STANDARDS AND COMMITTEES CONSIDERATIONS

January 31, 2020

For more than 70 years, SSPC and NACE have developed industry-respected standards that are referenced worldwide. In fact, the organizations have worked together on multiple standards over the years, including 15 joint standards, 2 joint visual guides, and 6 joint technical papers.

In considering a combined organization, members leading these discussions have agreed that this is an opportunity to renew focus on developing standards that meet the needs of the entire international community of members, asset protection professionals and corporations.  By working together the associations can streamline the process of standards development, adoption, and implementation, for the entire industry.

In order to efficiently combine the best of any overlapping SSPC and NACE programs, a model has been considered which consists of the development of member-led program committees which would be responsible for providing recommendations and planning support to staff for distinct programmatic areas such as standards development.

Both SSPC and NACE standards and programs would have a board liaison responsible for providing strategic guidance to the program committee and reporting progress back to the board.

One question that members have posed is: How will existing standards be treated with regard to maintenance and revisions?

If the decision is made to create a combined organization, existing standards will continue to be maintained according to current processes and procedures. There will be an opportunity to reconfigure the standards writing and revision process to make it more efficient, so standards development may be quicker, more efficient, and responsive to industry changes.

In order to advance the next generation of industry standards and best practices, top technical expertise needs a forum and framework to bring emerging theory in asset protection into practice. By joining forces both organizations would potentially create that forum.

Next week in Long Beach, CA, SSPC is hosting the Coatings+2020 conference.  If you will be in California for the show, please join us for the Annual Business Meeting and any of the Town Hall meetings where we’ll welcome your questions regarding this process.  If you cannot join us in person, the Annual Business Meeting and first Town Hall will be live streamed on SSPC’s Facebook page on Monday, February 3rd starting at 2:30PM PST.  We welcome you to follow along there and to continue submitting your questions to [email protected] and through the SSPC-NACE feedback form.

Following is a timeline of upcoming discussion-related milestones.

• February 1-2 – SSPC Board of Governors Meeting
• February 3, 4, 5 – SSPC hosts Town Hall meetings at Coatings+2020 in Long Beach
• February 24 – NACE Board of Directors holds update meeting
• March 14 – NACE Board of Directors Meeting
• March 16, 17, 18 – NACE hosts Town Hall meetings at CORROSION 2020 in Houston

Please check your inbox next Friday, February 7 for Update #5 – SSPC Board of Governors Meeting and Annual Conference Update.