As part of an ongoing commitment to improve the way BSI works with the members of its standards committees, the third Standard Makers Forum for committee chairmen was held in June. Also attended by some stakeholders and British Standards staff, it followed on from two previous meetings in December 2003 and June 2004 and now forms part of an annual schedule of information sharing and discussion forums.
The first part of the day included presentations by Mike Low, Director British Standards and Shirley Bailey-Wood, Operations Director, on progress since the last meeting and challenges for the coming year. The rest of the morning was spent in breakout groups that looked at sharing best practice for committee chairmen, how to influence CEN and ISO work and developing electronic working. During lunch there were drop-in surgeries with BSI experts on e-Committees, ISO/CEN working, committee training and BSI complementary products while some people took advantage of the opportunity for one to one pre-booked meetings with BSI senior staff.
In the afternoon Marketing Director Frank Post led a session on the external perceptions of standards followed by Rob Brightwell of DTI giving the government view of standards policy and practice. This was followed by more breakout groups, looking at how to improve access to standards, increase the awareness of standards and encourage their use.
As a result of what was discussed a continuing programme of activity has been organized - information about which can be found in this and future newsletters.
