Neil, The rules for participating in standardisation vary from country to country.
In the UK, the requirement is not that a person is 'recommended' by a trade organisation but that they 'represent' a particular industrial sector: the way this is achieved is by representing a trade association. In large trade associations (and small ones too, I presume) there are representatives of many companies who come together and agree a common position which is then presented by a smaller number of delegates (perhaps only one) to BSI. This is simply the way the BSI has chosen to aggregate the many views of individual companies. Similarly, this is how industrial sectors interact with organs of government, such as the DTI, on impending legislation. Of course, whether your employer chooses to join one of the many trade associations that exist is a business decision. There are benefits to membership of a trade association but there are also costs. Participating in standards creation also involves direct costs (attending meetings at remote locations, costs of association membership, etc.) and manpower costs. Participating in standards creation also means that sometimes there are clashes between project imperatives and standards deadlines and the prioritisation of such matters is also a policy decision that needs to be taken by your company. So, if you think that participating in the development of standards will be of a business benefit to your company then the chances are that you will need to make out a costed proposal to your management to this effect. The ball is in your court. Regards, Richard Hughes The reason is simply that national committees need to be kept to a reasonable size and if every company were able to send one or more delegates to In a message dated 09/12/2003 10:03:33 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Many years ago I tried to do this but was informed that only people recommended by a "trade association" would be considered. Although I have been employed by a number of organisations, both large and small, none has been a member of such an association and no opporunities to get involved would therefore be afforded. Regards, Neil Helsby
