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What does the Standards Oversight
Council (SOC) 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 no change of custodianship by
cooperating agencies is proposed.
When a new or revised standard is needed, the SOC determines who will
take the lead and assists with the writing the standard.
The Standards Oversight Council
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. |