Mr John Grant receiving his 1906 award
On 11 November 2009, BEC held their AGM at IET, Savoy Place, London. The day started with a report from BEC President Geoff Young highlighting the work that had been undertaken in 2009 to re-confirm the relationship between BEC and BSI and the decision to transfer the membership of IEC and CENELEC to BSI. He also reported on the IEC General Meeting that had taken place in Tel Aviv this year. He indicated that there are now 23 Chairmen and 19 Secretariats from UK and that BEC hold 3rd and 4th positions respectively for these roles within the IEC.
Mr Young was elected by acclamation to serve a further three years as President of BEC.
Christine Hewitt (BIS) stressed the new government department's mission that "Innovation is at the heart of the knowledge economy….and key to our future success." She detailed the Government's interest in Standards and their role in Standards Development and how her department would be promoting the use of Standards to other government departments to encourage their participation.
Mike Low, Director BSI Standards thanked BEC for their contribution to Standardisation and highlighted the developments in Europe to improve SME Access to Standards.
Elena Santiago, Director General of CENELEC gave a detailed account of the 2010-2013 European Standardisation Strategy, the closer co-operation between CEN and CLC (see separate article in this newsletter).
Questions from the floor were received concerning the need to promote Standards in the market place, the development of alternatives to physical meetings, the importance of submitting comments on drafts at an early stage, the importance of transparency in the Standardisation process, the need to promote Standardisation and participation in Standardisation to young professionals as we see an increasingly reducing pool of experts, by promoting successes such as UK winning gold in Canada for electrical installation design.
Before the close of the AGM, a series of 12, 1906 awards were presented to UK experts for their varying contributions to IEC Standardisation - I Robinson (TC15), K Herrington (TC37), J Grant (TC100), T Mennell (TC17), J Wheeler (TC2). J Ellis (TC31), I Thompson (TC45), Dr Pullum (TC56), A Sehdev (TC85), D Quarton (TC88) J TzimeNakis and S Hayes (CISPR).
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