b'Member News March 2020 25VolunteersSetting the standardIncluding up to 20 engineers from a range of disciplines and IETThinking of becoming anstaff members, the IET Standards Advisory Panel is responsibleIET Standards volunteer?for publishing Codes of Practice and guidance materials for professional engineers as well as other key stakeholders. Camerons advice is to get involved:To maintain high standards within the industry, the Panel aims Youll learn so much from to help create a uniform system, review the progress of Standardsthe experience and youll that are in the publishing process, assess the pipeline andexpand your networkall identify other areas for the sector. of which can only help to advance your career.An author of five IET publications, Cameron Steel CEng FIET, Associate EngineerElectrical at London-based engineering consultancy Silver EMS, has been a member of the IET Standards Advisory Panel since 2017. Sharing his insights on the process of publication, Camerons most recent project centres on the new Code of Practice Weve got four options available:for Building Automation and Control Systems: become a technical author1. The market research 3. The peer-review process join a committee thatdirectly influences the work The process is always similar.The text is peer-reviewedcontributed to particularIt starts off with some marketregularly, either face to facestandards and publicationsresearch, followed by aor online, and there are many provide feedback on draft business case sign-off from theiterations before it goes topublicationsIET, he says. Next, we hold apublic consultation. We thensponsor a projectan kick-off meeting with a few keyupdate the text, incorporating stakeholders to develop therelevant feedback from theopportunity for your scope of the publication.consultation to make sure theorganisations brandingstandard is of genuine value to sit alongsideto the industry. the IET logo2. The writing on leading- edge The author then sets about4. The final word standards.writing the documentputting the meat on the bones, so to Its a constant peer-review speak. Its important to findprocess, right up to the the right content and thenmoment when its finally articulate it through wordspublished. This ensures that and illustrations, to make itthe final document is not just easier for engineers to accessthe word of a single author and and understand. National anddoesnt favour one product international standards areover another; itsquite formal and written inthe word oflegalese, so theyre often notthe industry.very accessible.To find out more and get involved,email the IET Standards team on: ietstandardsenquiries@theiet.org Technical Author Cameron Steel CEng FIET at The 17th Annual Power Symposium 2018. Photo credit to IET Hong Kong.'