Latest news
New CEN guide to standardization
CEN published a new document entitled Hands on standardization-A starters guide to standardization for experts in CEN technical bodies. This guide outlines, in a simplified way and with plain language, how the European standardization process works and what needs to be taken into account when drafting standards. This document may be useful, notably for the experts and observers that are participating in European standardization for the first time, but also for those standards users who need a short description of the CEN system.
Invitation from Standards Engineering Society (SES)
Dear IFAN Member:
Last year’s IFAN 12th International Conference was held in conjunction with the 56th Annual SES Conference in San Francisco…And we would love to see you again this year!
On behalf of the Standards Engineering Society, please accept this invitation to attend the 57th Annual SES Conference on August 18 – 19, 2008, in San Diego, California at the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley.
The Conference Theme is “The World of Standards: Is it really a ZOO out there?” The Conference will explore the diversity of issues within the standards community and provide an expert panel of speakers a variety of topics: Global Standards Development, Standards Development Process Issues, Product Safety, Government Issues and Standards, Business Ramifications of Standards, Post 9/11 Standardization of Critical Infrastructure Protection, and Using Standardization to Address Social Issues.
For this year’s keynote speaker, SES is pleased to welcome Mr. Robert W. Noth, Manager of Engineering Standards for Deere & Company and Chairman of the Board of the American National Standards Institute.
Just like last year, you will listen to presentations from expert panelists and be able to challenge them with your questions. Whether you are new to the standards community or an expert, this conference will be relevant and valuable.
Visit the SES web site at www.ses-standards.org for conference details and plan to book before the early registration date to save!
35th IFAN Members' Assembly
IFAN will hold its 35th Members’ Assembly in Geneva on 17-18 September 2008. The Members’ Assembly will have an open session (workshop) for IFAN members on 17 September. The session will cover two subjects, “To influence the development of the next generation of standards” and “Achievements and strategic orientations in IFAN members’ organizations”. ISO, IEC and ITU are invited to make presentations on recent developments in their organizations for coverage of the first subject. It is further envisaged to prepare proposals related to strategies of international standards developing organizations. As far as the second subject is concerned, it will be devoted to reports of IFAN members on their achievements and planning of future activities.
Search portal
To facilitate access to information on standards, regulations, accreditation and certification, IFAN has created a portal of links to the respective sources of information. Please see the "Search for" links in the left column of this page.
WSSN search
ISO has recently improved the search mechanism of the WSSN, World Standards Services Network. Previously, the WSSN search function was limited to information given on the site. The new search arrangement expanded the ability of searching information through all sites listed on the WSSN. The WSSN search is currently the only mechanism in the world which provides a search through Web sites of almost all international, regional and/or national standards bodies.
IFAN Guide 3:2008 has recently been published
IFAN Guide 3:2008 Guidelines to assist members of standards committees in preparing user-oriented European standards provides a checklist which contains requirements for European Standards in order to assist standards committee experts in preparing user-oriented standards.
IFAN permits the reproduction of the publication for promotional and application purposes. Reproduction for the Web should be made via links to the document on the IFAN Web site. Reproduction of the guidelines for commercial purposes is not authorized.
Winners of the IFAN international poster contest
In August 2007, IFAN invited all persons wishing to express their artistic vision of the importance and benefits of standards and standardization to take part in the first IFAN international contest by preparing a poster depicting the theme "Standards make the world go round". 15 posters were received from 8 participants from Germany, Colombia, Botswana, China, France and Netherlands. The posters are available for viewing here.
At its meeting held in Geneva on 2-3 April 2008, the IFAN Board decided on the winners of the IFAN contest. The winners are:
1st place: Ms. Patricia Dind (Germany) for poster 1
2nd place: Ms. Dagmar Aben (Netherlands) for poster 15
3rd place: Mr. Luigi Principi (France) for poster 11
The IFAN Board expresses its gratitude and thanks to all participants in the contest for their time and efforts in preparing their pieces of art and congratulations to the winners.
Recently published - new version of the ISO/IEC Directives - Part 1
The sixth edition of the ISO/IEC Directives - Part 1, Procedures for the technical work has recently been published and is now available through the ISO and IEC Web sites. Links to the document on the respective sites can be found below.
New member: Apostle Financial Group Ltd. joins IFAN
We are pleased to announce that the Apostle Financial Group Ltd. has joined IFAN as a corporate member. For the description of the organization, please see its Web site at www.apostleam.com.au. Contact details are available for IFAN members only.
Benefits of IFAN membership
IFAN has just published the leaflet Benefits of IFAN membership, which outlines the advantages of being an IFAN member. The leaflet is in PDF format (83 kB) and can be printed out on an A4 paper sheet (recto-verso) and double folded into A5 format.
Use of International standards in technical regulations
In line with IFAN's strategic objective of promoting reference to international standards in regulations, ISO and IEC have just published the document Using and referencing ISO and IEC standards for technical regulations. The IFAN Board had an opportunity to study, comment and consider the document at its meeting held in Geneva in April 2007. The document was developed to convey to regulators the benefits of choosing to use and reference ISO and IEC standards for regulations and demonstrate that doing so can support good regulatory practice.
IFAN considers that the publication is a great step forward aimed at the improvement and harmonization of regulatory practices worldwide. Using international standards in regulations or referencing them not only saves resources for the development of regulations and raises efficiency of the regulatory process but also considerably reduces technical barriers to trade.
IFAN Georges Garel Awards in 2007
The IFAN Board unanimously decided to bestow the Georges Garel Award upon Mr. Jonathan David, Ex-Deputy Chair of the British Standards Society, in recognition of his dedicated and outstanding contribution to the activities of IFAN and its national member for United Kingdom, British Standards Society, and upon Mrs. Ziva Patir, ISO Vice-President (technical management), Director General of the Standards Institution of Israel, in recognition of her dedicated and outstanding contribution to the development and application of international standards.
The IFAN President presented Mr. David and Mrs. Patir with the Georges Garel Award certificates and IFAN gold pins as a symbol of this recognition respectively during the 12th IFAN International Conference held in San Francisco on 20-21 August 2007 and the 30th ISO General Assembly held in Geneva on 19-21 September 2007.
Highlights of the 12th IFAN International / 56th SES Annual Conference
The report on the 12th IFAN International / 56th SES Annual Conference prepared by Ms. Diane C. Thompson, SES – President, Thompson Consulting, Inc., is now available to IFAN Web site visitors : to read, please click here.
12th IFAN International Conference was a successIFAN held its 12th International Conference in San Francisco on 20-21 August 2007 which was hosted by the Standards Engineering Society (SES), IFAN member for the USA and Canada. The subject of the conference was Standards – the bridge to global markets. This event was attended by more than a hundred standards managers and experts from industry, trade and public sectors. The presentations made at the conference were very interesting and triggered questions and discussions conducted by experienced moderators.
The slides of all presentations are, as usual, given in the section IFAN conferences, workshops, open sessions on the IFAN Web site.
A number of photos of participants of the IFAN event were taken during the event. They are available to the participants via the following links:
-12th IFAN International Conference - 56th SES Annual Meeting
-Dinner cruise on San Francisco Bay
The photos are username and password protected.
For any questions related to the conference , please use the "IFAN contacts"page.