Standards 101; the ASA standards program

Abstract

ASA supports the development of standards by serving as the secretariat for standards committees of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The program is organized through four ANSI technical committees (S1, S2, S3, and S12) and one administrative committee (ASACOS). S1 deals with physical acoustics, S2 deals with shock and vibration, S3 deals with physiological and psychological acoustics, and S12 deals with noise. ASACOS is the ASA Committee on Standards. The program has three primary tasks: (1) the development of National Standards (ANSI Standards), (2) the national adoption of an international standard (ANSI NAIS Standards), (3) providing the USA input to the development of International Standards (ISO and IEC Standards). At every level the main work is accomplished in Working Groups (WG) that are ‘‘staffed’’ by hundreds of volunteers—mainly ASA members from its various technical committees such as Noise, Physical Acoustics, Architectural Acoustics, Psychological and Physiological Acoustics, etc. Overall, the Standards Program involves more ASA members than does any other single function of the Society except meetings and it is the biggest outreach function of ASA affecting the health, welfare, and economic well-being of large segments of the population, the business and industrial community, and government at all levels.