Dear colleagues,
The start of summer marks a time of hope, renewal, and hopefully a little relaxation. With vaccinations continuing and businesses and activities opening up, the U.S. is indeed at a turning point, and brighter days are ahead.
As the nation begins to emerge from the pandemic, many sectors continue to face financial pressures. Companies and organizations, both big and small, are looking to prioritize spending, re-evaluate activities, and increase efficiencies where possible. I am pleased to share that for the second consecutive year, the Board of Directors Finance Committee unanimously agreed with ANSI management’s recommendation: membership dues will not increase next year. Similarly, ANSI has also decided not to increase national and international activity assessments in 2022.
Be assured that ANSI will maintain our focus on cost containment and efficiency-enhancing measures that support the delivery of high-quality, value-added services to our members, such as our recently launched Government Relations and Public Policy Update, which puts key information about legislative and regulatory initiatives impacting standardization at our members’ fingertips. This new resource is especially timely, as the strategic importance of standardization has been recognized in several recent pieces of legislation. ANSI leadership has welcomed the opportunity to engage with numerous Congressional staff and government officials to highlight the breadth of U.S. leadership and activity in international standardization, and educate them about the role of the private-sector-led standardization system in spurring U.S. competitiveness.
At every opportunity, ANSI is committed to supporting our members’ success and continually addressing your needs. In direct response to members’ responses to our recent WSW survey, which revealed continued uncertainties about organizational travel budgets and personal health and safety, ANSI has decided to take a unique approach to World Standards Week (WSW) 2021, splitting the events across fall 2021 and spring 2022 to ensure safe, engaging, and successful events in what continue to be unique times:
- A number of WSW 2021 events will be held virtually on October 25-29, 2021, including ANSI’s member forums, the Annual Business Meeting, and the Institute’s policy advisory groups. I know that our members miss the networking and more personal interactions that make WSW so special – so do I. And that’s why ANSI will be enhancing the virtual WSW event this October to include virtual networking, greater use of video, and more two-way dialogue between presenters and attendees. And as an extra special event, ANSI – in partnership with UL and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission – will host a half-day event to share best practices and methodologies for measuring the overall health and safety impact of standards. You won’t want to miss it.
- The larger, celebratory events originally scheduled for WSW 2021 will take place in-person in spring 2022, when a better outlook is expected for health, safety, and organizational travel budgets. These events will include the ANSI Leadership and Service Awards Ceremony honoring the 2020-2021 awardees, an issue-focused conference, and the U.S. Celebration of World Standards Day with the theme, Standards for Sustainable Development Goals.
Given that we missed one year of in-person events, we now have the opportunity to celebrate two! Looking ahead, I’m pleased to confirm that World Standards Week 2022 will take place in person in Washington DC, in fall 2022. Events will include an awards ceremony honoring a new set of awardees, a U.S. Celebration of World Standards Day, and many more events making up a full World Standards Week celebration.
Dates and details are forthcoming and will be announced on www.ansi.org/wsweek, so please stay tuned.
Thank you again for your continued support of ANSI – and to everyone who provided input into the survey to help us tailor the WSW plans to address our members’ needs. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at all upcoming events. In the meantime, I wish you a safe, healthy, and happy summer!
Best regards,
Joe Bhatia
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