Clause 5: IEEE-SA Standards Board Bylaws

5. IEEE-SA Standards Board procedures and responsibilities

5.1 Transaction of business

Regular meetings of the IEEE-SA Standards Board shall be held quarterly, in accordance with a schedule approved at the first meeting of each year. Special meetings may be called, when deemed necessary, by the Chair or at the request of five members.

Unless otherwise provided in the IEEE Certificate of Incorporation, the IEEE Constitution, the IEEE Bylaws, or the New York Not-For-Profit Corporation Law, the vote of a majority of the voting members of the IEEE-SA Standards Board present at the time of the vote, if a quorum is present at such a time, shall be the act of the IEEE-SA Standards Board.

Approval of proposed IEEE standards, or proposed withdrawal of such standards, shall require affirmative votes by at least 75% of the voting members present at the time of the vote, if a quorum is present. Except as otherwise specified in these bylaws, meetings of the IEEE-SA Standards Board shall be run in accordance with the parliamentary procedures of Robert's Rules of Order (latest edition).

5.2 Standards-development process

5.2.1 Participation in IEEE standards development

Participants in IEEE standards development shall act based on their qualifications, beliefs, and experience. All participants in IEEE standards development are expected to be familiar with, and act in accordance with, the IEEE Code of Ethics. IEEE Standards Sponsor chairs and Sponsor liaison representatives shall be members of IEEE-SA and shall also be either IEEE members of any grade or IEEE affiliates.

5.2.1.1 Membership requirements for standards developed under the individual method

Chairs of IEEE standards working groups developing standards under the individual method shall be members of IEEE-SA and shall also be either IEEE members of any grade or IEEE affiliates. Designees (those designated to manage the Sponsor ballot) in the IEEE Standards Sponsor individual ballot process shall be members of IEEE-SA and shall also be either IEEE members of any grade or IEEE affiliates.

5.2.1.2 Membership requirements for standards developed under the entity method

Chairs of IEEE standards working groups developing standards under the entity method shall be representatives of entity IEEE-SA members. Designees (those designated to manage the Sponsor ballot) in the IEEE Standards Sponsor entity ballot process shall be representatives of entity IEEE-SA members.

Each entity participating in an IEEE-SA entity standards working group is required to pay the IEEE-SA entity per-project participation fee established by the IEEE-SA BOG. Any entity that does not pay this fee shall not be entitled to voting rights in that IEEE-SA entity standards working group.

5.2.1.3 Dominance

The standards development process shall not be dominated by any single interest category, individual, or organization.

Dominance is normally defined as the exercise of authority, leadership, or influence by reason of superior leverage, strength, or representation to the exclusion of fair and equitable consideration of other viewpoints. Dominance can also be defined as the exercise of authority, leadership, or influence by reason of sufficient leverage, strength, or representation to hinder the progress of the standards development activity. Such dominance is contrary to open and fair participation by all interested parties and is unacceptable.

If evidence of dominance exists, corrective action shall be initiated. If the Sponsor's official P&P contain corrective action(s), the Sponsor shall implement such action(s) and promptly notify the IEEE-SA Standards Board. If the Sponsor's official P&P do not contain corrective actions, the Sponsor shall initiate corrective action(s), but only after such action(s) have been approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board.

In the absence of effective corrective action(s) by the Sponsor, the IEEE-SA Standards Board shall implement either the corrective action specified in 5.2.1.3.1 or, at its discretion, an alternative corrective action [e.g., withdrawal of the PAR, limiting the number of voting members, one vote per organization, etc.]. The IEEE-SA Standards Board may impose further corrective action(s) if previous corrective action(s) prove to be insufficient

5.2.1.3.1 Default corrective action

Fees for committee voting membership

The IEEE-SA Standards Board shall instruct the Sponsor to implement an organization fee for any individual wishing to maintain voting rights in the standards development committee. Frequency of collection and duration of voting rights covered by collected fees shall be decided by the IEEE-SA Standards Board, which shall work in conjunction with the Sponsor. An individual's status as representing an organization shall be based on self-disclosure of affiliation in compliance with the IEEE-SA policy on Disclosure of Affiliation and on other information that may be available to the IEEE-SA Standards Board and the Sponsor.

All fees collected shall be forwarded to the IEEE Standards Association and are non-refundable.

This corrective action shall remain in force until withdrawn or amended by the IEEE-SA Standards Board.

5.2.1.4 Openness

Openness is defined as the quality of being not restricted to a particular type or category of participants. All meetings involving standards development shall be open to all interested parties.

5.2.1.5 Disclosure of affiliation

Every member and participant in a working group, Sponsor ballot, or other standards development activity shall disclose his or her affiliation. An individual is deemed "affiliated" with any individual or entity that has been, or will be, financially or materially supporting that individual's participation in a particular IEEE standards activity. This includes, but is not limited to, his or her employer and any individual or entity that has or will have, either directly or indirectly, requested, paid for, or otherwise sponsored his or her participation. Failure to disclose every such affiliation may result in complete or partial loss of rights to participate in IEEE-SA activities. An individual is not excused from compliance with this policy by reason of any claim of a conflicting obligation (whether contractual or otherwise) that prohibits disclosure of affiliation.

A person who believes that a participant's disclosure is materially incomplete or incorrect should report that fact to the Secretary of the IEEE-SA Standards Board and the appropriate Sponsor(s).

5.2.2 Sponsor

A Sponsor shall be made up of any of the categories of membership described in IEEE Bylaw I-403. This Sponsor shall have a professed interest in the development of standards (either by direct participation or by the process of review) in technological areas that fall under the general scope of interest to the IEEE.

All IEEE standards development shall be based on projects that have been approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board, and each project shall be the responsibility of a Sponsor. Sponsors of IEEE standards projects are committees that are responsible for the development and coordination of the standards project and the maintenance of the standard after approval of the standard by the IEEE-SA Standards Board.

The Sponsor shall be one of the following:

a): A Technical Committee within an IEEE Society/Council
b): A Standards Committee or Standards Coordinating Committee of an IEEE Society/Council
c): A Standards Coordinating Committee established by the IEEE-SA Standards Board
d): A Standards Subcommittee organized by or reporting to one of the above
e): Other organizations as recommended by the IEEE-SA Standards Board and approved by the IEEE-SA BOG

The IEEE-SA Standards Board is not a Sponsor, but provides oversight and guidance to assist Sponsors when necessary.

5.2.2.1 Creation of Sponsors

Sponsors formed under rule (d) in 5.2.2 shall be officially recognized by the IEEE-SA Standards Board only after a 75% approval by the creating committee. Once formed, Sponsors automatically assume duties according to 5.1 of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual.

5.2.2.2 Sponsor responsibility/accountability

The Sponsor accepts responsibility for oversight of any of its assigned standards, including overseeing coordination, balloting, and making annual activity reports to the IEEE-SA Standards Board.

When the breadth of interest in a standard is great enough so that more than one technical committee wishes to have a role in its sponsorship, a joint committee of the two or more interested committees may be formed to sponsor the standard jointly. That joint committee, whose membership shall be determined by mutual agreement, shall assume all of the duties of the Sponsor (see 5.1.2 of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual).

Changes in sponsorship of projects shall be approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board.

5.2.2.3 Sponsor balloting group

Potential dominance in Sponsor ballots as evidenced by an unduly high proportion of individuals employed by or affiliated with a single entity or from a particular balloting classification is unacceptable, counter to open and fair participation by all interested parties, and deprecated by the IEEE-SA Standards Board. All individuals joining a ballot group shall declare their employer and affiliation (see subclause 5.3.3.1 of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual). The Sponsor shall review the ballot group for balance and possible dominance. If it is determined that the ballot group may be dominated (see 5.2.1.3), the Sponsor shall recommend remedial actions to the IEEE-SA Standards Board to ensure a fair and open ballot. The IEEE-SA Standards Board may also take action independent of any Sponsor recommendation.

The balloting group shall consist of persons who are members of the IEEE-SA and non-IEEE-SA members. A person is an individual or entity. An entity can be any for-profit or not-for-profit enterprise, as defined in IEEE Bylaw I-403. In addition, with the approval of the IEEE-SA Standards Board, invited individual experts who are non-IEEE-SA members may participate in ballots of proposed IEEE standards.

A single type of balloting group for a standard, based on the type of sponsorship, shall be established at the time of PAR approval and officially approved prior to the formation of a balloting group. A statement of the type of balloting membership to be used shall be included in all versions of the draft standard and the final approved standard.

5.2.3 Project authorization

In order to avoid duplication, provide for effective management of overall efforts, and expedite approval of final documents, all requests for an initiation of a standards project, in the form of a PAR, shall be approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board. The IEEE-SA Standards Board has assigned to NesCom the preliminary review of PARs and the responsibility for recommending final approval to the Board.

Sponsors are required to submit a PAR at the earliest opportunity when a standards project is contemplated or work is started. The Secretary of the IEEE-SA Standards Board shall submit PARs to NesCom for approval in accordance with its procedures. Unless specifically authorized by the IEEE-SA Standards Board, no proposed standard or revision shall be considered by RevCom without prior approval of the project by the IEEE-SA Standards Board. The lifetime of a PAR shall be four years.

5.2.4 Final review and approval to publish

All IEEE standards shall be approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board prior to publication. The IEEE-SA Standards Board has assigned to RevCom the review of standards submittals and the responsibility for recommending final approval to the IEEE-SA Standards Board. Approval by the IEEE-SA Standards Board indicates that the requirements of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual and these bylaws have been satisfied and, specifically, that the final results of the ballot and statements submitted by other coordinating bodies who participated in the development of the standard indicate that consensus has been achieved and unresolved negative ballots have been considered together with reasons why the comments could not be resolved.

5.2.5 Notification of action on standards

Following each meeting of the IEEE-SA Standards Board, the IEEE Standards Department shall issue a statement, available to all interested parties, which shall detail the actions taken at the last meeting of the IEEE-SA Standards Board on approval, reaffirmation, stabilization, and withdrawal of standards documents and authorization of new standards projects. This may be in the form of the minutes of the IEEE-SA Standards Board meeting.

5.3 Review cycles

All IEEE standards should be reviewed as often as new information is available or in accordance with the established cycle set by the IEEE-SA Standards Board, but no later than five years from the date of publication or, in the instance of stabilized standards, ten years from the initial approval or last revision or amendment. When an IEEE standard has been in effect for four years, the Secretary of the IEEE-SA Standards Board shall notify the standards liaison representative of the Sponsor that the standard must be reviewed for a maintenance action within the next year. The entire document shall be reviewed; amendments cannot be substituted for the five-year review.

The Sponsor has the option of

a): Reaffirmation
b): Revision
c): Withdrawal
d): Stabilization

5.4 Appeals

Persons who have directly and materially affected interests and who have been, or could reasonably be expected to be, adversely affected by a standard within the IEEE's jurisdiction, or by the lack of action in any part of the IEEE standardization process, shall have the right to appeal procedural actions or inactions, provided that the appellant shall have first exhausted the appeals procedures of any relevant subordinate committee or body before filing an appeal with the IEEE-SA Standards Board.

All technical decisions shall be made at or below the Sponsor level and the IEEE-SA Standards Board shall not consider appeals of technical decisions based on technical grounds. Any person dissatisfied with a technical decision shall follow the procedures of the body that has made the decision and that body's Sponsor, including, but not limited to, making a technical comment during the applicable comment submission period.

The IEEE-SA Standards Board shall not consider any claim that is either based solely on ethical considerations or that does not seek to amend or reverse a decision of a lower body relating to the development or approval of a standard. The appellant shall be advised to bring such claims to the attention of the IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct Committee or the IEEE-SA Standards Conduct Committee, as appropriate.

Further instructions concerning appeals procedure can be found in subclause 5.8 of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual.

5.5 Interpretations

While it is always the intent of standards-developing committees to use language that is so clear that it is unnecessary to explain or amplify the original intent of the committee, occasionally questions arise regarding the meaning of portions of standards as they relate to specific applications.

Questions relating to such interpretations require review and evaluation by a balance of committee interests. No single officer or member of an IEEE Sponsor or subgroup thereof shall provide a written or verbal opinion concerning any portion of the text of an IEEE standards document or an American National Standard developed under IEEE secretariat, unless that opinion has first been subjected to consideration by an interpretations subgroup that represents all interested parties on the committee. The actions to be taken shall be as specified in subclause 5.9 of theIEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual.

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