Conformity Assessment Section (CAS) Executive Committee Phone Conference

American Council of Independent Laboratories

May 25, 2011 Meeting Minutes

Participants : Mike Violette - Chair (Washington Labs): Harry Hodes – Vice Chair (Acme Testing); Dan Cannon (NTS): Steve Koster (Washington Labs); Don Heirman (DH Consulting); Adam Gouker (A2LA); Greg Kiemel (NW EMC); Ray Klouda (Elite Testing): Doug Kramer (NCEE); Daniel Prince (Gibraltar Labs); Barry Quinlan (Intertek); Dave Tolman (NW EMC); Scott Wentworth (Retlif Testing); Guest Des Frazer (NIJ); Milt Bush (ACIL CEO) & Tony Anderson (ACIL SEO).

1.0 Call to order:

The Chair called the meeting to order at 11:05 a.m. EDT

2.0 Introductions:

Mr. Anderson read the roll call of members and guests present

3.0 Anti Trust Statement:

The members acknowledged they had read and understood their obligations under the statement.

4.0 Review and Approval of Minutes of Section Teleconference Call held 04-27-11:

The action items from the minutes were reviewed. Mr. Bush stated that he had taken a look at the conflict with the Annual Conference dates and the ANSI meeting and there was only a one day overlap. There would be contractual difficulties if the conference was moved this year. He said he would take into account for the future. Mr. Violette thanked Mr. Hodes for chairing the last meeting.

Open Action: Mr. Heirman and Mr. Sakr to develop a strategy in the form of a white paper on how to get the power utilities more involved.

Motion: To adopt the minutes as written of the April 27, 2011 Teleconference Call Moved by: Mr. Hodes Seconded: Mr. Heirman Approved unanimously.

5.0 Membership:

Mr. Anderson had nothing to report.

6.0 ACIL China position statement:

CAS ExCo Meeting Minutes 052511 1 Mr. Violette briefed the meeting on ACIL taking a position regarding conformity assessment issues in China and is developing a draft paper.

Action: Mr. Violette will circulate his draft to the section for comment.

7.0 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) - Offender Tracking Systems:

Mr. Des Frazer of NIJ made a presentation to the meeting regarding Offender Tracking Systems and the testing of such devices and the voluntary standards used. NIJ has been meeting with manufacturers and discussing a variety of issues to do with tracking systems, including repairs and testing. He stated that the consensus opinion within NIJ committee looking at these issues was to use the voluntary standard administered by third party certification bodies. Mr. Hodes stated that he had attended a day and half post mortem meeting on the results of testing of offender tracking systems and the conclusion was that it would do better following the NACLA Model than the ILAC model as ISO/IEC 17025 does not go far enough for the testing of these devices.

Action: Mr. Hodes to introduce NIJ to Bob Uttenweiler of NACLA and to give NIJ the comparison that was put together by Mr. Bush and Mr. Uttenweiler.

Mr. Bush pointed out that ACIL should stay on top of programs like the NIJ offender tracking systems and any other programs that are rolled out by other agencies like Homeland Security, where there is a need for conformity assessment that can be provided by the independent laboratories.

8.0 ANSI as a Conformity Assessment Coordinator for the United States:

Mr. Bush stated that he had received information from Ms. Sterling that ANSI had produced a new four color brochure that claimed that ANSI was the coordinator for conformity assessment in the US. ACIL is going to take a strong position against this claim, which a conflict of interest for ANSI as they run an accreditation program.

Action: Mr. Bush will discuss with Ms. Sterling with a view to drafting a position statement.

9.0 Smart Grid Task Force:

9.1 Update

Mr. Heirman was pleased to report that ACIL is finally a member of the SGIP. He then went onto report on the SG Task Force activities. He briefly went over the latest version of the FAQ’s (attached) prepared by the SGTCC WG 8 and asked that members send any comments back to Mr. Heirman using track changes. He pointed out that this document was very useful as all the various acronyms are defined at the beginning of the document. Ne noted that the SGTCC is a support group not a policy making group.

Action: CAS members to send any comments to Mr. Heirman using MS® Word track changes.

CAS ExCo Meeting Minutes 052511 2 9.2 ACIL becoming an ITCA?

Mr. Heirman explained what would be required to become an ITCA. ACIL could do it, but the resources needed, and other requirements with which to comply may make it impractical. We would have to pick a technology which was finely focused and see if there is a fit. Mr. Heirman has prepared the attached. The link to the NEMA Smart Grid is also attached.

NEMA Smart Grid Link http://www.nema.org/gov/energy/smartgrid/

Action: Mr. Heirman and Mr. Violette will prepare a punch list for CAS members to use if interested in becoming an ITCA

10.0 C63 ® Committee update:-

Mr. Heirman reported that the next C63® meeting is the first week of October in New Jersey. The working groups have grown to the point that what used to be two day meeting, went to three, has grown to 4 days and five days are being considered. He went on to list the sub committees and standards ACIL has an interest in.

Action: Mr. Heirman to send Mr. Anderson the October meeting information.

Mr. Hodes notified the meeting of the ongoing maintenance of various standards of interest to ACIL members.

Action: Mr. Hodes to send Mr. Anderson the list of URLs for the Standards

11.0 Status of the ACIL EMC Standards Alert Newsletter :

The April 2011 edition of the EMC Standards Alert has been published. The next newsletter will cover how to specify the calibration requirements for emission antenna products including some flow charts to explain compliance with C63.5®. The newsletter will include a couple of new interpretations. Mr. Violette thanked Mr. Hodes and Mr. Heirman for their efforts with the EMC Standards Alert Newsletter and felt the work was very valuable, timely and had helped uplift the section.

12.0 PT Activities:-

Mr. Hodes updated the meeting on PT activities. Two round robins are in progress, the York CNE III 150kHz to 1 GHz and the Test Solutions WD EM -18 1 GHz to 18 GHz. Mr. Hodes shared the presentations he made at the C63 meeting earlier in the month and a presentation on the continuing results from the York CNE II Round Robin. He went over them briefly and encouraged our EMC members to study them in more detail. These presentations will be sent to the CAS section in a separate e-mail. CAS members who would like to participate in the PT Program should contact Tony Anderson at 407-574-2131 or [email protected].

CAS ExCo Meeting Minutes 052511 3 Mr. Anderson reminded members that the ACIL PT Program has bee accepted by all the AB members of ACIL.

Action: Mr. Anderson to distribute Mr. Hodes’s three presentations. (Completed)

13.0 ACIL to issue a joint request with the TCB Council to the Federal Communications Commission for an extension of the implementation of KDB 449343 regarding the prohibition of pre-calibrated methods for determining EIRP for transmitter devices:-

Mr. Bush and Mr. Violette put together a letter from ACIL that supports the extension and was sent out in April. The response back has been that it is too little too late and the request was denied. Another CAS WG is looking at alternative methods.

14.0 A.O.B.

Mr. Violette informed the meeting that the ACIL Board is having a strategic planning meeting in July to develop ideas for getting more visibility as the voice of independent testing. Also that the people on the Hill and elected officials understand the importance of our organization.

Mr. Violette is also on the Board of INARTE and informed the members that INARTE is merging with RAB USA. The organization is from Australia, but currently has its operations in Milwaukee. INARTE will remain as a brand, but RAB will help the organization gain more international as a certification body.

15.0 Next Conference Call: June 22, 2011 11:00 a.m. EDT

Thanks to TCB for providing the WebEx service for the call

16.0 Adjournment : 12:30 a.m. EST

CAS ExCo Meeting Minutes 052511 4