Standards Review Committee (RevCom) Conventions

RevCom operates in an open manner. To that end, no material submitted to RevCom will be accepted or considered if it contains any statement that places any burden on the recipient(s) with respect to confidentiality or copyright. Any communication, including electronic mail, containing language with such restrictive wording will not be accepted or considered. Submittal packages containing such communication will be returned to the submitter. Resubmission shall be in compliance with ordinary deadlines applicable to submittal packages.

It should be noted that this policy does not apply to IEEE copyrighted materials, such as draft standards. In the event that copyrighted materials are to be incorporated in an IEEE standard, acceptable copyright permission (license, release or, assignment) must be obtained from the copyright owner prior to approval of the standard by the IEEE SA Standards Board (See IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual 4.1.1.5).

If, during the review process, RevCom concludes that post-balloting changes are proposed (e.g., changes from mandatory coordination bodies) which are both non-editorial and required, the draft and proposed changes will be returned to the Standards Committee for appropriate action.

This convention will apply when these conditions are all met:

• Post-balloting changes are proposed
  (typically from, legal review, Registration Authority Committee (RAC), Staff, or the Standards Committee)
• RevCom concludes the changes are required
  (e.g., from the Standards Committee or a Coordinating body)
• RevCom concludes the changes are substantive
  (e.g., the Standards Committee has stated they are technical, or Staff considers they are technical)

Recommendation for conditional approval of a proposed standard can be granted when all of the requirements of the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual have been met with the exception of documentation of one or two actions (e.g., copyright permissions, missing supporting documentation). The conditional recommendation will be considered by the Standards Board as a conditional approval and the standard, once conditionally approved by the Standards Board, will not be published until the conditions have been met.

If the documentation is not received by the RevCom Administrator by the next RevCom submittal deadline, the proposed standard is returned to the Standards Committee disapproved, and a new submittal of the document will be required.

The official approval date will be determined by the date the information is received and/or once staff/RevCom review is complete.

The IEEE SA Standards Board Bylaws and the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual are regularly updated. RevCom evaluates each action by the Standards Committee for compliance with the IEEE SA Standards Board Bylaws and the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual in effect at the time of the action.

A project may be placed on the RevCom agenda if a recirculation ballot is in progress at the submittal deadline. This is called the active recirculation ballot.

The project will be considered by RevCom only if all preconditions and required conditions for the active recirculation ballot have been met.

Preconditions:

• The Project has achieved the required approval, return, and abstention rates as of the last ballot conducted prior to the submittal.
• The initial submission to RevCom included the recirculated draft and all RevCom submission documents.
• The initial submission met the submission deadline.
• The active recirculation ballot (i.e., intended to be the last such ballot) started no later than the submittal deadline.

Required conditions for the active recirculation ballot:

• No additional valid negative votes were received prior to the close of the active recirculation ballot. Additional negatives on prior issues are allowed, provided the 75% approval rate is achieved. A valid negative vote is one that meets the requirements of the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual Subclauses 5.4.3.2, 5.4.3.3, and 5.4.3.4.
• Comment resolutions (if any) for the active recirculation ballot are submitted at least 10 days before the RevCom meeting.

A Standards Committee’s commitment to make a change in a future revision to resolve a negative ballot will cause the submittal to be rejected.

If the Standards Committee and negative balloter agree to consider the negative comments at the next revision without a commitment to make a change to the document under consideration, and the balloter then changes his or her vote to affirmative or abstain, no recirculation is needed since there is no commitment to revise the document.

For submittals that do not receive RevCom approval, a member of RevCom may be assigned to the Standards Committee as a mentor. The mentor will assist the Standards Committee in understanding the procedures of the IEEE SA Standards Board and the RevCom Conventions.

The mentor, acting as a representative of RevCom, will assist the Standards Committee in understanding RevCom’s reasons for not approving the submittal; will assist the Standards Committee in implementing the action(s) that RevCom has suggested; and will attempt to ensure that actions taken conform to procedures. The mentor will supply status reports to RevCom. If six months pass and there is no contact between the Standards Committee and the mentor or if one year passes and the Standards Committee does not take any action regarding the project, then the project will be dropped from RevCom’s mentored projects list.

1. Responsibility of Standards Committee/Working Group Chair – It is important that comments be responded to prior to the RevCom meeting. If a RevCom member posts a comment, response is requested from the Standards Committee/Working Group Chair 2 days prior to the RevCom meeting date. If the Standards Committee/Working Group Chair fails to respond to RevCom member comments, the project may be recommended to be deferred to the next meeting or disapproved.
2. Responsibility of RevCom member – Each RevCom member should post vote and comments during the “Individual Review” period (typically, ten days interval). Each RevCom member should review comments and dialog during the “Open Review” period (typically, about three weeks) as needed, and at least prior to the meeting date. RevCom Members should respond to all Standards Committee/Working Group Chair’s comments 2 days prior to the RevCom meeting date.

The RevCom Chair may make the determination if a project is appropriate for a teleconference agenda see Clause 4.2.6 of the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual.

• Form for Submittal of Proposed Standards
• IEEE SA Policies and Procedures
• Standards Board Bylaws
• Standards Board Operations Manual
• IEEE SA Board of Governors