Consumer Interest Forum (CIF)

Consumers are defined as those individuals who use goods or services to satisfy their individual needs and desires, rather than to resell them or to produce other goods or services with them ("Consumers").

• Overview
• Members and Officers
• Organizational Structure
• Meeting Calendar
• Document Library
  (User ID & Password Required)
• Staff Contacts

Overview

Some of the broad issues that the Consumer Interest Forum works to advance include:

• Outreach and networking: build stronger relationships between ANSI and national and international organizations to:
  • Increase standards awareness among consumer representatives, including increased participation in CIF and ANSI by government, consumers, business, and trade associations;
  • Build dialogue on key issues by providing a primary forum and information source on consumer interest issues related to voluntary standards and conformity assessment;
  • Develop effective information exchanges among consumer professionals;
  • Provide consumer feedback to the ANSI Federation;
  • Represent consumers before COPOLCO and other international standards related activities.
• Policy development: facilitate enhanced consumer interest participation throughout the ANSI process and organization.
• Consumer participation: encourage consumer participation in the development of standards for consumer products and services to identify and meet consumer concerns and needs.

The CIF is also the U.S. link to ISO COPOLCO (Consumer Policy Committee of the International Organization for Standardization). COPOLCO provides a forum for the exchange of information and experience on consumer participation in the international standardization work of ISO and, by liaison, in IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission).

Participation in the CIF is open to consumer representatives who are willing to actively participate in its work and who express an interest in membership. Membership in ANSI is not required.

CIF members shall be knowledgeable representatives from Consumer organizations, producers, retailers, distributors, industry councils and government. The CIF will strive to maintain a reasonable balance among such groups. No more than one Consumer Interest Forum member may be employed by the same company, organization, department or agency.

For more information, contact the CIF Secretary.
For a list of CIF members, click here.

Forum officers include:

CIF Chair
Kathleen A. Thuner
National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators

CIF Secretary
James McCabe
Sr. Director, Consumer Relations and IDSP

CIF Vice Chair
Dr. R. David Pittle

For a copy of the CIF’s Operating Guidelines, click here.

For a schedule of upcoming meetings, click here.
[Note: Please enter either Consumer Interest Forum or CIF in the Key Word search field in the ANSI Online calendar of events]

The Consumer Interest Forum typically meets three times a year, including a meeting in the Spring to prepare for the COPOLCO plenary meeting, and in the Fall.

The ANSI Consumer Interest Forum Document Library contains information available only to registered CIF members. It requires a username and password to use. To access the document library, click here.

For more information about document access, click here.

If you are not already a member of ANSI, find out more about the benefits of ANSI membership.

Click here to join online, or for more information, email membership@ansi.org.

James McCabe
CIF Secretary
Sr. Director, Consumer Relations and IDSP
Tel: 1.212.642.8921
Fax: 1.212.840.2298
jmccabe@ansi.org