 |
|
Activity Report
Chairpersons of all the other ISTA Technical Committees are automatically members of the Rules Committee and the Rules Chairperson acts as editor of the International Rules for Seed Testing. The Deputy Chairperson has been responsible for creating and driving forward the electronic version of the new loose leaf 2003 edition of the International Rules for Seed Testing. Both Jim and I have been helped tremendously by the ISTA Secretariat in her role as Technical Committee Liaison.
Following the special voting meeting in Zurich 2003 the successful proposals were turned into amendments for printing. Consultation about the best and most cost effective ways to deal with the inclusion of Appendices A and B as Rules, the removal of Appendix C, and familiarisation with a new computer package to edit the rules, caused a delay. The finished amendments, including extra editorial errors found during processing were ready for the printer in November. Some changes have been 'saved' for future reprints and a list of the changes is included with the re-issued pages. Printing was completed in December and hopefully amendments should have arrived with members before 1st January 2004.
The effective date for any rules changes are the 1st January, however from an accreditation point of view laboratories can not be expected to follow amended rules until they arrive. Every effort is being made to get rules amendments out as soon as possible following the voting meetings. In the spirit of accreditation and quality systems we are striving for continual improvement and our aim is to have the rules amendments with ISTA members within 6 months of the voting meeting, if not sooner. This should help in the preparation of any new proposals for the following year. Now that Word versions of the Rules chapters are available to Technical Chairs this should speed up both preparation of Rules proposals and any major amendments. It is the intention that any major revision of the Rules would not happen before 2007 to give some stability to the Rules. Amendments due to errors or successful Rules proposals will still be issued every year.
In preparation for the Budapest Congress, the 2004 proposed rules changes have been circulated to Rules Committee members and the Executive Committee. After any revisions the 2004 Rules proposals will be distributed to all ISTA members by March 2004 ready for the Budapest meeting.
Future Aims
To develop in collaboration with the validation working group a generic validation system for the ISTA rules.
To reduce the time between Rules changes being accepted at voting meetings and their publication as new and/or amended rules.
In collaboration with the ISTA secretariat, develop standard operating procedures for rules submissions, proposals and amendments.
As I have stated in previous activity reports, comments on all aspects of the Rules and rules proposals are welcome from all sources, not just committee members. We need to make sure the rules are user-friendly and what our end-users need. The Rules are the 'bed rock' of ISTA but may still need the occasional sculpting to meet the needs of a changing world, so ideas are welcome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ISTA Annual Meeting 2009 in Switzerland
Register Online Now!
More info »
Universal List of Species
ISTA has published a list of 130 plant species that accredited laboratories may wish to include in their seed collections
More info »
Information Platform for GM Seed
Visit the info platform
More info »
Accreditation Documents for the Testing of Specified Traits
Related Documents for download
More info »
ISTA Accredits its 100th Seed Testing Laboratory
Read the full Press Release!
More info »
ISTA / ISF Experiment on Herbage Seed Lot Size
The ISTA / ISF Experiment on Herbage Seed Lot Size
More info »
Seed Science and Technology
issue #2 of Volume 36 released
More info »
SEED TESTING INTERNATIONAL
(ISTA News Bulletin) No. 135 April 2008 for download
More info »
ISTA signs Memorandum of Understanding with FAO
Read the full Press Release
More info »
|
|
|
|
|
