It’s Spring Committee Week season! I’m writing this from our April Committee Week in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As you read this issue of SN, it’s likely that we will have also completed our May Committee Week and are approaching June Committee Week, both in Toronto.

The exclamation point on the first sentence above is intentional. It would be difficult to overestimate the contribution these weeks have on the success of our standards-development process, as we convene many stakeholders, all in service of one goal – high-quality, agile, and responsive standards that address the challenges of today, in the context of today, to make our world work better. This week alone we have over 1,000 members from 20 technical committees and their subcommittees participating in 548 planned meetings, and an untold number of ad-hoc meetings. In one week. At one location. Things are getting done. Standards are being created. Problems are being solved.

Relationships are being forged and strengthened.

That sentence stands on its own. Without the relationships, things aren’t getting done. Standards aren’t being created. Problems are not being solved.

We have many digital tools to help us be more efficient in developing and maintaining standards. Our collaboration areas, virtual meeting tools, online balloting, and other member tools – all in service of increasing participation, reducing cycle time, and respecting the value of volunteer time and effort. All of them make us faster and better. None of them replace the foundational value of relationships and the trust built in those in-person interactions over sticky issues across the table from those on opposite sides of your issue. In coming to consensus through hard discussions. Consensus building isn’t a numbers game – that’s voting. Consensus building is a people game. There’s no better place to see that in action than at Committee Weeks.

I’m sure the same is true in your organizations. It is in ASTM. Every business is a people business. Every business relies on trust, on relationships. At ASTM, we believe this to our core. That’s why in 2025 we launched our “Better Together” program to maintain a high-performance, hybrid team culture. To bring all our staff together for two days each quarter to build trust and to forge and strengthen relationships to better serve our members, our stakeholders, our partners, and society. We held our first event in March and the energy and passion for ASTM was contagious.

That’s a bit of “inside baseball” but I thought it was worth sharing. We’re constantly working to make ASTM better tomorrow than it was yesterday, for our members and for our staff.

Speaking of “inside baseball,” by the time you read this, every MLB team might have their own bat guru in the dugout like the Yankees, and home runs may abound. If you want to hear more about the science and standardization around sports equipment with great insight into better baseballs and bats, spend 30 minutes listening to the April episode of our “Standards Impact” podcast.

Just like the standards in this issue around blue water, fire safety, and amusement parks, the voices around the table setting the standards for the bats and balls of the future – and the ability to get those voices around the table – is truly our strength. You should ask yourself: Are you at the table? Or are you on the menu?

I look forward to seeing you at the table at a future Committee Week! ●

Andrew G. Kireta Jr.
President, ASTM International