On June 8, ASTM International hosted a delegation of 20 representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to learn more about ASTM’s role in developing building material and construction standards. The group came to ASTM Headquarters as part of their participation in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Special American Business Internship Training Program, which helps cultivate relationships between U.S. organizations and potential partners in Eurasia through grantmaking and delegation hosting.

The group, which included professionals from standardization, quality control, testing, accreditation and research agencies and enterprises; municipal authorities; and academia, heard presentations on ASTM International’s memorandum of understanding program, its standards used in the model building codes, electronic tools for participating in ASTM’s standards development process, and its technical and professional training and proficiency testing programs. //

Candidates for 2005 ASTM Board of Directors Announced

We are pleased to announce the slate of candidates selected by the Society’s Nominating Committee as follows:

• Chairman of the board: N. David Smith, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
• Vice chairman of the board (two-year term): Gregory E. Saunders, Defense Standardization Program Office

Directors (three-year terms):
• Thomas S. Jones, Howmet Corporation
• Julie H. Kilgore, Wasatch Environmental Inc.
• Earl A. Lawrence, Experimental Aircraft Association
• Ronald F. Silletti, IBM Corporation
w James H. Turner, Jr., Chief Democratic Counsel, House Science Committee, U.S. House of Representatives,
• Robert B. Waller, Jr., Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association

Voting instructions and biographical information on each candidate will be published in the October issue of SN for your approval. In addition to electing the 2005 board of directors, you are asked to recommend candidates from the ASTM membership to serve on next year’s Nominating Committee. Contact Maureen Houck (phone: 610/832-9594) should you need any further information. //

Workshop for APEC Region SMEs

ASTM International recently participated in the U.S. Standards Workshop for Visiting Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprise Officials from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Region. The workshop was organized by the Office of the Pacific Basin of the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce and was held at the headquarters of the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, D.C., on June 22.

Thirteen SME government officials from APEC countries were invited to visit the United States through the State Department’s Voluntary Visitors Program. The visiting APEC country officials, new to standardization, are developers of SME policies and programs and also advisers on business activities to APEC region firms. The standards workshop was an introductory half-day session and was part of a week of activities the Commerce Department planned for the group, which visited SMEs in several U.S. states.

The organizations that presented during the workshop were the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American National Standards Institute, Underwriters Laboratories, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, and ASTM International. Participants represented Brunei, Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Kitty Kono, ASTM’s vice president of global cooperation, and David Wizda, ASME’s managing director of conformity assessment, opened the program by introducing the U.S. voluntary standardization system to the participants. //

—Contributed by Steven Bipes, ANSI Program Manager, Regional and Bilateral Policy

UAV 2004 Conference Held in Paris

UAV 2004, an international symposium and exhibition focusing on all classes of unmanned aerial vehicle systems, certification and air traffic management issues, program updates, operational experience and lessons learned, and requirements and system developments, was held in June in Paris, France. Pat Picariello, ASTM International’s director of developmental operations, was one of dozens of speakers from 16 countries who presented over the course of the four-day conference.

Picariello described the recent formation of ASTM Committee F38 on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which addresses issues related to design, performance, quality acceptance tests, and safety monitoring for unmanned air vehicle systems. F38’s stakeholders include manufacturers of UAVs and their components, federal agencies, design professionals, professional societies, maintenance professionals, trade associations, financial organizations, and academia. The committee has over 180 members from 13 countries. Since its formation in mid-2003, the committee has developed two ASTM standards: F 2395, Terminology for Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems, and F 2411, Specification for Design and Performance Requirements for an Unmanned Air Vehicle Sense-and-Avoid System. It is anticipated that development of these standards will aid in supporting the final draft of FAA regulations that will include unmanned air vehicles in the national airspace. //

Staff Service Awards

In June, several ASTM staff members were honored for their years of service to ASTM International. ASTM presents service awards to employees reaching anniversaries of five, 10, 15, years, etc.

Copyright 2004, ASTM International