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ABYC Receives ANSI Re-Accreditation as a Standards Development Organization
March 24, 2008, Annapolis, MD: The American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) was pleased to announce that is recently passed an audit by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and has been formally re-accredited as a Standards Development Organization (SDO). The purpose of the audit was to determine whether ABYC was in compliance with the ANSI Essential Requirements for openness, balance, consensus and due process, and helps to ensure the integrity of the standards developers that use the ANSI process.
ANSI is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide.
The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). More information is available at www.ansi.org.
ABYC's President Skip Burdon stated, "ABYC's re-accreditation affirms our organization's commitment to a strong technical standards program, and enables ABYC to maintain its position as a developer of ANSI standards." "ABYC is committed to ANSI's vision of openness and due process for standards development, and we welcome all stakeholders in the marine industry to participate in shaping the technology standards that shape our industry," concluded Burdon.
John Adey, ABYC Technical Director said, "Even for a 50+ year old standards writing organization, it has been a long road to re-accreditation that resulted in many changes to our procedures. However, the result is a quality standard of which we can all be proud, and a standard that can be used with confidence by the marine industry." Two ABYC standards have already been approved using the newly approved ANSI process (A-1 and A-26), and ABYC currently has three in review.
ABYC has over 400 volunteers that participate in the standards development process, and is always in need of more. There are 18 project technical committees (PTC's) dealing with 68 standards. There are four new standards under development at this time and 19 existing standards in the process of review. This years ABYC supplement (the publication of documents that have completed the review cycle) may contain over 13 documents.
If you are interested in the ABYC standards development process, we suggest that you visit the ABYC Web site at www.abycinc.org. Click on Standards & Technical Reports. Click on Purpose and Scope to review and determine which documents interest you. Then let us know which documents you are interested in following by emailing Helen Koepper, ABYC Technical Department Coordinator at hkoepper@abycinc.org.
ABYC has been developing, writing and updating the safety standards for boat building and repair in the United States for over 50 years. ABYC is actively involved with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as well as education and certification programs for marine technicians. These standards are available on CD-ROM, online (Web-STIR and the ABYC Standards Powered by Rulefinder.net) and in printed form. Membership and general information can be requested by visiting the ABYC Web site at www.abycinc.org.
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