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Supporting Consumers and Other Users of Standards

Learn how ANSI's Consumer Interest Forum (CIF) promotes consumer awareness, representation, and feedback in voluntary standards and conformity assessment activities.

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Supporting Consumers and Other Users of Standards

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  1. Supporting Consumers and Other Users of Standards GSC-11 User Workshop Presented by: S. Joe Bhatia ANSI President and Chief Executive Officer June 1, 2006

  2. Mission To enhance the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the American quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems and ensuring their integrity ANSI is not a government agency or a standards developer

  3. Professional Societies Service Organizations Standards Developers Consumer and Labor Interests and many more A Federation of Members representing . . . • Academia • Individuals • Government • Manufacturers • Trade Associations Bringing the Private and Public Sectors Together Since 1918

  4. ANSI’s Organizational Structure • ANSI has three Forums based on membership type • Organizational Member Forum (OMF) • Government Member Forum (GMF) • Company Member Forum (CMF) • ANSI’s fourth Forum is based on a topical area of focus • Consumer Interest Forum (CIF)

  5. Consumers and Standardization • ANSI defines consumers as . . . those individuals who use goods or services to satisfy their individual needs and desires, rather than to resell them or to produce other goods or services with them

  6. ANSI’s Consumer Interest Forum (CIF) • Educates consumers on the value of standards and conformity assessment in everyday life • Facilitates the representation of consumer interests in voluntary standards and conformity assessment activities • Enhances the effectiveness and credibility of ANSI as a representative of all materially affected interests

  7. CIF: Areas of Activity • Outreach and networking • Increase standards awareness among consumer representatives • Provide information on standards-related consumer issues • Facilitate information exchange among consumer professionals • Provide consumer feedback to the ANSI Federation

  8. CIF: Areas of Activity (continued) • Facilitate enhanced consumer interest and participation in standardization activities • Represent the United States on the Committee on Consumer Policy of the International Organization for Standardization (COPOLCO) • Standards for consumer services and users with special needs are priority areas

  9. American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Association of Home Equipment Educators Consumer Federation of America Council of Better Business Bureaus Direct Selling Education Foundation Intertek Testing Services NA Inc. Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators National Consumers League Telecommunications Industry Association Toy Industry Association Underwriters Laboratories Inc. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission U.S. Department of Agriculture and a number of product safety and other consultants CIF Membership Roster

  10. ANSI’s Top Ten PrioritiesOutreach to Broader Constituencies • Engage and represent new stakeholder groups • Represent broader and more diverse industrial base • Service economy • Aging population • Others

  11. The USSS, Consumersand the Users of Standards • Approved in December 2005, the United States Standards Strategy (USSS) is a revision of the National Standards Strategy for the United States • provides a vision, purpose and common framework that can be used by U.S. stakeholders to achieve their respective standardization goals • represents the vision of a broad cross-section of standards stakeholders and reflects the diversity of the U.S. standards system

  12. The USSS, Consumersand the Users of Standards (continued) • Strategy 3 - Improve the responsiveness of the standards system to the views and needs of consumers • Standards developers should identify, encourage and support appropriate consumer representation on their committees, make virtual attendance at meetings possible through electronic means such as teleconferencing or collaborative meeting tools, and encourage consumer comment during public reviews

  13. The USSS, Consumersand the Users of Standards (continued) • Strategy 3 (tactics – continued) • Industry should use consumer research as a basis for standardization initiatives and decisions • Government should strengthen its consumer-related programs and initiate standards information and participation programs as appropriate • ANSI should work with consumer organizations to educate them about standardization and encourage and support their participation in standards development

  14. Questions?

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