Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1367446
32 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2021 require a different kind of substance reporting, but both address ECHA SCIP. It's a part of a new EU reporting obligation. Like the 1754, which is the aerospace one, the IPC-1752 had to revise their standard. And then the materi- als declaration 1752B or 1752 put out a whole new revision, but they're working on the same thing. ere was a lot of crosstalk between the two committees, saying, "How are you han- dling this or that? How does this work in the greater framework?" Someone earlier mentioned that they had committee members jumping out of meet- ings to go talk to other committees. is is an example of that, where they said, "We have to synchronize on this. is has to be the same," or not the same. "is has to be at least philo- sophically the same approach to how we tackle this issue that has a hard deadline. We can't just keep putting it off. We have to meet this regu- latory deadline." Which they did. I'm proud to say they met it. Matties: I guess when you have regulatory dead- lines that really keeps the committee focused and moving on pace. Crawford: Yes. It's kind of terrifying sometimes, but it's always exciting. Matties: As we're talking, I'm gaining a greater appreciation for the hard work that you guys are doing. is is not easy work by any means. How many people do you have working in committees? What's the population right now? Rowe: We have about 3,000 committee mem- bers worldwide. Matties: Wow. at's amazing. I've heard recently that there is a lot more Asian partici- pation in standards work. Are you seeing that as well? Rowe: We are. We have a lot of committees that are working as regional groups out of the Asia Pacific region, and we have staff liaisons that reside and work out of our offices in China. We are in regular communi- cation with them on how our groups are work- ing, and then they're also working some projects that were initiated in the China region. Matties: What do you think is the most impor- tant thing the industry should know about the committees and the work that you're doing? Jorgensen: It's open. Unlike IEC, our standards groups are open. We invite and encourage participation and debate. ere's no cost to get involved. As you were talking to Teresa earlier about the number of committee mem- bers and their level and length of involve- ment, we have people that will come and go, people who stay on forever. But also, your involvement on the committee is entirely up to you. If you want to be an active participant and help to dra the document, you can do that. If you want to be somebody who is going to sit back, wait for the document to come out and then comment on it, we encourage that as well. But the thing is that all of our groups are open. We don't shut anybody out. Crawford: Adding to that, if you're in indus- try and you are staring a problem in the face and you think, "I really feel like I'm not alone. I don't think I'm alone," and there doesn't exist an industry solution for it, standard or other- wise, talk to us. We are here for building stan- dards. You can go to our website where we have a portal for you to submit an idea for a standard and we will work with you if we can find enough people to support it. at's some- thing we can do. Let's not let problems stop us from getting better. Teresa Rowe