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Within the framework of the French Presidency of the European Union, AFNOR and the Academy of Paris are hosting a joint conference titled “Teaching standards and standardisation: what stakes for future generations?” which will be held in Paris on
26 November 2008.

Among the speakers at the conference will be a representative from IFAN national member ACANOR. Also present, will be speakers from AFNOR, DIN and BSI. The conference will be held in French and has been organized mainly for teachers. More information can be found in the programme for the conference.

The International Federation of Standards Users (IFAN) held its 35th Members’ Assembly in Geneva on 17 and 18 September 2008. Some 30 participants from ten countries attended, representing national members from standards user organizations and corporate members from both industrial and commercial sectors.

The first day’s open session included presentations from the International Organization for Standardization, the International Electrotechnical Commission and the International Telecommunication Union giving the highlights of recent developments and strategic planning within their organizations, with a view to the next generation of standards. Three separate groups participated in a brain-storming session focusing on identifying issues to be put forward to international standards developing organizations with regard to the next editions of their strategic plans. The results will be input to the development of agreed IFAN proposals.

The Members' Assembly considered the reports of the IFAN President and of working and project groups. The IFAN budget for 2009 was approved and new Board members were also elected at the meeting

The 2009 IFAN Members’ Assembly will be held in Berlin, Germany, hosted by the German Committee of Standards Users (ANP). The next triennial IFAN international conference, to be held in 2010 in conjunction with the 37th Members’ Assembly, will take place in Indonesia, kindly hosted by the national IFAN member, Masyarakat Standardisasi Indonesia (MASTAN), together with Badan Standardisasi Nasional (BSN).

CEN published a new document entitled Hands on standardization-A starters guide to standardization for experts in CEN technical bodies. This guide outlines, in a simplified way and with plain language, how the European standardization process works and what needs to be taken into account when drafting standards. This document may be useful, notably for the experts and observers that are participating in European standardization for the first time, but also for those standards users who need a short description of the CEN system.

To facilitate access to information on standards, regulations, accreditation and certification, IFAN has created a portal of links to the respective sources of information. Please see the "Search for" links in the left column of this page.

ISO has recently improved the search mechanism of the WSSN, World Standards Services Network. Previously, the WSSN search function was limited to information given on the site. The new search arrangement expanded the ability of searching information through all sites listed on the WSSN. The WSSN search is currently the only mechanism in the world which provides a search through Web sites of almost all international, regional and/or national standards bodies.

In August 2007, IFAN invited all persons wishing to express their artistic vision of the importance and benefits of standards and standardization to take part in the first IFAN international contest by preparing a poster depicting the theme "Standards make the world go round". 15 posters were received from 8 participants from Germany, Colombia, Botswana, China, France and Netherlands. The posters are available for viewing here.

At its meeting held in Geneva on 2-3 April 2008, the IFAN Board decided on the winners of the IFAN contest. The winners are:

1st place: Ms. Patricia Dind (Germany) for poster 1
2nd place: Ms. Dagmar Aben (Netherlands) for poster 15
3rd place: Mr. Luigi Principi (France) for poster 11

The IFAN Board expresses its gratitude and thanks to all participants in the contest for their time and efforts in preparing their pieces of art and congratulations to the winners.

The report on the 12th IFAN International / 56th SES Annual Conference prepared by Ms. Diane C. Thompson, SES – President, Thompson Consulting, Inc., is now available to IFAN Web site visitors : to read, please click here.