Rules & Procedures

RULES OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NOISE CONTROL ENGINEERING (I-INCE)

Part 1: I-INCE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Part 2: I-INCE TECHNICAL WORK

Part 3: I-INCE CONGRESS SELECTION COMMITTEE

Part 4: NEXT CONGRESS PLANNING COMMITTEE

Part 5: I-INCE CONGRESS EVALUATION COMMITTEE

Part 6: I-INCE TECHNICAL SECTIONS

Part 2: I-INCE TECHNICAL WORK

Article 1. OBJECTIVES

To fulfill the Institute's objective of promoting international cooperation in the engineering control of noise and vibration, the Institute may undertake technical work to foster the exchange of technical information. To accomplish this, the General Assembly conducts studies of technical issues related to the Institute's field of interest, develops position statements on these issues, cooperates with the major scientific and professional organizations in the field, and disseminates independent advice to policy makers as well as leaders in industry and government through a series of initiatives on specific topics within the field of interest. These initiatives involve the appointment of technical study groups and tasking the experts comprising these groups to prepare draft reports by consensus for review within the Institute. The drafts are subsequently subjected to international review to ensure their quality and integrity before final release. This information is made available for public dissemination.

The studies undertaken as part of the Institute's initiatives program are focused on noise issues of international interest. While these issues usually involve important policy matters, they all have a significant technological content. Where there are gaps in awareness and interest, the Institute explores the issue that will shape the future. Of particular importance is the identification and definition of the emerging technical areas within the Institute's field of interest.

The Institute's initiatives produce reports that are valuable resources to policy makers. These initiatives may involve workshops, symposia, forums, and other information-gathering mechanisms to focus on the subject matter under investigation.

This Part 2 of the Institute's Rules defines the procedures for carrying out the technical work on a topic within the Institute's field of interest which may result in a document that can be published and distributed.

All documents published by the Institute are in the English language.

Article 2. RESULTS OF I-INCE TECHNICAL WORK

I-INCE technical work may result in the preparation of documents in a variety of formats, such as:

• studies;

• strategies;

• policy statements;

• technical (state-of-the-art) assessments;

• reports; and

• bulletins.

Other non-periodical documents may be published by the Institute, as appropriate.

The Institute does not develop standards. International standards in acoustics, noise, and vibration are developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Article 3. SUBJECTS FOR I-INCE TECHNICAL WORK

Appropriate subjects for I-INCE technical work include the following:

• long-range policy goals for engineering control of noise and vibration;

• initiatives that describe practical means for achieving the policy goals;

• assessment of on-going research related to control of noise and vibration;

• results of completed research;

• identification of areas where further research or information is needed for practical means to control noise and vibration; and

• identification of new technology areas within the Institute's field of interest.

Article 4. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly is responsible for carrying out the technical work of the Institute. In discharging this responsibility, the General Assembly does the following.

1. Advises the Board of Directors on the establishment (and dissolution) of technical study groups to provide advice on potential technical work that should be undertaken by the Institute. (The groups shall be composed of technical experts in fields relevant to the Institute's field of interest.)

2. Informs the Board of Directors on the organization, coordination, and planning of the Institute's technical work.

3. Determines the maximum number of experts which may be appointed by a Member Society to serve on a technical study group.

4. Confirms the appointment of Conveners of I-INCE technical study groups.

5. Approves the title, scope, and work program of each technical study group.

6. Sets priorities and schedules for the completion of I-INCE technical work.

7. Monitors the progress of all technical work and takes appropriate action if there are significant delays in the completion of scheduled milestones.

8. Approves, for publication, a document prepared by an I-INCE technical study group.

9. Advises the Board of Directors on an appropriate method of publishing and distributing the approved documents.

Article 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF I-INCE TECHNICAL STUDY GROUPS

Technical study groups shall be established and dissolved by the Board of Directors on the recommendation of the General Assembly. A technical study group is disbanded upon completion of its assigned tasks.

Article 6. PROPOSALS FOR NEW TECHNICAL WORK

A proposal for new technical work may be submitted by a Member Society, a member of the Board of Directors, or an organization that is in liaison with the Institute.

A proposal for new technical work shall be submitted to the Secretariat.

All proposals shall be written in the English language.

Each proposal shall contain the following information:

1. The name of the proposer.

2. The proposed title for the technical study group.

3. The proposed scope of the work.

4. The proposed program of work.

5. A proposed schedule for completion of milestones.

6. Technical justification for the proposed work.

7. An indication of the priority of the proposed work and the resources needed to complete the task.

8. A statement indicating willingness to supply a Convener, or at least an expert member, for the technical study group, if approved.

9. If available, a draft of a document that could be used as the initial working draft by the technical study group.

10. If applicable, identification of surveys of similar efforts undertaken by other organizations and a summary of relevant results.

11. Identification of any liaisons deemed necessary or desirable with other organizations in order to complete the proposed work.

Article 7. APPROVAL OF A PROPOSAL FOR NEW TECHNICAL WORK

The Secretariat shall circulate a proposal for new technical work to the Member Societies for approval, and to the Board of Directors for information. Approval may be obtained by formal vote at a meeting of the General Assembly, or by voting paper (returned by e-mail, fax, or postal service), or a combination of the two (see Rules, Part 1, Article 8). The deadline for receipt of a voting paper shall be not more than six months after the date of circulation.

If circulated, a voting paper on the new technical work shall contain a space for the responding Member Society to identify one of its expert members who is willing to serve as a member of the new technical study group, if the proposal is accepted.

A Member Society may vote against the proposed new technical work, but still be willing to supply an expert member.

The proposal is accepted if 15 percent, or more, of all the Member Societies entitled to vote approve the proposal. The proposal fails if fewer than 15 percent of the Member Societies vote for approval. Negative votes shall be accompanied by reasons for disapproval.

Work on a proposal approved by voting paper may commence after the deadline for the receipt of voting papers. All proposals that have failed to gain approval, or for which an insufficient number of technical experts have been nominated by the Member Societies, shall be reviewed by the General Assembly.

A voting paper shall explicitly allow for submission of comments on any aspect of the proposed technical work. The comments shall be considered when the technical study group is established after the proposal is approved.

Article 8. FORMATION OF A TECHNICAL STUDY GROUP

When a proposal for new technical work is approved, the Secretariat shall circulate a notice to the Member Societies, or directly inform the General Assembly, with the results of the voting, the tentative scope of the work, and the names of the individual experts nominated to serve on the technical study group.

The notice shall request the nomination of additional experts by the Member Societies to serve on the technical study group. Nominations of technical experts (including name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone and fax) shall be returned to the Secretariat within four months of the date of the notice. E-mail addresses are required of all persons serving on technical study groups. If an insufficient number of experts is proposed by the Member Societies, the General Assembly may decide not to establish a technical study group.

For most I-INCE technical work, a Member Society should nominate no more than one expert to be a member of the technical study group.

At the next following meeting of the General Assembly, the composition of the technical study group from the experts nominated by the Member Societies is confirmed.

The Board of Directors appoints a Convener for the technical study group.

The appointment of the Convener is confirmed by formal vote of the General Assembly.

An individual appointed to serve on a technical study group shall act in a personal capacity and not as an official representative of a Member Society.

Article 9. RESPONSIBILITIES OF A TECHNICAL STUDY GROUP CONVENER

Once established, management of an I-INCE technical study group is the responsibility of the Convener who is expected to perform the following tasks.

• Manage the development of the technical work and the preparation of the document for publication.

• Organize and chair meetings of the technical study group; the Convener may invite a member of the group to act as secretary.

• At meetings, ensure that all points of view are adequately summarized so that they are understood by all present; national and regional interests shall be subordinate to international interests.

• Conduct meetings with a view to reaching consensus within the technical study group on issues and drafts.

• Submit drafts and other information to the Secretariat in accordance with the agreed schedule of technical study group activities.

• Inform the I-INCE Vice President responsible for technical initiatives about progress or delays, and of any significant problem(s) affecting progress.

• Report on the progress of the technical study committee at each meeting of the General Assembly.

• Follow through the development of the document until it is ready for publication.

• Include the Secretariat and the Vice President responsible for technical initiatives in the circulation of meeting notices and agenda to the technical study group.

As much of the business of the technical study group as possible is to be conducted by e-mail, with the number of meetings of the committee held to a practical minimum. Meetings of the technical study group should only be called when there is a significant amount of material to be discussed.

If a Convener is unable to carry out the above duties, a replacement shall be appointed by the Board of Directors and approved by the General Assembly.

Article 10. INITIAL MEETING OF A TECHNICAL STUDY GROUP

The technical study group should begin its work as soon as possible after the proposed initiative is approved by the General Assembly. The immediate objectives of the technical study group as it begins its work are the following:

• Confirm the title of the technical study group.

• Obtain agreement on what is to be included within the scope of the project and what is to be excluded; a precise wording of the scope is required.

• Obtain agreement on the tentative title of the document that will result from the work of the technical study group.

• Structure the work that is to be accomplished.

• Discuss possible interactions with other I-INCE technical study groups.

• Develop a plan of action with a tentative, but realistic, estimate of the time schedule for completion of major milestones.

• Include a summary of the above items in the Convener's report to the General Assembly.

Article 11. SUBSEQUENT MEETINGS OF A TECHNICAL STUDY GROUP

To minimize travel expenses for members of a technical study group, it is recommended that committee meetings be scheduled to occur immediately before, during, or after INTER-NOISE Congresses. Between meetings, as much business as possible should be accomplished by e-mail, with fax and regular mail used as back-up.

If an expert member of a technical study group is not active and fails to attend two successive meetings or does not respond to e-mail messages, the Convener should so inform the I-INCE Secretariat. The Secretariat shall ask the Member Society to confirm that the person is still a member of the technical study group and, if not, shall be requested to find a replacement.

Expenses incurred in conjunction with a meeting of a technical study group are not reimbursable by the Institute. The facilities available at INTER-NOISE Congresses are to be utilized to the maximum extent possible.

Article 12. DEVELOPMENT OF AN I-INCE DOCUMENT

The number of meetings of a technical study group should be kept to a minimum.

Drafts and other information shall be circulated by correspondence, preferably using e-mail, with fax and regular mail as back-up.

Development of an I-INCE document proceeds through three stages: Working Draft, Comment Draft, and Voting Draft.

Article 13. WORKING DRAFTS

Working Drafts are prepared and circulated by the Convener within the technical study group. The text of an I-INCE document should be useful to a reader who is not an expert in noise and vibration. I-INCE documents are not intended to be either scientific papers or standards, but are intended to provide practical information related to the objectives of the Institute.

Working Drafts shall be prepared by the Convener with a widely-used word-processing program.

The circulation continues within the technical study group until there is consensus that the document is ready for distribution as a Comment Draft for review by the Member Societies.

A document prepared by another organization may be utilized as a Working Draft by the technical study group provided the following conditions are met.

1. The document is recognized by the Board of Directors and the members of the technical study committee as one that would have wide acceptance and authoritative status.

2. The Convener of the technical study group has obtained the written permission of the authors or publishers (where known) of the document to its eventual publication as an I-INCE document. A copy of the written agreement shall be provided to the I-INCE Secretariat.

Article 14. COMMENT DRAFTS

Comment Drafts are circulated by the I-INCE Secretariat to the Member Societies with a deadline for return of comments not less than six months after the circulation date. The Secretariat shall assign a unique reference number to each Comment Draft.

A Comment Draft shall be circulated with a form asking if the Member Society considers the Comment Draft to be ready for circulation as a Voting Draft.

The Convener of the technical study committee shall compile all the general and editorial comments received from the circulation of the Comment Draft, and circulate the compilation to the members of the technical study group. The group shall consider all comments received and then prepare a new Comment Draft or a Voting Draft, as determined by the recommendations of the Member Societies. The comments may be discussed at a meeting of the technical study group, or preferably by correspondence using electronic document exchange.

It may be necessary to prepare more than one version of the Comment Draft before the document is considered by the Member Societies to be ready for voting.

Article 15. VOTING DRAFTS

A Voting Draft shall be prepared by the technical study group when at least 50 percent of the Member Societies submitting responses with or without comments agree that the Comment Draft is ready for voting.

The Voting Draft shall be prepared as a final draft and submitted by the Convener to the Secretariat in electronic and hard copy form, along with electronic versions of any drawings.

Article 16. VOTING PROCEDURES

A Voting Draft shall be circulated by the Secretariat to the Member Societies with a formal voting paper. A vote on the question of approval to proceed with publication may be positive, negative with accompanying technical reasons for the negative vote, or abstention. Positive votes conditioned on the acceptance of substantive modifications to the text of the Voting Draft, as well as negative votes submitted without substantiating technical reasons, are invalid.

The time limit for return of a voting paper on a Voting Draft shall be six months or more from the circulation date. The Secretariat shall assign a unique reference number to each Voting Draft.

A Voting Draft is approved for publication if a two-thirds majority of the valid votes cast by the Member Societies is positive. Valid votes shall be received from at least 30 percent of the Member Societies.

Abstentions as well as ballots not returned shall not be counted in the tally of the votes cast.

If the Voting Draft is approved for publication by the Member Societies, the technical and editorial comments submitted with the votes (both positive and negative) shall be considered by the technical study group or by an ad hoc team, at the option of the General Assembly. The ad hoc team shall be appointed by the General Assembly.

If less than 30 percent of the Member Societies submit countable votes on the Voting Draft, the General Assembly shall be requested by the Secretariat to decide, by simple majority vote, whether the document shall be approved for publication, revised and re-balloted, or abandoned. If the decision is to revise, the revision may be undertaken by the original technical study group or by an ad hoc team appointed by the General Assembly. The revision shall take the technical comments on the Voting Draft, if any, into consideration, and shall then be circulated as a new Voting Draft.

Article 17. EXPEDITED PROCEDURE

If, as a result of a circulation of a Comment Draft as described in Article 14, a very favorable response is received, an expedited procedure may be followed. This requires that more than 30 percent of the Member Societies in good standing submit responses to the circulation, and at least 75 percent of those responding consider the draft to be ready for circulation as a Voting Draft.

In the expedited procedure, a decision to publish the Comment Draft, with appropriate technical and editorial changes, may be brought to a formal vote at a meeting of the General Assembly. The General Assembly shall decide, by simple majority vote, whether the document shall be approved for immediate publication, eliminating the need for voting on a Voting Draft.

If the Comment Draft is approved for publication, it becomes the Voting Draft. The technical and editorial comments submitted by the Member Societies shall be considered by the technical study group that prepared the Comment Draft or by an ad hoc team, at the option of the General Assembly. The ad hoc team shall be appointed by the General Assembly.

The final draft shall be submitted to the Secretariat in electronic and hard copy form, along with electronic versions of any drawings.

Article 18. REVIEW BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

After approval by the General Assembly to publish a document, the Board of Directors shall review the document and decide on the means of publication and distribution. If there are unresolved negative votes, the Board shall give a dissenting Member Society the opportunity to present the reasons for its negative vote as an addendum to the final publication.

I-INCE publications related to issues of public policy may be distributed to public officials in various countries at no charge. Distribution is accomplished by the I-INCE Secretariat. All I-INCE publications shall include a "hold harmless" clause to relieve the Institute or an I-INCE Member Society of legal responsibility for the contents.

I-INCE publications may be sold by the Secretariat at a price to be determined by the Board of Directors. Availability of I-INCE publications shall be advertised through appropriate media. I-INCE publications may be distributed at INTER-NOISE Congresses and at other appropriate conferences.

Article 19. I-INCE PUBLICATION NUMBERS

Before publication, the final version of an I-INCE document shall be assigned a reference number by the Secretariat. The reference number consists of the calendar year in which the document was approved for publication by the General Assembly, followed by a hyphen and an Arabic number assigned sequentially for that year; for example, "I-INCE Publication 2001-3."

NOTE: Part 2 of the I-INCE Rules was approved by the General Assembly at its meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 1998 November 15.