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36 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2021 ute to how those standards are created and/or revised does not exist. It's our job to remind people in our industry that they can have a voice within IPC standards, that their company can be represented in the effort and that they can influence the course of the standard and help ensure the finished document meets today's technology needs. IPC staff liaisons are not authors or writers of the standards; editors and publishers, yes, but it is the volunteer members that collectively write the content. People come and go within our industry over the years, and thus it is our task to promote the same message: IPC stan- dards can only move forward with technology changes if there are industry volunteers will- ing to join our subcommittees and task groups and contribute their time, energy, input, com- ments, and votes. Ensuring Balance and Industry Representation IPC staff liaisons work to make sure these volunteer IPC subcommittees and task groups are well balanced and represent, as closely as possible, an equal mix of suppliers and users, as well as others representing design, test- ing, and perhaps also academia, government, and consultancies. You do not have to be an existing volunteer within one of our standards groups to visualize that if, for example, a sub- committee tasked with developing a qualifica- tion and performance specification for a spe- cific material technology composed mostly or entirely of the material vendors will result in a standard that largely favors those suppli- ers, or that a performance specification for rigid printed boards developed by a commit- tee dominated by the OEM end users will have very stringent requirements. IPC staff liai- sons ensure that IPC's volunteer subcommit- tees and task groups have balanced represen- tation among users and suppliers and that the published standard represents a compromise between suppliers and customers. e quality of the finished IPC standard depends greatly on the make-up of the subcommittee or task group that developed/revised it. Maintain that Heading, Helmsman! IPC staff liaisons are charged with support- ing the leaders (e.g., chair, co-chairs and/or vice-chairs) in making sure the standard devel- opment effort stays on course throughout the entire project cycle from Working Dra to FDIR, Proposed Standard for Ballot (PSB) and final publication. It is no surprise to see volunteer contributors who wish to have their company's position reflected in the standard, and as such, oen times, the staff liaison and the chairs must work to ensure that "scope creep" does not weave its way into the pro- cess and turn what was originally intended as a three- to four-year project into a five- to six- year behemoth that now struggles to achieve the group consensus required for publication. We as IPC staff liaisons may sometimes have to jump in, clarify the project scope, then "draw a line in the sand" and have some content put off to the side in order to prevent the docu- ment effort from turning into a "rolling donut" and not getting published. It may be necessary to set aside some of the goals for a future doc- ument Amendment or Revision in order to get the document published in a timely man- ner. IPC staff liaisons also ensure that Roberts Rules of Order are followed during meetings. No Hanging Chads, Please IPC staff liaisons oversee the voting on a standard during its PSB phase, including the creation of a Consensus Ballot Group (CBG) that is oen composed of a subset of the main subcommittee or task group membership who have taken the responsibility to review and vote on the document. IPC staff liaisons work to obtain a minimum two-thirds response from the members of the CBG, and should negative ballots be submitted, IPC staff liaisons ensure they are accompanied by technical comments containing recommended changes that are in turn reviewed and dispositioned by the sub-