The Benefits of ANSI Membership to the SAWE Society, Corporate, and Individual Members

The SAWE has been a member of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) since 2012, and an accredited Standards Developing Organization (SDO) since 2014. We are proud of this role and our association with 285 other SDO’s in the United States. We also do not do this to avoid responsibility as an International standards developer, but to enhance that as well. SAWE is legally incorporated in the United States and so to participate in International, ISO, sanctioned standards development work, it does so as an SDO for the United States’ sole member to ISO, which is ANSI. But all SAWE work thru ANSI is open to full participation by members and corporations from any country. Through this process we develop ANSI/SAWE STD documents with full international participation in our voluntary consensus manner. We also develop Recommended Practices, SAWE RP’s, in an open consensus manner which is fully accessible and in cooperation with our International Membership.

 Benefits for belonging to SAWE with the above focus are manifest at several levels. First, as SAWE has a long tradition of doing, the work brings together technical and programmatic insights from the best Mass Properties Engineers in the world. It is motivational to know that the work ongoing within SAWE can have US and International impact to products from under the sea to outside our solar system. As an individual, participation in ANSI process brings recognition as someone who cares about defining and improving the world of Mass Properties Engineering. Our corporate members are key to providing the resources and strategic guidance the SAWE uses in creating new standards and assuring existing standards are up to date and relevant to modern acquisition programs and product operational needs. Corporate membership gives our sponsors insight into the issues of currency in Mass Properties Engineering, and SAWE activities are vitalized by receiving such guidance. Secondly, for our corporate support the American National Standards Institute wants you to know that “Standards Boost Business” (https://www.standardsboostbusiness.org ) Millions of dollars are saved thru implementation of standard practices, business is provided assurances in product quality across corporate and regional borders. Engineering artifacts, technical and managerial in nature, may be contractually assured to merge more easily between buyer / supplier relationships.

Recently ANSI organized a meeting with some current Captains of Industry regarding an “Executive Roundtable on Strategic Standardization and Competitiveness”. Based on past meetings between U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and ANSI President S. Joe Bhatia, the issue of “Underinvestment in Standards” was the basis for this recent roundtable activity. These meetings called for “… sustained investment in terms of funding, manpower, and participation by both the public and private sectors to make that leadership possible”.  SAWE corporate and individual membership provides a direct path for such an investment opportunity and for fulfilling leadership roles in the field of Mass Properties Engineering.

 The role of SAWE thru its ANSI membership and our associated International standards development goals is a proud and growing opportunity for the Society. We encourage you as members, corporations, government organizations, product suppliers and product users to share in our eagerness to define this International journey in the future of Mass Properties Engineering.

Jeff Cerro