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MINUTES OF THE PAC TWENTYSECOND PLENARY MEETING Held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Friday 19 June, 2015
1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS OF DELEGATES 1.1 The Chair welcomed all to the meeting and delegates introduced themselves. Apologies had been received from DAC, NACI and Indecopi. Members noted that there was a quorum present in the meeting. A list of delegates was circulated for completion by those present.
2. CONFIRMATION OF DRAFT AGENDA 2.1 The agenda was confirmed with the addition of items 4.2, 4.3, 5.1 and 5.5.
3. CONFIRMATION OF DRAFT RECORD OF 21st PLENARY MEETING 3.1 Confirmation of Draft Record 3.1.1 Members confirmed the minutes of the 21st Plenary meeting held in 2014 without change. 3.2 Matters Arising from PAC 21 not covered in current Agenda 3.2.1 All matters arising were covered in the current agenda.
4. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT 4.1 Activities and Progress since PAC 21 4.1.1 The Chair reported on activities since the last meeting, however no written report was provided. A copy of his report will be circulated with the minutes and also forwarded to the Joint GA for circulation with their minutes. 4.2 Changes to the Management of PAC’s Financial Affairs 4.2.1 Brett explained the changes to PAC-EXEC-005 which had been balloted recently and passed by members. There had been some suggestion in the Executive Committee meeting that there was a need for the FOC to continue. Brett asked if members were comfortable with the new structure, whereby the Finance Committee would oversight the process, rather than the FOC. Members agreed that there were sufficient checks in place to ensure that PAC’s performance would not be affected by removal of the FOC. 4.2.2 Members unanimously endorsed their previous decision to accept the revisions to PAC- EXEC-005 as balloted. 4.3 Results of the ballot on changes to the Structure of PAC 4.3.1 Members had voted unanimously to accept the proposed changes to the Structure of PAC. 4.4 Voting on documents (if any) 4.4.1 The positive response at Item 4.3.1 meant that the PAC Constitution would require a change as per the draft document circulated earlier in the year. Members approved the changes to the Constitution as follows: 24 positive, 1 abstention, no negative votes. Action: Executive to finalise changes with the secretariat to lodge the forms. Done: Revised constitution has been uploaded to the New Zealand companies’ office. 4.5 PAC Membership
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4.5.1 The Secretary advised that the new PAC members had been added to the current membership listing. She asked all members to check their listing for correctness and advise any changes to the Secretariat by 30 June. The revised list would then be circulated to all members. Action: All members. 4.5.2 The Secretary also asked members to check that their contact details and web links as noted on the PAC website, were also correct, and to advise any changes to the Secretariat by 30 June. Action: All members. Done. 4.5.3 She further requested members who wished to check whether their emails had been received, to set their correspondence up with a read-request automatic response. The Secretariat does not respond as a matter of course to information only emails, only to requests that require action. It was further requested that members only respond to the matter in the subject line of an email, and to prepare a new email with a new subject line, when contacting the Secretariat. It was almost impossible to keep track of correspondence when members simply replied to a random email with information that was not relevant to the originating email. Members were reminded to address ALL email correspondence to both Secretariat addresses, being [email protected] and [email protected]. Action All PAC members. Ongoing.
5. ADMINISTRATION 5.1 2015 PAC Budget 5.1.1 Members noted the approved 2015 budget and initiatives by the Executive and the Secretariat to align the budget items and accounting categories to ensure that future budgets and financial reports would be easier to understand. Done The new Finance Officer has worked with the Finance Committee to align our chart of accounts to our budget line items to give greater clarity for financial oversight. 5.2 Audited Financial Report for 2014 5.2.1 David Crucefix presented the FOC report for the 2014 financials. A copy of his presentation will be circulated with the minutes. There were no anomalies in the audited financials, which closely reflected the 2014 approved budget. Members noted the report and thanked David for his service on the FOC for the past few years. 5.3 Financial Report year to 31 March 2015 5.3.1 Members noted the finances to 31 March 2015 which would be better aligned with the budget line items in future. 5.4 Report from PAC Quality Manager 5.4.1 Mohan spoke to his report which had been circulated to members with the meeting papers. Members noted the report. 5.5 Report from the Continuous Improvement Taskforce
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5.5.1 The first meeting of the CIT was held immediately following the Executive Committee meeting on Sunday. All recommendations arising from the deliberations of the CIT would be discussed by the EC and then endorsed by members before implementation. Initial discussions had included the expansion of the annual internal audit of PAC to cover all facets of the organisation, rather than just of the MLA process. Provision of peer evaluators and members’ obligations to PAC were also discussed to address the logjam of evaluations. Provision of trained PEs during scope extensions was also discussed. Members’ responsibility to return ballots in a timely manner, electronic balloting, document control, the PAC website and service standards for Committee Chairs, system management and the Secretariat were also under consideration. Members noted the report and Brett thanked Mohan for taking this work forward. 5.5.2 Brett had been holding discussions in the EC and with Nigel Jou regarding possible resources to assist the PAC and APLAC Secretariats in managing the process. PAC had developed a database to assist in this and it included a comprehensive tracking system for peer evaluator competencies. The limitation to the database was that it was a computer program and stored on the Secretariat computers. An internet based database that could be accessed by evaluators, MLA MC members and the AHG members at any time, which would enable it to be updated more regularly and also reduce the email traffic between members. Brett called for comments on this idea. Ekanit said that we need to start off with electronic balloting and members agreed. Belinda advised that she would be contacting IAF regarding the electronic balloting system they use, getting a cost for adapting it for PAC use and seeking EC approval as soon as possible. Action: The balloting tool was built into the IAF website which is constructed using WordPress whereas the PAC website was constructed using the more secure Drupal content management system.
6. MLA GROUP AND MLA MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE REPORT 6.1 Update on new MLA signatories 6.1.1 Azusa advised the current status of MLA signatories by scope. Action: Secretariat to update and reissue PAC-EXEC-009 to members and on the website asap. Done. 6.1.2 Azusa also noted the evaluations scheduled until the end of the year, decision to change the level of GHG scope to level 3, and the launch of a PAC Global.G.A.P. program. She concluded with reminding members that they must transition from Guide 65 to ISO17065 within the next three months. 6.2 Update on PAC re-evaluation by IAF 6.2.1 Members noted that the evaluation process was almost complete with readmission expected to be concluded in the next few weeks.
7. OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVING THE OPERATIONS OF PAC 7.1 PAC Strategic Plan 7.1.1 Brett advised that the current strategic plan expires at the end of 2016. The EC and MLAMC will hold a joint planning day in March 2016 to work on the plan for 2017 – 19 inclusive. The process will take into consideration PAC’s obligations under the IAF Strategic Plan, input from Committee Chairs and regional issues. 7.2 Annual review of PAC / APLAC MoU 7.2.1 Members noted the current MoU and agreed that no changes were necessary at this stage. 7.3 Draft MoU with ARAC
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7.3.1 Brett advised that the draft MoU with ARAC should be finalised shortly, and the plan was to sign it during the IAF Meetings in Milan. Action: Secretariat and EC. Finalised.
8. SUMMARIES OF ACCREDITATION ACTIVITIES 8.1 National Accreditation and Related Activities not already reported 8.1.1 This issue had been covered at the MLA Group meeting. 8.1.2 Mr Kubo noted that the change to level 3 for the GHG MLA was not personally supported by JAB, however he accepted the consensus of the meeting. He noted that acceptance of the MLA at level 5 would be far more acceptable on the world market and requested the PAC Technical Committee to revisit this issue. Brett agreed with this position, but noted that the discussion confused the issues of scoping and witnessing. The PAC MLAs must reflect the needs of the regulators and give confidence to them. Anne Bowles said that while ANSI is not against the level 5 scope, however there needs to be greater consistency amongst participants before members can say that they truly have equivalence at level 5. Anil said that he though the MLA Group discussion concluded by recommending that more work be done by the PAC WG to see how we can reach level 5. Anne advised that the WG will continue to consider this and to do some comparison between existing GHG programs.
9. OTHER BUSINESS 9.1 Delegate feedback on the 22nd Plenary meetings 9.1.1 Two surveys will be circulated by the Secretariats on how to improve both the individual and the joint meetings. The results will be discussed at the EC meeting in Milan. Action: All members to respond as a priority. Done.
10. CLOSURE AND ADJOURNMENT OF PLENARY SESSION 10.1 There being no further business, Brett thanked special guests John Hulbert, Xiao Jianhua and Shinichi Iguchi for their attendance, all members for their active participation and the meeting closed at 4.20 pm.
PAC-PL-15-001_Draft Agenda.doc