Susan has been appointed to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as a Voting Member of Technical Committee 37, Working Group 11, Plain Language, to work on international standards for plain language. This will be a long process but we know she is up to the challenge and will use her years of expertise to help make the standards as clear as possible! The ISO's website describes the process of developing standards as: "Like a symphony, it takes a lot of people working together to develop a standard. ISO’s role is similar to that of a conductor, while the orchestra is made up of independent technical experts nominated by our members.They begin the process with the development of a draft that meets a market need within a specific area. This is then shared for commenting and further discussion.The voting process is the key to consensus. If that’s achieved then the draft is on its way to becoming an ISO standard. If agreement isn’t reached then the draft will be modified further, and voted on again.From first proposal to final publication, developing a standard usually takes about 3 years."
