| 1 | Objective |
| 1.1 | This document provides the operating procedures for the accreditation committees associated with the ISO/IEC 17024, Conformity assessment - General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons accreditation program, ASTM E2659 Standard Practice For Certificate Programs accreditation program, and ASTM D8403 Standard Practice for Certificate Programs within the Cannabis and Hemp Industries. The purpose of this procedure is to define and establish the functions, activities, and method of operation of these accreditation committees (herein after, "the Committee") in accordance with the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) policies and procedures. |
| 2 | Definitions |
| 2.1 | Conformity Assessment Body (CAB): A body operating certification of persons under ISO/IEC 17024 or a certificate issuer under ASTM E2659 or ASTM D8403. |
| 2.2 | Evaluation Task Group (ETG): An ad-hoc group of two or more Committee members appointed by the Program Director or Program Manager for the purpose of conducting a detailed review of the results of the assessment of an applicant or accredited CAB. |
| 2.3 | Personnel Certification Accreditation Committee (PCAC): The body responsible for accreditation decisions for the ISO/IEC 17024 program. |
| 2.4 | Certificate Accreditation Program Accreditation Committee (CAPAC): The body responsible for accreditation decisions for the ASTM E2659 and ASTM D8403 programs. |
| 3 | Responsibility |
| 3.1 | The Credentialing SBU leader as per ANAB-MA-1002 delegates the responsibility and authority for accreditation decisions to the Committee in accordance with CRED-PR-502. |
| 3.2 | The specific duties and responsibilities of the Committee includes: |
| a) | making accreditation decisions described in section 11;
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| b) | assuring consistency of decision making as well as the criteria used therein; |
| c) | serving on appeals and complaints task groups as appointed by the Committee Chair; |
| d) | providing feedback on areas that impact impartiality; |
| e) | serving on task forces / subcommittees as appointed by the Committee Chair; and
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| f) | serving on evaluation task groups (herein, ETGs). |
| g) | helping to develop any guidance, application or normative documents that do not contradict or exclude any of the requirements included in the relevant international standards and/or other normative documents. |
| 4 | Membership |
| 4.1 | Membership on the Committee shall reflect a balance of interested parties. To the extent possible, the committee shall include representatives from the following categories:
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| PCAC
a) Certification body
b) Psychometrician
c) State regulation/government
d) Education
e) Individuals (at large) concerned with third party credentialing activities.
CAPAC
a) Educational Training
b) Certificate Granting
c) Government
d) Individuals (at large) concerned with third party credentialing activities.
The requirements to serve on the Committee shall include: |
| a) | minimum of five years of experience in the program area; |
| b) | experience working with national/international credentialing bodies, trade associations, regulatory/government agencies, trade unions, educational institutions, or testing agencies; and |
| c) | commitment to actively participate in all the Committee meetings. |
| 4.2 | The Committee shall have a voting membership not less than 10 and not more than 20 persons. |
| 4.3 | Members shall be selected to provide a balance of expertise and the interest of stakeholders in the program, with no single interest group predominating. Any single interest category shall not exceed half of the full Committee membership. |
| 4.4 | Members shall be appointed for a term of three years and shall be eligible for reappointment for two additional terms. All membership terms shall commence on January 1st. |
| 4.5 | A membership roster shall be maintained and made publicly available upon request. The names and current affiliation of the Committee Chair and Vice Chair shall be listed on ANAB's website |
| 4.6 | A member who has decided to resign shall submit a letter of resignation to the Committee Chair with a copy to the ANAB Program Director. |
| 4.7 | ANAB shall appoint a non-voting staff secretary, who shall be a member of ANAB staff. |
| 4.8 | Member alternates are not permitted. |
| 5 | Officers |
| 5.1 | The Committee officers shall consist of a Chair and Vice-Chair. Each officer shall serve for a term of one calendar year. |
| 5.2 | Each officer shall be elected by the membership of the Committee and shall be eligible for re-election for up to three consecutive years, exclusive of regular Committee membership terms, or until a successor takes office. Election shall be by open ballot. |
| 5.3 | The Vice-Chair shall function as the Chair in the absence of the Chair. |
| 6 | Subcommittees, Task Groups, and Liaisons |
| 6.1 | The Chair of the Committee may establish advisory subcommittees and task groups to advise the Committee on its activities. |
| 7 | Nominations and Elections |
| 7.1 | The Program Director shall annually appoint a Nominations Committee of not less than three members. By majority vote, the Nominations Committee shall nominate the following: |
| a) | candidates to serve as Chair and Vice-Chair; and |
| b) | candidates for Committee membership to fill vacancies and expired terms. |
| 7.2 | The Nominations Committee may solicit candidacies from the other Committee members, the community of interest and the other interested parties. The Nominations Committee shall forward its annual nominating report to the staff Secretary, who shall submit it to the Committee. Prior to the last Committee meeting of the calendar year, the Committee shall elect by open ballot individuals for each officer position for the succeeding year, and vote on memberships to fill vacancies and expired terms, as appropriate. Newly confirmed Committee members are invited to attend the last calendar meeting as ex-officio members without vote as part of their orientation program. |
| 8 | Committee Meetings |
| 8.1 | The Committee meets either face to face or virtually four times annually. |
| 8.2 | The Program Director or Committee Chair may call special, extraordinary meetings as needed. |
| 8.3 | The staff secretary shall give notice of all Committee meetings and include a draft agenda containing the main items to be considered. |
| 8.4 | At Committee meetings, the presence of a majority of the current Committee voting membership shall constitute a quorum which would include members who are participating by phone / internet / video teleconference. |
| 8.5 | The staff secretary shall be responsible for the preparation of minutes of all the Committee meetings. |
| 9 | Relationship of the Committee to the CAB |
| 9.1 | ANAB staff shall be responsible for all communications with the applicant Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) / accredited CAB regarding the Committee actions and decisions. |
| 10 | Relationship of the Committee to Assessors |
| 10.1 | The Committee will receive accreditation reports from ANAB assessors regarding the CABs' compliance with accreditation standard. It is the ANAB assessors who have the responsibility for review of the application materials and onsite assessment of the CAB. The program staff shall appoint an ETG to review the report submitted by the assessors. The ETG must have a minimum of two Committee members. For the accreditation Committee on the ISO/IEC 17024 standard, one of the ETG members must be a psychometrician and the other a representative of one of the other areas of interest on the Committee. The ETG shall present the report to the Committee for an accreditation action. |
| 11 | Committee Actions |
| 11.1 | The following actions shall require approval by two-thirds of the current Committee voting membership, excluding abstentions, but not less than a majority of the voting members. The voting may be at a meeting or by electronic ballot. The voting results are to be recorded and kept on file according to ANAB records management procedures. |
| a) | Possible actions by the Committee include: Accreditation, Accreditation Denied, Suspension of Accreditation, Probationary Accreditation, Accreditation Withdrawn, Maintaining Accreditation, Extending Accreditation, Reducing Accreditation.
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| 1) ACCREDITATION: CAB has successfully complied with all requirements of the accreditation standard. No nonconformities (herein, NCRs) are found or all have been closed. Accreditation is for five years. |
| 2) ACCREDITATION DENIED: Action taken regarding a CAB that has applied for initial accreditation with ANAB and has not been able to close NCRs within the prescribed time period. |
| 3) SUSPENSION OF ACCREDITATION: Action for temporary invalidation of the statement of conformity, for all or part of the specified scope of accreditation of the CAB. A specific statement shall be issued indicating the specific scope of accreditation that is not being fulfilled. This is not an accredited category and the ANAB accreditation symbol cannot be used during this period of time in association with the specified scope. |
| 4) PROBATIONARY ACCREDITATION: Probationary action is taken when a currently accredited CAB has one or more NCRs regarding the requirements of the accreditation standard and has not been able to close these NCRs over a period of time granted by the Committee. The terms of the probation will designate an additional agreed upon period of time for the NCRs to be closed. Failure to close NCRs within the period of probation may result in accreditation being suspended or withdrawn. This category is considered an accredited category and does not affect the issuance of certificates. |
| 5) ACCREDITATION WITHDRAWN: Removal of accreditation status from a CAB due to inability to close NCRs after the period of time granted by the Committee. |
| 6) MAINTAINING ACCREDITATION: The CAB successfully demonstrates through an annual surveillance process that all of the accreditation requirements have been met. In the case there are no NCRs identified by the assessors, the Program Director will make the decision on maintaining accreditation (see 11.b.1). |
| 7) EXTENDING ACCREDITATION: A formal application that responds to the applicable requirements of accreditation standard is submitted that is specific to adding a scope. A document review and when appropriate, an onsite assessment is conducted to determine if the requirements are met. Based on this evidence, the Committee determines if the extended scope is added to the accreditation status. |
| 8) REDUCING ACCREDITATION: When one of the scope(s) no longer meets all of the requirements associated with the accreditation standard. |
| b) | Possible actions regarding the accreditation status of CABs are to be made by the Program Director not the Committee in cases where:
1) The CAB underwent annual surveillance to maintain accreditation and no NCRs were reported by the assessors; and
2)The CAB violated ANAB policies/procedures (e.g. missed a payment, breach of accreditation agreement). The Program Director reserves the right to place the CAB on probationary status, suspension, or withdraw the organization from the accreditation program.
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| 11.1.1 | If an electronic term ballot is needed, the voting period shall last at least one week and the results of the ballot shall remain confidential within the Committee until the ballot is closed. |
| 11.2 | Except for actions in 11.1.b, all actions at the Committee meeting at which a quorum is present may be taken by a simple majority of the voting members present. In the event a quorum is not present at the Committee meeting, all substantive decisions made at the meeting must be affirmed by a majority electronic ballot vote or at a subsequent meeting at which a quorum is present. |
| 11.3 | If a Committee vote is taken on a specific CAB in which a Committee member has declared a conflict of interest, the member shall leave the room or hang-up the phone if calling in during the discussion. The member shall also abstain from voting and the abstention shall be noted in the minutes and / or voting record by the appointed secretary. |
| 12 | Committee Hearing of Appeals
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| 12.1 | Appeals shall be handled in accordance with the appropriate ANAB procedures.
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| 13 | Complaints |
| 13.1 | Complaints shall be handled in accordance with the appropriate ANAB complaints procedures. |
| 14 | Committee Member Participation |
| 14.1 | Absence by a Committee member at two or more meetings in one calendar year may be construed by the Committee as a lack of interest in serving on the Committee. The Committee may recommend that the appointment of the member on the committee be terminated. |
| 14.2 | The Committee may terminate any member's appointment with cause at any time. Notification of termination shall be in writing from the Committee Chair. |
| 15 | Parliamentary Procedure |
| 15.1 | On questions of parliamentary procedure not covered by this procedure, Roberts' Rules of Order (latest edition) shall prevail. |
| 16 | Confidentiality |
| 16.1 | The Program shall safeguard confidentiality of all information obtained in the course of accreditation activities at all levels of the ANAB organization, including any committees and/or external bodies or individuals acting on the Program's behalf. |
| 16.2 | Except as required in this document, information about a particular CAB shall not be disclosed to a third party by any Program participants, Committee members, ANAB staff, subcommittees, and task group participants, or by any ANAB subcontractors without the written consent of the CAB. Where the law requires information to be disclosed to a third party, the CAB shall be notified that such information has been or will be provided. |
| 17 | Determination of Conflict of interest |
| 17.1 | All members of the Committee are subject to following the Committee policies regarding potential conflict of interest. |
| 17.2 | If an individual has a potential conflict of interest but has not recused himself / herself or otherwise taken action to ameliorate the conflict of interest, and members of the Committee or ANAB staff believe that the conflict of interest still exists, then the Committee, through formal vote, shall determine whether or not to exercise one or more of the following options: |
| a) | exclude the Committee member from specific discussions and voting on the issues about which the conflict of interest occurs (in conformance with clause 11.3 of this document). The individual must then either physically leave the room or not remain connected electronically; or |
| b) | recommend to the Committee and the Program Director that the appointment of the member to the Committee be terminated. |