Letter from the president.

The recent devastating flooding in Louisiana, wildfires in California, and tornadoes in Indiana and Ohio remind us of nature's fury and the need for constant preparation and eternal vigilance. These events have also shown us the importance of community resilience, which requires more than just mitigation efforts. It gives me comfort to know that in its own way, IAS has contributed in good measure to the mitigation efforts by accrediting competent entities that test, inspect and certify firefighting equipment, fire protective clothing and accessories and also by offering accreditation programs for building code enforcement and fire prevention departments. All the major, large-scale, fire-testing laboratories within the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates are IAS-accredited.

Clark County earns first IAS Fire Prevention/Code Life Safety Department accreditation in Nevada.

The Clark County, Nev., Department of Building and Fire Prevention is the first department in Nevada to achieve accreditation in the International Accreditation Service's Fire Prevention/Life Safety Department Accreditation program. To achieve accreditation, Clark County demonstrated compliance with the IAS Accreditation Criteria for Fire Prevention/Life Safety Departments (AC426).

BOAT honors McKinney Building Inspections Department for IAS accreditation.

The Building Officials Association of Texas (BOAT) recognized the city of McKinney Building Inspections Department for achieving IAS Building Department/Code Enforcement Agency Accreditation that signifies the department operates under the highest professional and technical standards and provides a high standard of public safety and services to the community. McKinney joins 23 other cities in the United States with this accreditation, and is one of three cities in Texas that is accredited.

Systems Contractors earns IAS Metal Building Assembler Inspections accreditation.

Systems Contractors, Inc., of Thornton, Colo., earned IAS accreditation on July 19 in the Inspection Practices of Metal Building Assemblers accreditation program. IAS accreditation demonstrates that Systems Contractors' assembly inspection program is in compliance with the IAS Accreditation Criteria for Inspection Practices of Metal Building Assemblers (AC478).

IAS Program Director Dr. David S. Nelson (second from left on front row) recently participated as a peer-evaluator for the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) of the National Center of Accreditation (NCA) of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

IAS participates as PAC peer-evaluator for National Center of Accreditation.

IAS Program Director Dr. David S. Nelson recently participated as a peer-evaluator for the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) of the National Center of Accreditation (NCA) of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Based in the capital city of Astana, NCA is the national accreditation body for Kazakhstan. NCA is a Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) Signatory within the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). To maintain or expand the scope of recognition, all MLA-Signatory members of PAC/IAF voluntarily participate in periodic "peer-evaluations" of their operations, to verify continued compliance with requirements of ISO/IEC 17011 Conformity assessment — General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies.

IAS presents "Top 5 Challenges of Calibration Labs" during NCSLI Annual Conference.

IAS Director of Conformity Assessment Dr. George Anastasopoulos and IAS Assistant Accreditation Officer Patrick McCullen delivered a presentation entitled, "Top 5 Challenges of Calibration Laboratories during the Accreditation Process" at the NCSL International (NCSLI) Annual Conference last month in St. Paul, Minn. The presentation featured statistical information ascertained from review of IAS on-site assessment reports of IAS-accredited calibration laboratories.

Training offer on ISO/IEC standards and IAS accreditation programs.

IAS has released a new schedule of training courses offered through the remainder of 2016. Courses include training on ISO/IEC Standards 17020, 17021, 17024, 17025, 17065, 9001, Uncertainty of Measurement, Special Inspection Agency Accreditation, and Accreditation of Inspection for Manufacturers of Metal Building Systems. Receive a 30-percent discount for early registrations.

Pictured (left-right): IAS Program Director Dr. David Nelson, Quality Manager Esra Yalcin and her son, CONSEPT President Dr. Nuh Yalcin, and IAS President Chuck Ramani display IAS Certificates of Accreditation.

CONSEPT visits IAS headquarters.

CONSEPT President Dr. Nuh Yalcin and Quality Manager Esra Yalcin recently visited the IAS corporate headquarters in Brea, Calif. CONSEPT is an IAS-accredited testing laboratory and inspection body based in the Republic of Turkey, which provides EMC testing and inspections related to motor vehicles and traffic-control systems.

Environmental Measurement Symposium.

The Environmental Measurement Symposium was held August 8-10, in Garden Grove, CA. Mohan Sabaratnam, IAS Director (Quality and Accreditation) , and Greg West, IAS Marketing Manager, represented IAS in an exhibit booth at the symposium and participated in meetings at the event. This conference was sponsored by The NELAC Institute (TNI) and National Environmental Monitoring Conference. The Symposium brings together scientists and managers from federal and state agencies, the regulated community, academia, and laboratory and engineering support communities. IAS provided information about accreditation of environmental testing laboratories that demonstrate competence in conducting tests on drinking water, non-potable water, solids and chemicals, air, tissue, and food (pesticides, herbicides, etc.).

IAS participates in APLAC India evaluation.

Raj Nathan, IAS Senior Vice President, was part of the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) international evaluation to New Delhi, India, to evaluate the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) of India. The evaluation team was led by Mr. Yoshi Uematsu of Japan Accreditation Board, and consisted of other national representatives as part of the peer evaluation team. The team evaluation was from July 25-29, 2016. It is a requirement of the APLAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) obligations that signatory accreditation bodies participate in evaluation teams periodically of other MRA signatory evaluations. Nathan noted, "The evaluation preparation and on-site evaluations provided a great opportunity to compare and contrast IAS's accreditation programs with that of the NABL process. It is an opportunity to share and learn about mutual process, as well."

Look for the IAS accreditation mark.

When you see the IAS Accreditation mark associated with a company or organization, you know IAS has evaluated it for competence and quality.

Seeking contract technical assessors and experts.

IAS is seeking contract technical assessors and experts with experience in assessing the management and technical processes of laboratories, inspection agencies, building departments and product certification agencies.

Let us know what you are thinking.

IAS strives to continually improve our services and solicits feedback, positive or negative, which we will use to provide better service to our clients and stakeholders. Visit the Contact Us page of the IAS website to share your comments.

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