4.3 The entire membership of ASTM International votes on whether a standard is suitably developed and researched before it is forwarded for final approval. Negative votes cast during the balloting process are fully resolved before forwarding. 4.4 Companies, agencies, and individuals use ASTM standards. Buyers and sellers of materials, products, and services include these standards in contracts; engi- neers, scientists, architects, and designers use them in their work; government agencies reference them in codes and regulations; and many others refer to them for performance information. 4.5 ASTM International is recog- nized globally and continues to review and develop new standards needed in a wide range of materials. 5.0 ANSI 5.1 The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), founded in 1918 by five engineering societ- ies and three government agencies, is a private, not-for-profit organiza- tion that administers and coordi- nates U.S. voluntary standards and conformity assessment activities. The Institute represents the inter- ests of its nearly 1,000 company, organization, government agency, institutional, and international members through its office in New York City and its headquarters in Washington, D.C. 5.2 ANSI currently provides a forum for over 270ANSI-accredited standards developers represent- ing approximately 200 distinct organizations in the private and public sectors. These groups work cooperatively to develop volun- tary national consensus standards and American National Standards (ANS). 5.3 The ANSI standardization pro- cess provides and promotes stan- dards that withstand scrutiny, yet protect the rights and interests of all participants. This process helps quicken the market acceptance of products, while advising how to improve the safety of those prod- ucts to protect consumers. 5.4 U.S. standards are promoted internationally by ANSI. The orga- nization also advocates U.S. policy and technical positions in inter- national and regional standards organizations, as well as support- ing the acceptance of international standards as U.S. standards where they meet the needs of the user community. 5.5 The Institute is active inter- nationally with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and, via the U.S. National Committee(USNC),theInternational Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). In many instances, U.S. standards are taken forward to ISO and IEC through ANSI or the USNC, where they are adopted in whole or in part as international standards. 6.0 NSF INTERNATIONAL 6.1 NSF International, formerly the STONE ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 80 TileLetter | July 2019