Standardization News

Shown left to right, at the COPANT training: James Olshefsky, ASTM International; Daniel Trillos, ICONTEC; Leslie McDermott, ANSI; and Patricia Harris, NIST.

James Olshefsky, director, external relations, ASTM, attended the Pan American Standards Commission training for young professionals on Oct. 26-27, 2015. The event was held in Bogotá at the headquarters of ICONTEC, the national standards body of Colombia. Olshefsky was invited to attend the event through the American National Standards Institute's Standards Alliance program. He was accompanied by Leslie McDermott, ANSI, and Pat Harris, U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Daniel Trillos, head of standardization at ICONTEC, and a past participant in ASTM standards expert program, was joined by Olshefsky and the others.

During the training, Olshefsky presented on international standards. He also had the opportunity to meet and speak with new standards professionals from several national standards bodies. Countries in attendance included the Bahamas, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, St. Lucia, Suriname and Venezuela.

The training workshop included presentations from the ICONTEC staff on various topics such as strategy, organizational structure, standards development process and commercial business. McDermott presented on the World Trade Organization's Code of Good Practice, while Harris spoke on the use of standards in regulation. Each attendee also had the opportunity to make a presentation about their own country's organization.