Representatives from the Slovak National Committee visit the IEC

Their annual visit usually takes them away
from their home country of Slovakia
(Bratislava Castle in background)

A delegation of some 40 people from Slovakia came to the IEC Central Office in Geneva on May 28 2009. They were visiting as members of the SSTN (Slovak Society for Standardisation), an association that gathers together individuals and stakeholders who are involved in standardization work. The Secretary of the Bratislava-based electrotechnical NC (National Committee) of the IEC, SEV (Slovak Electrotechnical Committee), Andrej Svatik, is also Secretary of the SSTN.

The SSTN travels annually abroad with some of its members to visit partner standardization organizations. These visits are designed to benefit participants’ work and to recognize their contributions. This year, the trip arranged by the SSTN combined a visit to the IEC Central Office with a tour of the ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) Central Secretariat.

The visitors were welcomed by Alan Maislisch, IEC IT Strategy and Planning Manager, and given two presentations. The first by Maislisch dealt with IEC International Standards in a global world. It particularly covered the use of IT (Information Technology) tools such as the different web services developed by the IEC, access to working documents, Webstore and Library Server, among others, to bring about significant time and cost reduction in the standards development and distribution process. The second presentation, by Michael Casson, IEC Technical Department Manager, logically concentrated on technical and publication work and the various relevant developmental and approval processes. Casson particularly underlined the difference in working methodology between ISO, whose Technical Committee and Subcommittee officers mostly come from member organizations, and the IEC, where 94 % come from industry.

The Head of Delegation, Lubica Pernecka, in charge of International Relations at SUTN (Slovak Standards Institute), was replacing Andrej Svatik, who had organized the trip but, for health reasons, was unable to travel.

Pernecka commented, "As a member of CENELEC (The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization), it was most interesting for us to learn more about the strategic use of IT tools, and now we look forward to building on that knowledge and making further use of the services that have been set up over the years".