Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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INCITS provides a variety of services and tools for its Technical Committee's. Some of the frequently asked questions are listed below:




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Q1. What is INCITS?

The InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) is the forum of choice for information technology developers, producers and users for the creation and maintenance of formal de jure IT standards. INCITS is accredited by, and operates under rules approved by, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). These rules are designed to ensure that voluntary standards are developed by the consensus of directly and materially affected interests.

INCITS is sponsored by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a trade association representing the leading U.S. providers of information technology products and services. ITI members employ more than one million people in the United States and in 2000, their revenues exceeded $668 billion worldwide.

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Q2.  How  do I apply for INCITS membership?

All directly and materially affected parties shall have the opportunity for fair and equitable participation in INCITS. In order to comply with ANSI requirements, while all parties may participate in the discussion, only those organizations domiciled in the U.S. may vote to establish a U.S. position on TAG matters.

INCITS Executive Board
Applications for membership shall be by correspondence to the INCITS Secretariat for forwarding. Applicants shall state their reasons for interest and their organization's interest category: Executive Board Committees, SDB, SPB, Study Group's, Technical Committee's, Compound TAGS and Task Group's
Applications for or notifications of membership shall be in writing to the INCITS Secretariat and the Committee Chair.  The application for membership can be downloaded from the INCITS web site at www.incits.org/membership.pdf

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Q3. How often does an INCITS Technical Committee have meetings?

The committees of INCITS meet regularly. The schedule for each is documented in http://standards.itic.org/stds/main.taf and is governed as follows:

  1. The Executive Board normally meets four times per year.
  2. The Standards Development Board and Standards Policy Board normally meet at the same venue as the Executive Board
  3. All TCs, TGs, SGs CTs shall meet at least once a year (except Maintenance Committees).
  4. Maintenance Committees shall meet as required
  5. The Executive Board Committees shall meet as required

All meetings are held at the call of the Chair and within the frequencies indicated. Each agenda should include a standing item for review and confirmation of the date and location of the next meeting(s). Periodically, the schedule should be extended to a nine- to eighteen-month period ahead, with "tentative" indications when appropriate.

A duly called meeting is one for which the meeting notice and draft agenda are issued in accordance with Section 4.3.2.

When a quorum is not met at such a duly called meeting or fewer than the number of voting members required to approve an action, the members present may draft proposed actions for submission to the entire membership for letter ballot or action at the next meeting. They may conduct all business not requiring voting action. For TCs, SGs and TGs, a duly called meeting shall count in determining the members' attendance record

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Q4.  My company has a new technology we'd like to advance as a standard. How do we proceed?

A new project can be created within INCITS allowing for industry consensus to be built. INCITS may also provide entry into the international standards arena. To learn more, please contact Lynn Barra at Lbarra@itic.org or 202-626-5739.

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Q5.  If a member calls in to a meeting via telephone, does this count as the member having attended the meeting?

Yes, conferencing in to an INCITS Technical Committee meeting qualitfies as attending the meeting.

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Q6.  What two types of membership does INCITS offer?

INCITS offers two membership catagories:  Voting and Non-Voting (Advisory).
Voting Membership
Voting membership in TCs, TGs, and SGs is open to all directly and materially affected parties that meet attendance and voting requirements and pay the designated service fee(s).
A representative of a prospective voting member shall initially attend a meeting of the TC, TG, or SG without voting privileges and reaffirm interest in the work of the TC, TG, or SG. Voting privileges become effective with attendance at one of the next two successive meetings and receipt by the Secretariat of the applicable fees for the membership year. For a new subgroup, all attendees at the formation meeting or second meeting shall be considered voting members, subject to the rules in in the INCITS RD-2, Section 4.2.3.2.  An organization with voting membership shall appoint one and only one principal representative and may appoint one or more alternate representatives.  In order to comply with ANSI requirements, while all parties may participate in the discussion, only those organizations domiciled in the U.S. may vote to establish a U.S. position on TAG matters.

Non-Voting (Advisory) Membership
All advisory memberships are non-voting memberships. Advisory members may attend meetings, speak, and submit contributions. Advisory members shall receive all electronically available documents, including meeting notices, draft agendas and minutes. Other documents are not required to be distributed to advisory members.  Any party that pays the designated service fee can be an advisory member.  A party with advisory membership shall appoint one and only one principal representative and may appoint one or more alternate representatives.

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Q7.  The consortium to which I belong has a specification we would like to see reach international standards status?

The consortium can apply directly tot he international IT standards organization, JTC 1, to become a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) Submitter or can work with INICTS to have the specification fast-tracked via the International arena.

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Q8.  What is the required content for techncial committee meeting minutes?

All INCITS Organizational Entities (IOEs), except ad hoc groups, are required to produce minutes of their meetings. Minutes shall be distributed within four weeks after the adjournment of the meeting. When prepared by someone other than a member of the Secretariat staff, the draft minutes shall be reviewed by Secretariat staff prior to distribution to the committee.

The required contents of minutes are as follows:

  1. Date(s), location(s), Chair, Secretary, hour of opening and adjournment.
  2. Summary of significant actions taken.
  3. List of all attendees.
  4. Approved agenda (or approved changes to draft agenda).
  5. Approval of previous meeting minutes.
  6. Each motion seconded and not withdrawn, identifying maker of the motion, the fact of a second, and the voting results.
  7. Future meeting schedule.
  8. List of action items assigned to members.

Individual remarks or detailed transcripts need not to be recorded; however, any specific statement should be recorded when requested by the Chair, group, or a member. Records of discussions and actions taken pertaining to any topic for which attendance is restricted shall not be included in the minutes, except to record that a position was developed.

INCITS also recommends that the INCITS Anti-Trust Guidelines be reviewed at the beginning of each meeting and invorrporated as a standing agenda item..



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Q9. Can anyone be named to a US Delegation for an International SC meeting?

U.S. delegates shall either be representatives of voting members of appropriate U.S. TAGs or individual experts who are not voting members of the TAG and serve on U.S. delegations at the invitation of the TAG. In the context of this section, "appropriate U.S. TAG" means:
  1. For JTC 1 Meetings, the US TAG to JTC 1
  2. For an SC meeting, the specific organization with the SC TAG assignment, or a WG or project TAG assignment within that SC;
  3. For a WG meeting, the specific organization with the WG TAG assignment, or a project TAG assignment within that WG;
  4. For an Other WG meeting, the specific organization with the TAG assignment covering the project.

"Voting member" means that the member has met the requirements for attendance, participation, and payment of fees of the organization with the TAG assignment.

Coordination members of the US TAG to JTC 1 are eligible to serve as members of U.S. delegations to JTC 1 Plenary meetings.

No U.S. persons are permitted at an international meeting unless they are there in an official capacity, i.e., members of a U.S. delegation, officers of the standards group that is meeting, or designated representatives of other organizations participating in the meeting. The Head of Delegation shall identify the presence of unauthorized U.S. persons to the Chairman or Convener of the meeting. Following the meeting, the Head of Delegation shall report unauthorized U.S. persons (and their affiliations, if known) to the appropriate TAG and the INCITS Executive Board for subsequent corrective action.


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Q10.  How can a non-accredited organization utilize the INCITS "Fast-Track" process to develop an American National Standard?

View the INCITS Fast Track Process via the flow charts or the text below.

As an Accredited Standards Committee, INCITS provides procedures to review for approval as an American National Standard, standards within its scope developed and approved by an organization not accredited by ANSI for processing them directly.

An organization not accredited by ANSI may propose that a candidate standard be submitted for INCITS processing or the organization that developed it may request INCITS processing. When such initiative is being considered within INCITS (the subject of a project proposal) or a preliminary inquiry is made by the sponsor, a proposal describing the candidate standard, its purpose, and scope is sent to the INCITS Secretariat for distribution to the Executive Board.

The INCITS Secretariat issues a call for comments on the proposal and INCITS members are asked to assess the proposal with respect to the following criteria:

If no objections are raised during this review, the developer will then be invited to submit the following:

If objections are raised, the INCITS Secretariat will distribute those objections to the Executive Board and the proposer. The organization submitting the candidate standard will be required to respond to the objections raised in addition to the other documentation specified above. The entire package will be submitted to the Executive Board for approval.

Upon receipt, the Executive Board votes, in accordance with Section 4.4, to accept the proposal and initiate a public review. Upon approval, the INCITS Secretariat shall assign a liaison project number, and processing commences at Milestone 5 (Section 5.1.5), with the developer fulfilling the obligations of a TC.

The INCITS Secretariat will explicitly notify the TC chairs and encourage them to notify their committee of the candidate standard's public review period. The Secretariat's notification will include the results of the the Executive Board vote and comments received during the the Executive Board vote.

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