(IAF) Page 1 of 20 IAF Executive Committee Twenty Second Meeting Friday 4 July, 2008 Cofrac, 37 rue de Lyon Paris, France Members Present Dr Thomas Facklam (Chairman), Elva Nilsen (Vice Chair and PAC Chair), Dr Lorenzo Thione (Director Developed Country ABs and EA Chair), Guenther Beer (Director Industry & User Associations), Girdhar Gyani (Director Developing Country ABs), Pierre Sallé (Director CRB Associations), Xiao Jianhua (MLA Committee Chairman), Balakrishnan Venkataraman (DSC Chairman), Masego Marobela (SADCA Chair) and John Owen (Secretary). By invitation -, Tom Arnold (Procedures Subcommittee Chairman), Daniel Pierre (ILAC Chairman), Graham Talbot (CMC ViceILAC MCC Chair) and Pat Paladino (IAAC Chair). Apologies Apologies were received from Randy Dougherty (TC Chairman) and Kevin Breitzmann (IAF Treasurer). 1. Welcome 1.0.1 The Chairman opened the meeting and invited Pierre to explain arrangements. On behalf of Cofrac, Pierre welcomed members to Paris and wished everyone an enjoyable stay. He explained the meeting facilities and invited everyone to a dinner that evening which would be hosted by Cofrac. The Chairman extended a welcome to Graham Talbot of UKAS who he had invited to attend the meeting as the CMC Vice ILAC MCC Chair. He also welcomed Pat Paladino of SCC who had recently been appointed as the Chair of IAAC. The Chairman explained that unfortunately Kevin Breitzmann had had a cycling accident which had resulted in a broken arm and leg. It had been understood that the financial report and the TC update were to have been presented by John Knappenberger, the ANAB CEO, but unfortunately he had missed his flight and would not be attending. 2. Review of Agenda 2.0.1 Arnold requested an opportunity to report on the results of a trip that Dougherty and he had made to Korea and meetings which had taken place with ICF and KAB. It was agreed that this would be discussed under item 6.2 Status of Complaints. 3. Review of Minutes/Reports of Previous Meetings and Matters Arising 3.1 Minutes of the Twenty First Meeting (March 2008) 3.1.1 The Minutes of the Twenty First meeting (EC-08-008 Rev1) were approved without further change. Min_ExC22_0807
Page 2 of 20 3.2 Review of Action Reminders not covered elsewhere 3.2.1 There were no matters arising from the previous meetings which were not on the agenda. 4. Management 4.1 Implementation of IAF Strategic Plan 4.1.1 The meeting noted the updated merged summary of actions taken by the respective committees (EC-08-013), which had been prepared by the Secretary. 4.1.2 Nilsen referred to the revised Governance paper (EC22-4-1A Draft 7) which had been prepared following receipt of comments on the previous draft. A number of recommendations were proposed including members re-signing the MoU with IAF every five years. Nilsen indicated that most current obligations were directed at MLA signatories and suggested that there should also be obligations for other membership categories. It was agreed that the Governance Task Group would go ahead and prepare appropriate draft requirements. The Task Group would also prepare wording for the inclusion of the User Advisory Committee (UAC) and the Joint Inspection Group (JIG) into the IAF committee structure. 4.2 Formation of User Advisory Committee (UAC) 4.2.1 Beer reported that since the last meeting an information package explaining the basis of the three Industry Days and the proposed formation of the UAC had been sent to all IAF Members, to the Industry Day speakers and to a number of selected industry associations, such as ICSCA. To date a total of 7 responses had been received, one of which was yet to advise of their nominee. The Secretary said that he had received an e-mail from a staff member from NORMAPME indicating they had nominated Mr Gourtsoyannis for membership of the UAC, but as this had not been received he was seeking confirmation. Nilsen informed the meeting that the Canadian Electrical Association had indicated they would nominate a Michael De Groot to the UAC, but this had also not been received. With regard to vetting nominees, the Executive agreed that Beer would review the CV's and make a decision with respect to the committee's constitution, recommending that membership be sought from any missing regions. Pierre suggested that some thought should be given to representation from the environmental protection field and also to consumer interests. However, it was felt that it was not the intention to have NGO s as members. It was the end users of certificates which were needed. Thione said that the new CASCO STAR (Strategic Alliance and Regulatory Group) was made up of included a number of international stakeholders that could be suitable for membership of the UAC too. He offered to raise the formation of the UAC at the next meeting and ask if there were any members interested in participating. 4.3 Nominations for IAF Vice Chair
Page 3 of 20 4.3.1 The Secretary reported that in May he had circulated a request for nominations for the position of IAF Vice Chair. Unfortunately no nominations had been received. The Chairman explained that Nilsen had advised of her willingness to continue in the role, if needed, and in this respect he proposed that she be nominated to the IAF General Assembly in October, to fill this position for a further 12 months. The Executive supported this proposal. 4.4 Nominations for MLA Committee Chair 4.4.1 The Secretary reported that exactly the same situation had occurred when he had sought nominations for the position of MLA Committee Chair. The Chairman said that the appointment of committee Chairs was the responsibility of the IAF Board. Xiao had also indicated he was willing to serve for a further 12 months and a short Board meeting would be held later in the day to discuss this. 4.5 Chairmanship of the Communications and Marketing Committee 4.5.1 The Chairman referred to the letter from Jan van der Poel, circulated to the Executive following the last meeting, in which he had confirmed that he would be resigning from the chairmanship of the CMC due to pressure of work. The Chairman said that since then, Graham Talbot, as the CMC Vice Chair and also the Chairman of the ILAC Marketing and Communications Committee (MCC), had kindly offered to take over this responsibility. At the Board meeting later, a proposal would be put forward for Talbot to take over as CMC Chair until the October GA, when a permanent chair would be appointed. The Secretary would seek nominations for this position prior to this. Talbot had confirmed his nomination for the three-year term commencing after the Stockholm Annual Meetings. 4.6 Customer Satisfaction Survey Task Group (CSS TG) 4.6.1 The Chairman informed the meeting that the opportunity had been taken to discuss the use of a Web based survey with both ISO and ILAC earlier in the week at the IAF-ILAC-ISO JWG. At that meeting ISO had indicated that they were not interested in taking part, with ILAC being interested but not having any allowance for this in the current budget. The Chairman said that there was a need to be clear as to what was wanted to be achieved and the Task Group had been asked to look at this in designing an appropriate questionnaire. It had also been suggested that they make use of the UAC, the ILAC laboratory committee, the regions, CBs and stakeholders. The proposed survey software was very powerful and it was necessary to make sure that the survey was directed at the right people. The Executive agreed that ownership of this task should be assigned to the CMC. 4.6.2 Sallé referred to a PowerPoint presentation on the analytical ability of the survey software. Initial development costs were in the region of US $22,000 to US $27,000 and maintenance costs were approximately US $10,000 to US $12,000 per annum. 4.7.Monitoring of MLA Mark AB-CB Licence Agreements
Page 4 of 20 4.7.1 Xiao said that he had thought there might have been a need to change the MLA Mark AB-CB Licence Agreements, but he had since decided there was no need to. It was agreed that this item would be deleted from the agenda. 4.7.2 Arnold reported on progress with the registration of the MLA Mark. The situation in the US had cleared up and the certificate from South Africa had now been received. Processing was continuing in a number of countries and assistance had been provided by Malaysian Standards and by Venkat in India. To date, a total of US $129,497 had been spent registering the Mark and it was proposed that for 2009 the budget should be US $15,000. 4.8 Revision of IAF PR 4 List of Endorsed Standards 4.8.1 Xiao proposed that the revision of IAF PR 4 should be delayed until the document "What is covered by the IAF MLA", recently circulated for 60 day comment, had been finalised. It was agreed that this item would be deleted from the agenda. 5. Report from the Treasurer 5.1 Review of IAF Financial Statements and Budget 5.1.1 The Chairman said that unfortunately due to Breitzmann s accident and John Knappenberger not being able to attend, the financial summary of year-to-date expenditure had not been received. This will be obtained and circulated to members. The Chairman stressed that he wanted to put the budget together well before the Stockholm General Assembly, and if possible, have this circulated in the meeting papers rather than being tabled on the day, as in Sydney. He asked that any member of the Executive who anticipated undertaking any projects which required expenditure, to advise the Treasurer as soon as possible so that these could be included in the proposed budget for 2009. 6. Report from the Secretary 6.1 Membership Status 6.1.1 Since the last meeting the summary of the application for membership from the Directorate of Accreditation (DA) of Albania had been approved by the Executive for circulation to IAF members for ballot. This had subsequently been passed and the new membership process finalised. 6.1.2 The membership application from ANSI had not been received until late June. The application would be reviewed and a summary prepared for consideration by the Executive as soon as possible. 6.1.3 Due to non-payment of their 2008 membership fees, NAA (North Korea) had been suspended from IAF membership on 2 May 2008. AIOICI (Italy) had resigned from IAF membership in March and had not paid their membership fees for 2008.
Page 5 of 20 6.1.4 The Secretary reported that he had again written to the QuEST Forum offering to transfer their membership to association membership. At the time of the meeting a reply had not been received. As agreed at the last meeting, their membership would be removed. 6.1.5 A summary of the membership application received from the Supervisory Council for Certification Bodies (SRTCI) of the Netherlands had been circulated to the Executive for review. Unfortunately it had not been possible to clearly determine what standing/acceptance SRTCI had in its area of operation, how the Dutch government regarded a second AB in addition to RvA and whether the SRTCI organisational structure would ensure impartiality and enable participation by interested parties. As such, the Chairman had indicated that IAF needed a policy to deal with applications where, if accepted, there would be more than one member from an economy. This was particularly the case with applications received from ABs operating in the European Union. Pierre said that EA had already rejected SRTCI s membership application and acceptance of SRTCI into IAF could undermine the relationship with EA. Beer said that this was a very complicated problem which needed to be solved at the European level. The Chairman said that there was an absence of recent information on the recognition of SRTCI and a need to know how the operation complied with the new EU regulations. He proposed that he would write to Jacques McMillan and seek his opinion on behalf of the European Commission. The Chairman said that if an AB applicant was regarded as operating "illegally" according to the rules set in that particular country, then it would not be appropriate for IAF to approve membership. However, this could result in a legal challenge if membership was denied. 6.1.6 The Chairman proposed, that in order to clarify membership rules for both IAF and ILAC, a Task Group be formed consisting of the Chairs and Vice Chairs of both organisations. The group would consider not only the problem described above but also applications received from organisations accrediting only to HACCP or ISO/IEC 17024. The Secretary indicated that the application fee, which had at one time been used to deter applications from "non-mainstream" organisations had not been revised for at least five years, and still stood at US $2000. Over the last few years this had been reduced in terms of real cost due to significant currency exchange rate changes. It was agreed that this would also be considered by the Task Group. 6.1.7 The Secretary informed the meeting that he had recently received membership applications from INDECOPI of Peru and BoA of Vietnam, although confirmation of receipt of the application fee for the latter had not yet been received. The application(s) would be reviewed and a summary prepared for consideration by the Executive as soon as possible.
Page 6 of 20 6.2 Status of Complaints made to IAF 6.2.1 The Secretary reported that there had not been any formal complaints received since complaint IC21 from the ICF (International Certification Body Forum) of South Korea, against KAB and the South Korean Government. Arnold informed the meeting that he and Dougherty had travelled to South Korea in June and had met with KATS (Korean Agency for Technology and Standards) and KAB regarding the legislation requiring data reports from all CBs operating in the country. It was confirmed that this requirement applied to all CBs, no matter who they were accredited by. The data was analysed by KATS only, not KAB, with the results being reported to the relevant ABs. The data covered audits in which the auditor scopes did not correspond to the client scopes and also where a single auditor appeared to be on more than one audit on the same day. Discussions were also held with ICF members who now supported this activity being undertaken by KATS and who had reported all data for the first quarter of 2008. KAB had indicated it now wished to participate on AB assessments in Korea. As a result, it was recommended that all IAF member ABs with CBs operating in Korea should be in contact with KATS to receive reports on their CBs, they should strive to have KAB assessors involved and that ICF should withdraw its complaint to IAF. The Executive thanked Arnold and Dougherty for achieving such a positive outcome. 6.2.2 The Chairman said that at the IAF-ILAC-ISO JWG, ISO had felt that the complaints process had not been sufficiently visible. However it had been confirmed that while the IAF complaints process is available on the IAF website this was not the case with the ISO complaints process being available on the ISO website. It had also been explained that many complaints were dealt with by the Secretary initiating some form of interaction and discussion between the parties, which meant that only a minimum number were raised to the formal level. 6.2.3 The Executive considered the proposal to post formal complaints and outcomes onto the IAF website. It was felt that while it might be appropriate for ANAB as a nationally recognised Accreditation Body to do so, IAF did not have the same authority. Hence, the names of complainants and the organizations against whom they were complaining could not be publicised. Currently, even in the Secretary's annual report to the IAF GA, identification of any of the parties was removed. It was considered debatable what value any summary of this nature would have if made public. It was agreed to terminate the proposal to place complaints on the IAF website, but to ensure that the complaints process was readily available. 6.3 Draft MLA Mark Licence Agreement for Certified Companies 6.3.1 Xiao referred to the paper titled "What is covered by the IAF MLA" developed by Task Force on Scope of IAF MLA under the MLA Committee and recently circulated to IAF members for 60 day comment. Use of the Mark was described in this document and he suggested that the Executive wait for feedback on this. When this was finalised corresponding principles would be prepared. The Executive agreed with this proposal.
Page 7 of 20 6.4 IAF Hosting Manual for Committee Meetings 6.4.1 The Secretary said that the Manual had been revised to include the special arrangements for meetings where representatives from ISO committees would be participating. A copy had been forwarded to Venkat to ensure that he had the latest version. 7. Report from the Technical Committee 7.1 Report on Progress 7.1.1 As the TC Vice Chair, Thione reported on developments which had occurred since the TC meetings in Bonn. This included the following points: - the task group developing guidance on the consistent application of ISO 14065 was reviewing the comments received from the TC. When finalised the draft would be circulated for 60 day comment to all IAF members; - the comment period on the guidance on the application of ISO/IEC 17024 had closed and it was expected the draft would now be revised for ballot; - the second comment period on the application of ISO/IEC 17011 had closed and the comments were being reviewed by the Co-conveners; - the next meeting of the IEC CAB-IAF Joint Technical Panel had been postponed until December 2008; - the ballot of the draft for Computer Assisted Auditing Techniques (CAAT) had been approved and the document published as IAF MD 4 in May; - the drafts of the Mandatory Documents for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 audit durations had been circulated for 60 day comment ; - the revision of IAF GD 3 on Cross Frontier Accreditation had been circulated for 60 day comment which had closed in June; - the APG had now published a total of 36 papers and the AAPG had published 13 papers. A recommendation had been made from the TC to promote better awareness and use of these papers; - the WG on Product Certification had initiated discussions with the GFSI in order to determine what may be needed to meet their expectations. The WG Convener and Dougherty had been invited to serve as members of the GFSI Accreditation Task Force.
Page 8 of 20 7.1.2 The Executive noted the ballot on Expected Outcomes for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 Certification had not proceeded as there had not been sufficient votes to establish a quorum. Sallé said that a lot of work had gone into this project and having a result such as this should be unacceptable to the Executive. The Chairman agreed and said that as this had been one of the main themes for the three Industry Days and was also part of the Strategic Plan, it was a major problem if the membership ignored voting on this. The Secretary said that he understood Dougherty would be seeking support for the draft from the TC at the Stockholm meetings. If this was positive then the document would again be circulated for ballot. 7.1.3 Xiao said that the MLA MC had suggested that a transition arrangement should be defined if necessary when to approve any mandatory requirements for Members in the future, referring the situation that IAF/ILAC didn t clearly define a transition period in a joint resolution adopted at the IAF/ILAC JGA in Sydney against use of accreditation standards by CABs to perform certifications and this would cause inconsistency for implementation of this resolution among ABs. 8. MLA Committee 8.1 Report on Progress 8.1.1 Xiao reported that the MLA MC had met on 2 July in Paris and would next meet in Stockholm in October. The IAF-ILAC JMC (Joint Management Committee) and the JWGA (A Series JWG) had also met in Paris. Items considered included the following: - IAF members will be asked to identify any specific issues/topics for the training of peer evaluators for single ABs. The MLA MC will then propose specific actions for improving training of peer evaluators; - the MLA MC would discuss the needs for full time evaluators in addition to the part time evaluators offered by member ABs; - as previously mentioned, the document What is covered by the IAF MLA had been circulated to IAF members for 60 day comment, closing on 1 September; - the MLA MC suggested the Executive to start the process for expanding the scope of the IAF MLA to cover ISO22000 FSMS, ISO27001 ISMS and ISO13485 Medical Device accreditation programs and further suggested the Technical Committee to conduct analysis for the extension of the MLA scopes based on the criteria as described in Clauses 1.4 and 1.5 of draft revision of IAF PL3 from technical point of view, including to study the need for development of additional IAF application documents; - the MLA MC, in cooperation with the Regions, had reminded all MLA signatory ABs of the requirements for transition to ISO/IEC 17021. All signatory ABs will be asked to report the final results for the transition after the 15 September 2008 deadline; - the MLA MC will develop a list of requirements for the evaluation of single ABs and a list of requirements for the evaluation of Regions;
Page 9 of 20 - there was a gap between GFSI and its endorsed schemes (e.g. BRC, ISF and SQF). The IAF MLA signatory ABs implemented the specific requirements for the schemes based on contract with relevant scheme owners. The GFSI Guidance is not covered in the contract between the scheme owners and ABs. The MLA MC proposed to update the IAF-GFSI agreement; - the MLA MC had asked all MLA signatory ABs to update the IAF listing of FCLs/FPs. The results will be reported in Stockholm and the updated listing will be posted on the IAF Members Only area of the website; - the MLA Group approved the recommendation for the results of the re-evaluation of ANAB; - the MLA MC had reviewed the report for the re-evaluation of SANAS and recommended that SANAS continue its MLA status for QMS, EMS and Product with a follow-up visit within one year of decision by the MLA Group; - the visits for the re-evaluation of EA had now been completed; - IAAC had advised that they would apply for the IAF MLA for EMS and Product around October. The initial evaluation, together with the re-evaluation for QMS, would start in March 2009; - the PAC MLA MC had advised that CNAS had signed the PAC MLA for Product during the PAC Plenary in Malaysia at the end of June. PAC would notify IAF in order for CNAS to sign the IAF MLA for Product in Stockholm; - the MLA MC had reviewed the internal audit report for the IAF MLA management process and had prepared responses which would be sent to the internal auditor for comment. It was proposed that the interval of internal auditing should be extended from the current 12 month period. It was proposed that the next internal audit should be conducted around August 2009 and EA would nominate an internal auditor for this task. Members expressed interest in reviewing the internal audit report and it was agreed that Xiao would forward this to the Secretary for circulation to the Executive after the Internal Auditor reviewed the response from the MLA MC.. Xiao confirmed that this year the funds allocated for conducting the internal audit of the MLA management process had been spent, but the allocation for peer evaluation training had not been. In this respect he proposed that this be reduced from US $10,000 to US $5000.
Page 10 of 20 9. Development Support Committee (DSC) 9.1 Report on Progress 9.1.1 Venkat referred to the draft procedure for funding support which had been circulated to the Executive for comment. Comments had been received from Nilsen and the Secretary, the latter having proposed limits to the support being provided (EC22-9.1). Following discussion, the proposed limits were accepted and it was agreed that Venkat would revise the draft and circulate it to the DSC. Members from developing countries would also be advised that there may be some funding assistance available for participating in the Annual Meetings. The Executive was informed that the last meeting of the JCDCMAS had taken place in March and it had been attended by Maribel Lopez as the ILAC JDSC Co-convener. The JCDCMAS website contained a number of documents which were useful for developing countries. The next meeting would be hosted by BIPM and would take place in the first week of March 2009, unfortunately clashing with the IAF TC meetings. The JDSC would next meet during the Joint Annual Meetings in October and this would be preceded by a seminar on organic foods. It was hoped that this year the attendance would be better than in previous years as the seminar will be held in the middle of the meeting program. With regard to the meeting with UNIDO which had taken place on 2 July in Vienna, Venkat said that UNIDO had indicated that there would be funding support available for activities in October and November this year and they wanted IAF and ILAC to be involved. Maribel would be preparing a program for a number of joint workshops. 10. Communications and Marketing Committee 10.1 Report on Progress 10.1.1 The Chairman explained that Jan Van der Poel had experienced great difficulty in being able to allocate sufficient time to the role of Chair of the Communications and Marketing Committee (CMC) due to pressure of other activities. In an attempt to become more effective in communicating with the marketplace, a task group consisting of Sallé, Dougherty and John Knappenberger of ANAB had approached a promotions company requesting proposals on how this could be achieved. Sallé gave a presentation explaining the services of LA Advertising and their proposals covering a number of phases. The first phase, which could be launched as early as October this year, would be to primarily develop a promotional campaign and a newsletter. The marketing challenge would be how to more effectively communicate the value of accredited certification. The program would also cover IAF s ability to govern its members, update the IAF website as a primary
Page 11 of 20 promotional tool and to provide a newsletter in both print and electronic form 4 to 6 times per year. The newsletter could be distributed for approximately US $1 per copy for each of IAF's customers. The budget for this phase would not exceed US $50,000. The second phase, which could be launched in June 2009, would cover support for International Accreditation Day, conduct a survey of the membership about the need for promotion and promotional tools and provide a formal relaunch of the IAF website. Sallé said that this was not currently an active site, but was for information only. The budget for this phase would not exceed US $100,000. 10.1.2 Thione expressed the view that the promotion should cover the entire world of accreditation rather than just IAF on one hand and ILAC on the other. Sallé indicated that the message that really should be sold was that accredited certification had more value than not being certified and resulted in better companies and products. IAF should not be passive about this message. Talbot said that it would be necessary to make a major decision as to whether IAF followed the route of outsourcing or instead used internal resources. The proposal presented seemed to be a number of times higher than the initial expected cost and this did not include counting the cost of the time of internal personnel. IAF needed to decide what it wanted to do and in what timeframe. Talbot indicated that the current composition of the CMC was of concern. The ILAC MCC members tended to be from the marketing side of their organisations, whereas the IAF CMC was made up of representatives who were the coordinators of their Regions rather than being involved in the hands-on activities. The Chairman assured Talbot that no decisions had been made. The Strategic Plan items allocated to the CMC did not currently have any timelines. He felt that it would be useful if appropriate time estimates could be considered in Stockholm. Referring to the proposal for an IAF newsletter, Pierre queried why reinvent the wheel and instead why not combine ILAC and IAF news items into a common approach covering Accreditation News? Talbot said that the two areas of the newsletter and the website might be possible "quick fixes". He had created a draft work program to meet the CMC Strategic Plan objectives, but he wanted to get support from the CMC and a clearer idea of the way forward before bringing this to the Executive. He said that an indication of how much IAF was prepared to spend could be useful. The Chairman advised that the Executive would give Talbot any support he needed. With regard to funding for the current year he understood that US $10,000 was still available. However there was a need to plan the estimated costs for next year and for these to be submitted for inclusion in the 2009 budget. 11. User Advisory Committee dealt with under item 4.2 12 Cooperation with ILAC 12.1 Future Development of IAF-ILAC 12.1.1 The Chairman informed the Executive that at its meeting on the previous day, the JCCC had agreed to form a task group consisting of the Chairs of IAF, ILAC and the Regions, plus stakeholder interests. It had been agreed that this group would
Page 12 of 20 be led by Thione and would prepare an initial draft which would form the basis for a presentation and discussion at the Stockholm JGA. 12.2 International Accreditation Day 12.2.1 Talbot said that a number of IAF and ILAC members had held successful celebrations for International Accreditation Day on 9 June, with this year's theme being "trust". There was a need to decide on the theme for next year's celebrations and it was proposed that this should be "competence". This was endorsed by the Executive. 12.3 What can be Accredited 12.3.1 The Chairman said that following the last meeting, the document covering What can be accredited? had been split into two documents. The first was "What is accreditation?" while the second was "What is covered or planned to be covered in the immediate future by the respective Arrangements of IAF, IAF/ILAC or ILAC. The JCCC had felt that the information they contained was useful and suggested that copies of both documents should be placed on the IAF and ILAC websites. 12.4 A Series, Application of ISO/IEC 17011 and Training 12.4.1 The JCCC had agreed to consider a proposal from the ILAC Executive to amalgamate the JWG Training with the JWGA (A Series) and the JWG on ISO/IEC 17011, as there was considerable overlap in their activities. In addition the ISO/IEC 17011 application document would become part of the A Series when it was finalised. Draft Terms of Reference would be circulated to the current JWG Coconveners for their views and these would be discussed at the next meeting. 12.5 Measurement Traceability 12.5.1 The proposed small joint Task Force had now been formed with the IAF nominations being Thione and Beer. 12.6 JCCC 12.6.1 At the recent meeting of the JCCC invitations to participate had been extended to the Chairs of the Regions, primarily in the discussion on the future development of IAF-ILAC. At the closing of the meeting, Pierre, as the JCCC Chair for that meeting, had proposed that the membership of the JCCC should be extended to the Regional Chairs, or their deputies, on a permanent basis. 13 Reports from Regional Groups 13.1 EA
Page 13 of 20 13.1.1 Thione referred to a number of important developments which had taken place within EA over the last few months. These included signing of the regulation with the European Union, from a policy point of view, the issuance of the new Regulation on accreditation and market surveillance, recently approved by the European Parliament and adopted by the European Council that will be followed by the signature of implementation guidelines and of a Partnership Agreement between EA and the European Commission (EC) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The Commission had also established the formation of an Inter-service Accreditation Committee gathering EA and all the General Directorates of the EC to promote the use of accreditation in the EC regulatory policy. From the operational point view, Thione reported about the progress in the implementation of the EA Development Plan concerning the three major lines namely: 13.2 PAC - improving the structure and organization of EA to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of its governance, including the amendment of the statutory and regulatory documents; - reinforcing the EA Secretariat - in terms of human and instrumental resources and including the related aspects such as unification of the present two Secretariats (one in Paris and one in Utrecht), employment of the staff (presently supplied by COFRAC and RvA under service contracts), consolidation of the administration process, etc. - to strengthen the operational capabilities of the Association; - achieving and duly allocating the financial resources necessary for sustaining the functioning of the new EA. the strengthening of the secretariat staff in the Paris office and discussions with the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) on the development of guidelines for cooperation to support the implementation of the new legislation. Thione confirmed that Wwork was progressing satisfactorily on the five subprojects of the EA Development Project. specifically set up to underpin the new role of accreditation in the mandatory area. At the end of May EA had 35 full members, 17 contracts of cooperation and 10 bilateral agreements with ABs of countries non members of or candidate to the EU and EFTA, and had signed a MoU with LNCSM of Libya and with GFSI. Jacques McMillan (of the European Commission) had accepted an invitation to attend the JGA in October and to give a presentation on the impact of the EU Regulations outside of Europe. 13.2.1 The Executive noted the report (EC22-13.2) which had been circulated prior to the meeting. Nilsen informed the meeting that PAC now had a new MoU, CNAS had become a new MLA signatory for product certification and Lane Hellenbeck of ANSI had been appointed as the new CMC Chair. The next PAC Plenary would be hosted by TAF and would be held from the 13th to the 20th of June 2009. 13.3 IAAC
Page 14 of 20 13.3.1 Pat Paladino, the new IAAC Chairman, reported that there had recently been 2 ABs sign the MLA, IAAC now had a total of 41 members of which 25% were stakeholders, and a new three-year strategic plan would start in September. The next IAAC Plenary would take place in Paraguay in September and he extended an invitation to the Chairman to attend. He commented that IAAC members had expressed concern as to the impact of the new European regulations. 13.4 SADCA 13.4.1 The Executive noted the report (EC22-13.4) which had been circulated prior to the meeting. Marobela reported on the appointment of Mrs Maureen Mutasa, formerly of Zimbabwe Standards, as the first CEO of SADCAS, and Mrs Jeanne-Francoise Ranorovelo from Madagascar as the Technical Manager. An important ongoing item being considered by SADCA was the training of regional technical assessors. 14 International Liaison 14.1 ISO 14.1.1 IAF-ILAC-ISO JWG 14.1.1.1 The Chairman referred to the draft Communique on the relationship between ISO standards and IAF-ILAC Mandatory Documents which had been prematurely tabled at the Sydney JGA, prior to it having been reviewed by ISO. At the recent JWG meeting ISO had proposed that this be scrapped and instead had tabled a revised IAF-ILAC-ISO MoU which included the concept of IAF and ILAC preparing Mandatory Documents for the application of ISO standards. It was proposed that this should be signed either at the JGA in Stockholm or at the CASCO meetings in Geneva the following week. The Chairman said that during the JWG meeting a lot of time had been spent on market surveillance and the review of a draft action plan. This will be revised by the CASCO Secretary. 14.1.2 ISO/TC 176 14.1.2.1 The Executive noted that there were still vacancies for the liaisons to ISO/TC 176 and ISO/TC 207. A request for volunteers had been made at the TC meeting in Bonn but no one had come forward. The Chairman said that ILAC also wanted to use the same liaison representative for ISO/TC 176. Venkat suggested that a circular be sent to all members asking if anyone was interested in being liaison(s) to these committees, but making it clear that IAF was not contributing any funding support. The liaison representative would need to be capable of transferring information to and from ISO/TC 176. The Chairman said that failing this it might be necessary to reconsider whether it was worthwhile having a permanent representative for these committees. He proposed that following the circulation referred to above, if there were no volunteers the TC should be asked to consider the need for permanent liaison. 14.2 CASCO
Page 15 of 20 14.2.1 The Chairman informed the Committee that the new STAR and TIG (Technical Interface Group) had held their first meetings in April. Thione indicated that the report would be circulated to the Executive when it was available. It was noted that a report on the TIG from Talbot was in the meeting papers (EC22-14.2). 14.2.2 The Chairman indicated that IAF would be represented at this year's CASCO Plenary by Dougherty and himself. 14.3 IEC 14.3.1 The Secretary reported that the changes proposed by IAF to the draft IAF-IEC MoU had been accepted by IEC. The only changes suggested by IEC had been the amendment of "Schemes" to "Systems" and the initial period of the MoU being reduced from five to two years. The IEC CAB Chairman had suggested that if this was satisfactory the MoU could be signed during the week of the CASCO meetings. 14.3.2 The Executive noted that a problem concerning the interpretation/application of the IAF-ILAC Sydney Resolution JGA 7 had recently arisen and efforts were being made by Thione, Dougherty and the Secretary to resolve this. The matter concerned the issuing of a statement or "certificate" by IEC Conformity Assessment Systems CB's of compliance with ISO/IEC 17025. Paladino asked that it be minuted that he did not consider the IEC CB "Scheme" to be equivalent to IAF accredited third party certification. Sallé suggested that a disclaimer should be included in the MoU that explained that the second party IEC CB scheme was not equivalent to an IAF accredited third party scheme. The Chairman said that the amendments proposed by IAF had been accepted by IEC and he was reluctant to request that a note to this effect be included. This had not been in any previous drafts of the proposed MoU. Nilsen said that if the MoU did go ahead there would be a need to watch promotional material very carefully to ensure that it did not denigrate accredited third party certification. It was agreed that the revised draft MoU would be again circulated to the Executive for final review. 14.4 UN COP & UNFCCC 14.4.1 The Chairman confirmed that Mr Kameyama of JAB had taken over as the IAF liaison representative. 15 Industry Sectors 15.1 Telecommunications 15.1.1 Sallé informed the meeting that the QuEST Forum would be holding its best practices meeting in September in Denver. Notification would be forwarded to IAF in due course. 15.2 ICSCA
Page 16 of 20 15.4.1 The Executive noted the report (EC22-15.6) received from Peter Unger who had represented both ILAC and IAF at the meeting held in Florida in April. The next meeting of ICSCA would take place on 7 and 8 April in Florida. 16 Other Business - There was no other business. 17 Future Annual Meetings 17.1 Stockholm, 10 to 22 October, 2008 17.1.1 The Secretary informed the Executive that arrangements for the meeting were now well in hand and registrations had been open for over a month. At this stage it was virtually impossible to make any alterations to the meeting program. 17.2 Vancouver, 9 21 October, 2009 - no change to confirmed dates. 18 Next Executive Meetings 18.1 Stockholm, October 2008 18.1.1 The Executive noted that the next meeting would be held on 13 October in conjunction with the IAF-ILAC Annual Meetings in Stockholm. 18.2 March 2009 18.2.1 The Chairman explained that there had been a change in the administration of DAC (Dubai) and they had withdrawn their offer to host meetings of the IAF TC and Executive next year. NABCB had kindly offered to host the meetings scheduled for March 2009. Venkat informed the meeting that unfortunately hotels in New Delhi were prohibitively expensive. Gyani and he had reviewed a number of different locations, the most promising being Chenai and Mumbai. Unfortunately Chenai had the problem of limited flight access, while Mumbai had direct flights, but the costs of the meeting rooms were far higher. It was agreed that Venkat and Gyani would determine the most convenient venue for delegates to travel to, bearing in mind the limitations of the registration fees and hotel costs specified in the IAF Hosting Manual. 18.3 June 2009 18.3.1 The Chairman informed the Executive that Talbot, on behalf of UKAS, had kindly offered to host the meetings of the IAF and ILAC Executives and associated meetings in London next June. It was proposed that the IAF Executive should meet on 22 and 23 June, the IAF-ILAC-ISO JWG (and possibly the MLA MC and JMC) on 24 June, the JCCC on 25 June and the ILAC Executive on 26 and 27 June.
Page 17 of 20 19 Close 19.0.1 The Chairman thanked members for their contributions. On behalf of the Executive he expressed his appreciation to Pierre for hosting the week of meetings and providing such excellent hospitality. End of minutes of the Twenty Second Meeting of the IAF Executive Committee Minutes Confirmed: Dr Thomas Facklam IAF Chairman Date:
Page 18 of 20 ACTION REMINDERS WHO Paragraph in Record WHAT From Executive Twenty Second Meeting () Nilsen & Facklam 4.1.2 Prepare proposed amendments for membership obligations and means for including the JIG in the IAF structure DUE/STATUS August Beer 4.2.1 Review UAC nominations and constitution July Thione 4.2.1 Raise UAC membership with CASCO STAR August Secretary 4.5.1 Seek nominations for CMC Chair August Breitzmann 5.1 Forward summary of year-to-date expenditure to Secretary for circulation All 5.1.1 Submit 2009 budget needs to the Treasurer August Nilsen & Facklam July 6.1.6 Review/revise membership application criteria August Xiao 8.1.1 Forward internal audit report to Secretary for circulation Venkat 9.1.1 Revise funding support draft and circulate to DSC Secretary 12.3.1 Place "accreditation coverage" documents on IAF website (in parallel with ILAC) Secretary 14.1.2.1 Circulate request for ISO/TC 176 and ISO/TC 207 liaisons Thione 14.2.1 Forward copy of STAR minutes to the Secretary for circulation Secretary 14.3.2 Circulate revised IAF-IEC MoU for any final objections SeptemberAug ust August September August August August From Executive Twenty First Meeting (March 2008) Secretary 4.3.1 Circulate request for nominations for MLAC Chair Dougherty & Sallé 4.4.1 Obtain promotional material and cost breakdown Completed Completed Min_ExC22_0807
Page 19 of 20 Xiao 4.6.1 Submit paper on monitoring MLA Mark License Agreements Dougherty, Xiao & Secretary 4.7.1 Finalise revision of IAF PR 4 May Chairs 5.1.1 Submit 2009 budget needs to the Treasurer June Secretary 6.1.1 Contact ANSI re membership application Completed Secretary 6.1.3 Re-offer QuEST Forum association membership Completed Xiao 8.3.1 Forward draft for 60 day comment to Secretary Completed Xiao 8.4.1 Forward draft for publication to Secretary Completed Venkat 9.1.1 Prepare funding support proposal Completed Van der Poel Van der Poel 10.2.1 Forward wording to Secretary 10.3.1 Prepare position paper Dougherty 12.8 TC to nominate 2 IAF members for JTF on metrology Completed Dougherty 14.1.2.1 Nominate liaison representative to ISO/TC 176 In progress Dougherty 14.1.5.1 Nominate liaison representative to ISO/TC 207 In progress Secretary 14.3.1 Contact IEC CAB Chair re MoU with IAF Completed Secretary 16.1.1 Update TC Hosting Manual Completed Secretary 18.2.1 Forward TC Hosting Manual to DAC Completed From Executive Twentieth Meeting (October 2007) Thione 4.2.2 Forward copy of EA AB Constitution to Secretary December All 8.4.1 Forward ideas for promotion of Mark to Arnold February Van der Poel 10.2.1 Circulate draft Product MLA statement February Min_ExC22_0807
Page 20 of 20 Min_ExC22_0807