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Fire Side Chat NFPA is the Standards Council, which is comprised of 12 members plus a chairperson. Both the members and the chair are elected by the NFPA Board of Directors, and may serve for up to two three-year terms. Assisted by several full-time staff ers, the Council meets three times a year for two to fi ve days depending on the agenda. Although the Council meets in executive sessions closed to the public, the full agenda (with the exception of committee membership and policy) can be downloaded at nfpa.org. A typical agenda usually exceeds 2,000 pages. T e Council names all members of TCs, approves new projects and hears and acts on appeals that may be fi led by the public. T e Council also develops the policies and procedures that, upon approval by the Board, are followed by the NFPA in the promulgation of documents. TCs are typically comprised of not more than 30 principal members, each of whom may have an alternate. T e Council gives organizational members associated with multiple fi rms preference over those representing individual companies. T e feeling is that through directive votes the organizational member represents a larger population of aff ected users. During the past several years the Council has attempted to reduce the size of the TCs, but has had limited success as restricting the number of members cuts down on those who have a "seat at the table. " A TC may not include more than one-third of its participants from any of these membership categories: • Applied Research/Testing Laboratory • Consumer • Enforcing Authority • Installer/Maintainer • Insurance • Labor • Manufacturer • Special Expert • User HOW INPUTS AND VOTING PROCEEDS T rough ANSI's Essential Requirements, any member of the public may submit a comment to a TC for consideration. NFPA SECURITY AND FIRE ACCREDITED STANDARDS DEVELOPERS ASIS Int'l Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) Electronic Security Association (ESA) FM Approvals International Code Council (ICC) National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Security Industry Association (SIA) Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) 30 / SECURITYSALES.COM / OCTOBER 2012 The body that governs the standard-making process for NFPA is the Standards Council, which is comprised of 12 members plus a chairperson. They are elected by the NFPA Board of Directors. is in a transition at this time from the former process of Public Proposals and Public Comments to Public Inputs. In the past, the TCs held a Report on Proposals (ROP) meeting and a Report on Comments (ROC) meeting. T is has now changed to a First Draft and Second Draft Meeting. T e former process had the TC voting on each proposal or comment, which could end up being very confusing to the TC, especially when various changes to a sentence or paragraph were submitted. T e new process allows the committee to vote on the fi nal wording of the document and not on each modifi cation that was submitted to achieve the fi nal text. At the TC meeting a simple majority of the members present may pass an item. T is, however, is not the fi nal vote. A letter ballot is then sent out to all principal and alternate members. For a motion to carry, two-thirds of the members voting must agree to an item. T erefore, an item that may have been a close vote at the TC meeting may not pass the letter ballot. While there are a number of Public Inputs from the public, the majority tend to come from members of the TC. Any member of the public may speak at a TC meeting, but permission must be obtained in advance from the TC chair, and time to speak is usually limited. An interested party has greater infl uence as a member of a TC than one who is not a member. Once the letter ballot has been completed, NFPA will publish a First Draft Report. T is document allows the public to view the actions taken by the TC. Anyone may submit a Public Comment on any action that was taken during the First Draft Meeting. It is important to note that one may not submit new inputs at this time. T e time for new ideas is only during Public Inputs prior to the First Draft Meeting. T e Second Draft Meeting is similar in that it a simple majority can pass a motion, but a two-thirds member vote is required to move a motion on the letter ballot. In the second part of this subject, I'll cover the processes that a document goes through after the Second Draft Meeting has concluded. PHOTOGRAPHY ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/SKYNESHER