InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards

Dear Mr. Steinbrenner:

Subject: 2004 Five-Year Maintenance Review of B5 Standards

In accordance with ANSI and INCITS policy, action must be taken during the four-year anniversary of a standard's approval date to either reaffirm or withdraw the standard. Should the TC's review result in a recommendation to revise a standard, a project proposal describing the proposed revision should be submitted with the recommendation to reaffirm, pending revision. If a standard is currently under revision, the customary four-year action would be reaffirmation of the current standard, pending completion of the revision.

Five-year maintenance actions should be completed (including a 45-day public review and 30-day INCITS letter ballot, followed by the 14-day request for BSR-9 approval) before the end of the year (December 2004).

According to the records of the INCITS Secretariat, your TC should review the attached list of standards and forward a recomendation to reaffirm or withdraw each standard. This review should include any associated amendments and corrigenda.

Each recommendation may be approved (2/3 rule) by TC letter ballot. Additionally, for approvals (2/3 rule) conducted at a TC meeting, a withdrawal or archival (stabilize) recommendation is by roll-call vote and a reaffirmation recommendation is by meeting vote. Upon approval by the Technical Committee, the recommendation should be forwarded to the INCITS Secretariat for action by April 1, 2004.

If a recommendation is not forthcoming from B5 by April 1, 2004, INCITS will be forced to make a recommendation on this issue without the benefit of the Technical Committee's input.

Your expeditious action is appreciated. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Barbara Bennett at bbennett@itic.org, or 202-626-5743.

Sincerely,

Barbara Bennett
Associate Manager, Stds. Processing, INCITS

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