Members Are Invited to Submit Comments by February 4, 2019
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is seeking feedback from its membership on proposed amendments to the ANSI By-Laws. ANSI encourages members to review the proposed changes and submit comments, if any, to [email protected] by February 4, 2019. The proposed revisions were approved by the Executive Committee of the ANSI Board of Directors in November and recommended for distribution to the ANSI membership by the ANSI Board of Directors earlier this month.
ANSI members can review the revised By-Laws online in a version with the changes marked or in a clean version. Additionally, ANSI has released a document of Frequently Asked Questions that provides members with details about why the revisions were undertaken and a description of and rationale for the proposed changes.
Key among the revisions are changes designed to:
- Clarify the roles and responsibilities of what are now called the four "Committees of ANSI," (i.e., the Executive Standards Council (ExSC), Board of Standards Review (BSR), ANSI ISO Council (AIC), and the USNC Council), and underscore that members of these Committees, since they make decisions on behalf of ANSI, are fiduciaries of ANSI and are subject to Conflict of Interest requirements, just like the Board and ExCo members;
- Simplify and flatten ANSI's organizational structure, with all four Committees of ANSI reporting directly to the ANSI ExCo;
- Clarify that Policy Committees - to be renamed Policy Advisory Groups (PAGs) - are advisory in nature and that their members are not fiduciaries, but reconfirm their continued importance to ANSI in developing ANSI policy positions on international, national, and IP-related issues; and
- Include a comprehensive Code of Conduct, to replace the former Code of Ethics that provides broad and wide-ranging guidance on how ANSI volunteers are expected to behave at any ANSI meeting or gatherings, including those of the Board, Committees, Forums, and Policy Advisory Groups.
For more information about the proposed revisions, or to ask questions, please contact Petra Valentin at [email protected].
