The background. ACCT set up the APTF following the with- drawal of ACCT’s latest draft standard in spring 2023, which drew more than 1,700 negative comments— demonstrating a profound lack of industry consensus. Coincident with the public comment period on the draft, ANSI was conducting a periodic review of ACCT’s Accredited Procedures (AP). ANSI identified a few flaws in those procedures, made some suggestions, and the APTF has been working to fix the issues. (For reference, ANSI noted that a well-drafted standard, with broad stakeholder involvement, might typically receive five or six negative comments.) Perhaps the biggest flaw in ACCT’s AP regarded who could write standards. ANSI has a list of essential re- quirements for writing standards, which states that any- one can propose a standard. While that proposal could be composed by a single individual, ANSI encourages that drafts include input from all stakeholders—pretty much the exact opposite of ACCT’s current practice, which stemmed, at least in part, from ACCT’s history. When ACCT first began drafting standards, it was primarily an organization of vendors. When they wanted to establish building standards, they wrote them themselves. One legacy of that has been that standards-writing has been left mostly to the vendors,
up to and including the latest ANSI/ACCT standard.
chart, to call out where stakeholders can participate,” Smith said. “ANSI has encouraged us to be more clear, and we’re trying to do that. “Our goal will be to make education a regular ongoing thing, not a once a year workshop at the annual conference as in the past,” he said. It’s a new world. The AP signals more than simply a change in procedures. It also recognizes that the membership of ACCT has expanded, and the old ways of operating are no longer valid. It’s likely that the changes being formulated will be difficult for many in the organization. “The changes will be disruptive in the organization, but in a good way,” Smith asserted. “We’re no longer a small little organization focused on the builder side; standards changes can have a big impact. “I expect we’ll have some challenges going forward; change can be hard. We don’t know exactly what openness will look like. It will not be business as usu- al.” But, he added, “If we welcome more stakeholders in, we’ll have some good conversations.”
Everyone has a role. “Anyone can submit standards ideas to ACCT,” Smith said. “The stakeholders should be writing the standard, not the association.” Not that all (or even most) stakeholders have to con- tribute to every section of a standard. ANSI does not require that level of balance in the drafting process. “That makes sense,” said Smith. Some issues only apply to one or two groups of stakeholders, such as installation and testing of ground anchors, he noted. Still, all stakeholders should be involved at the appro- priate point(s). So, in reviewing the AP, “We wanted to look at it from scratch,” Smith told us, “because the industry has changed a lot over time.” The role and responsibilities of the CG have changed over time as well, he added, “and that’s created some confusion.” Making it easy. To encourage greater involvement by the industry, a major goal of the proposed new proce- dures is to make the standards development process easier to understand and participate in. Aside from the revised AP, ACCT has several means of making the process easier to grasp. Webinars are one, more educational material on the ACCT website is another. “Ultimately, we’d like to create an educational flow
One thing is certain, he said: “The next project we jump into will look very different from the previous ones.”
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