any place, but out of courtesy to the worldwide member- ship, 4 months’ advance notice is usually given. Also, it is a good practice to keep meeting locations close to major air- ports.
What else keeps ISO as well as ANSI standards commit- tees operating? Most important is people. Standards commit- tees need people, people, and people. This activity cannot and should not be done by one or two experts. This is even more important in the case of an international arena. As with anything, financial resources are also helpful. However, if the author was offered twenty people or twenty thousand dollars, he would take the twenty people. On the other hand, stan- dards committees can certainly get too large. A good size is between 10 to 15 people with no greater than 25 members.
It is the chairman’s, or in the case of ISO convener’s job to keep the group on track during committee meetings. The interesting issue with ship noise measurements was that every aspect was related to every other aspect. For example, a discussion of instrument bandwidth eventually leads to discussion of Doppler shift error and ship speed. It is help- ful to keep the committee focused on the first topic. It is also important for the convener to delegate work and not take on all efforts. This author has followed the rule that if you suggest the idea, you must work on the idea. As with any volunteer effort it is important to thank everyone regu- larly!
With that said, this author thanks all the committee members of the Working Group 47 under the ANSI/ASA S12 committee on noise. The author also thanks the current ISO Working Group 55 for their continued efforts.AT
West coasts of the United States and Europe is 10 to 11 am (EST) To the far west, this is 7 to 8 am (PST) which is a rea- sonable time to be awake. To the east, in continental Europe this is 4 to 5 pm local time. Obviously, this is not the entire planet. Each committee may have different members in dif- ferent geographic locations, and will have to adjust the meet- ing times accordingly.
This author thinks that the web service works best once the committee members have gotten to know each other and can recognize voices and understand accents. This brings up the issue of language. ISO standards are printed in English and French. In ISO/TC 43, ISO meetings and business are typically conducted in English, lucky for those of us in English-speaking countries (U.S., UK, and Australia). Most of the participants speak excellent English which makes for fairly easy communication. The author believes that it is a good practice not to assume all committee members can fol- low every discussion at the same speed. This author gives everyone more than one chance to ask questions and make position statements.
Email is also possible for some limited “discussions” between the committee. However, there are a couple of prob- lems—losing track of the thought-train, especially when a committee member responds late or out of sequence of “the discussion.” It is helpful when the chair poses questions for members to provide opinion without introducing new dis- cussion topics.
As for physical meetings, it is probably obvious that these are much easier to schedule when everyone is coming from the same country. ISO meetings can be scheduled anytime
Michael Bahtiarian has worked in the field of marine noise con- trol for most of his 26-year career which started at General Dynamics Electric Boat Division. He is currently the Vice President of Noise Control Engineering, Inc. in Billerica, Massachuetts, which specializes in shipboard noise and vibra- tion control. Michael is also a Board Certified member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE) and holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Michael is the chairman of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) Working Group 47 which produced American National Standards Institute/Acoustical Society of America (ANSI/ASA) S12.64/Part 1. He is now the convener of Technical Committee 43/sub-committee 1/ Working Group 55 (TC 43/SC 1/WG 55). He has completed numerous shipboard noise control projects most notably the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Research Vessel (FRV-40) and the R/V HUGH R. SHARP, a quiet research vessel for the University of Delaware. He is currently involved in other quiet- ship designs including the Ocean Class AGOR Oceanographic Research Vessel and the Arctic Region Research Vessel (ARRV) for the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
The author with his two daughters, “in-command” of the USS ALBACORE, a pre-nuclear era submarine now located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was the first navy-designed vessel with a true submarine (teardrop) hull form. The ALBACORE was used as a test-bed for many technologies including many quiet- ing techniques used by the author on the design of quiet research vessels. In was commissioned in 1953 and designated a mechanical engineering landmark in 2000 by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
28 Acoustics Today, January 2012