ABOUT SOC
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The SOC is composed of personnel from cooperating agencies and organizations in the state who are involved with developing technical standards and the delivery of soil and water conservation programs.
The SOC is assigned the responsibility of overseeing the process used in Wisconsin for the development and maintenance of technical standards for urban and rural soil and water conservation practices. Essentially, the SOC is the "gatekeeper" for the technical standards process, and it is responsible for the contents of the Technical Standards Process Handbook (TSPH) that serves as a day-to-day reference for everyone involved in soil and water conservation programs.
SOC members represent the primary responsible parties in the technical standards process. They are also authorized to appoint individuals to represent their respective organization for participation in any technical standard activity.
What does the Standards Oversight Council do?
For efficiency purposes, many federal, state and local agencies in Wisconsin rely upon the same technical standards to implement numerous conservation programs. This diverse user group must deal with different mandates, goals, policies, deadlines and political pressures. The Standards Oversight Council is an organization charged with working through these inherent difficulties and overseeing the development, maintenance and distribution of quality technical standards for conservation practices in Wisconsin.
To further clarify the intent of the SOC, it is important to note what does not fall within the responsibility of SOC. The SOC does not write standards, it oversees an interagency process charged with that task. The SOC does not "own" any standards, and does not propose to change of custodianship of the standards. When a new or revised standard is needed, the SOC determines who will take the lead and assists with the process for writing the standard.
SOC Publications
