IAS holds Accreditation Committee hearings in October and December 2020

The International Accreditation Service (IAS) Accreditation Committee met twice in the past year to review several significant criteria revisions as well as new criteria to support the roll-out of new conformity assessment programs. The IAS Accreditation Committee is appointed by the IAS Board of Directors. The committee chairperson is Neville Pereira, P.E., CBO, county of Santa Clara, San Jose, Calif., and the vice-chairperson is Linda Anguish, Institute for Credentialing Excellence, Washington D.C. The membership of the committee includes individuals from our global conformity assessment community as well as experts from varied backgrounds.

During the two 2020 hearings of the Accreditation Committee held on Oct. 22, 2020, and Dec. 14, 2020, the members reviewed several criteria. Salient among the technical documents is AC251, Accreditation Criteria for Building Departments, Code Enforcement, and Third-Parties Providing Building and/or Property Maintenance Code Enforcement Services, which is intended to bring the ISO Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule Program into the IAS accreditation process. Also, revision and amalgamation of Accreditation Criteria for Training Agencies for Workforce Qualification Programs, AC371 and Accreditation Criteria for Curriculum Development for Workforce Qualification Programs, AC372 into a single document titled Accreditation Criteria for Training Providers and Training Course Developers to allow for a harmonized approach to training providers. Accreditation Criteria for Approval Program of Fabricators of Container-Based Structures, AC786 is intended to extend the fabrication program to include approval of container-based structures and Registration Criteria for Building Departments/Code Enforcement Agencies, RC418, a new program designed to provide a pathway to jurisdictions towards formal accreditation.

As a result of COVID, these hearings, which are usually held in-person, switched to virtual format and for the first time provided a wonderful opportunity for our global members to join in and contribute to the technical discussions. As in so many other instances, the COVID situation provided a significant opportunity to showcase IAS’ activities, which are generally confined to the United States, to our global family. We expect that future accreditation committees will continue to see enhanced interest in our technical activities.

Please check the IAS website for future notices of our Accreditation Committee hearings.