COTCO and COS: The work of two ASTM international board committees

The Committee on Technical Committee Operations and the Committee on Standards, standing committees of the ASTM International board of directors, have been likened to the legislative and judicial branches, respectively, of the US government. Briefly and generally speaking, COTCO makes the rules; COS verifies that the rules have been followed. Potential changes to the Regulations are sent to committee officers via circular letter and are subject to approval by the full ASTM International board of directors. One recent change, published in the April 2013 edition, is a new section that says trade associations for multiple organizations of exclusively the same classification are to be classified in accordance with those organizations' principal business activities. The Committee on Standards has responsibility for this reference, which promotes uniformity in ASTM standards so that standards users can find what is needed more easily and understand the information more quickly.