Workshop on Development Stages of International Standards and Their Voting Mechanism
SASO organized an introductory workshop on international standard specifications, their development stages and voting mechanism. The workshop was attended by managers of different sections of the General Department of Standards and the secretaries of SASO's technical teams. The workshop included a work paper presented by the standardization expert, Eng. Husain Ahmad.
The workshop involved an introductory presentation about international standard specifications and their different deliverables, such as Technical Specifications (TS), Technical Reports (TR), Publicly Available Specifications (PAS), International Workshop Agreements (IWA) and ISO Guide. It also discussed the stages of developing international standards, the conditions of each stage and the voting period.
Eng. Husain Ahmad clarified the voting mechanism and explained the voting form in detail. Moreover, he presented a practical explanation of the voting method by accessing ISO's official website and the link of voting on draft standards. He provided practical experiences related to different situations of voting. Further, he illustrated how to answer coming questions in different stages and how to revote when changing opinions. The workshop included many discussions raised by Mr. Sa'ad Al-Hatim, the Manager of Textile Section at SASO, and Eng. Abdulaziz Al-Dous, a researcher at Textile Section.
Participants of the workshop expressed their happiness about holding such distinctive events that contribute to enriching the scientific and technical background of members of technical teams working at different departments of SASO, especially the General Department of Standards. They conveyed their hope for regular organizing of such events as they have a vital role in enhancing technical and professional capabilities of SASO's employees.
Organizing the workshop comes within the framework of SASO's keenness to keep abreast of developments in the international arena, which are related to international standards. It also comes from the importance of voting on draft international standard specifications besides other issues presented at the international committees, in order to promote the methodology of developing Saudi standard specifications by technical teams. Those technical teams are also responsible for following up international work. They are compared to international technical committees which are considered their counterparts.