As Chairperson of the ASSE International Code Committee for the past couple of years, including the 2021 model code process, it came to my attention that ASSE could be doing more for our motto, “Prevention Rather Than Cure.” Typically, ASSE has developed product and professional standards under the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved process for the plumbing and mechanical industry and then allowed the industry to put these standards in model codes as they deemed appropriate. In most cases, this process has worked out, but not in all cases. There are multiple examples in the upcoming codes that allow an ASSE standard to be used one way in one code and another way in another code. With this in mind, and with the help of many ASSE members and staff, and the approval of the ASSE Board of Directors, I would like to introduce ASSE’s replacement for the Code Committee – the ASSE Code Development Committee.
The Code Development Committee (CDC) is advisory to the ASSE Board of Directors. The committee’s purpose is to develop new code language, review, and respond to proposed changes to national and local codes, provide a venue for public/membership interaction, and to provide an ASSE membership benefit by communicating all code information and updates that involve ASSE standards, or affect ASSE International in any way.
CDC membership will consist of ASSE members from different parts of the industry, including installers, inspectors, engineers, designers, and manufacturers to cite a few categories. The committee will also include the appropriate ASSE staff person, dependant on the subject matter being reviewed. The CDC will function as other ASSE Committees and seek to balance votes amongst the industry. However, this committee will not be a part of an ANSI process like some of ASSE’s other committees. It is the hidden benefit and hope that this new committee will unify the industry as to how, where, and why an ASSE standard should be included in any code, thus making ASSE International the leading voice of its own standards.
The CDC will maintain its past function of reviewing and responding to others’ code proposals that involve ASSE standards, but in a slightly different way than before. The CDC will still meet to review proposals from others and vote to support, not support, or be neutral to each proposal. Then the CDC will present its findings to ASSE Membership either by in person meetings (Mid-Year Meetings and/or Annual Meetings) or by electronic communications. The purpose of this change in format is to give ASSE members a chance to submit comments to the CDC for consideration before the CDC sends its findings to the ASSE Board of Directors for final approval and submission to the model codes. This change will create the opportunity for more communication to and from ASSE membership and provide an additional benefit by keeping everyone up to date on what could be coming up in the next code cycle(s).
In addition to responding to proposals for model codes, the CDC will also use this outlined process for state, regional, and city code proposals that involve ASSE standards. This will be a faster process due to the quicker response times that normally come with these types of proposals and will be shared with ASSE membership all the same.
The biggest change to the committee is that we will now be writing our own model code proposals regarding new and existing ASSE Standards, beginning with the upcoming 2024 code cycle. This change will be our largest undertaking as a committee as it will involve a complete review of all model codes in order to propose consistent language and allowable uses of ASSE standards, no matter which code a jurisdiction is using. The benefit of ASSE taking on this task is that ASSE will become the authority on how our standards can and should be used in code.
As the CDC is just getting started, I’m sure there will be questions and maybe some concerns, as there often is with anything new. I encourage you to ask those questions, express your concerns, and together we will create a great benefit for all, but most importantly, we’ll protect the health of the public and carry on ASSE’s 114-year history of doing just that.
