The General Assembly received with appreciation the report of the Financial Oversight Committee (ref IAF 20-11.3), as circulated and endorsed the recommendation that the 2005 financial accounts be accepted.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the report by the Treasurer on the financial affairs of IAF for the period 1 January to 30 September 2006 as presented.

The General Assembly, approved the IAF Budget for 2007 as submitted by the Treasurer and as modified by the General Assembly, directed the Secretary to send invoices for membership fees for 2007 based upon the budget amount, with no change in general

The General Assembly received with appreciation the presentations and status reports provided on the IAF Strategic Plan, accreditation of certifiers of persons, proposed election of IAF Committee Chairs, and the proposal for improving the credibility of management system certifications.

The General Assembly endorsed the adoption of the IAF Strategic Plan 2006 (ref IAF–GA20-12.1) as circulated and presented.

The General Assembly requested the IAF Board and Executive to consider the revision of IAF PR 2:2005 IAF Procedures for the Organization of IAF Committees and Subordinate Groups, for the selection procedure(s) for Chairpersons of IAF Permanent Committees and Subordinate Groups, taking into account the discussion at the IAF General Assembly, including the need for transparency and balanced regional representation, and to report back to the IAF membership on the results at the next General Assembly.

The General Assembly confirmed the principle that the application of IAF Guidance Documents (i.e. the IAF GD series) and joint IAF-ILAC Guidance Documents (i.e. the A Series) is mandatory for all IAF Accreditation Body Members and the bodies they accredit.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the following liaison reports:

• - the ISO/TC 176 report as received (ref IAF 20–13.1);
• - the ISO CASCO report presented on behalf of the Chairman of ISO CASCO (presented at the JGA);
• - the IPC report presented on behalf of the Chairman of IPC (ref IAF 20–12.2.2);and
• - the IAQG liaison report as presented (ref IAF 20–13.3).

The General Assembly congratulated the following Directors on their election:

1. Dr Thomas Facklam (DAR) elected unopposed as Chairman for a three year term ending at the 2009 Annual Meeting.
2. Dr Lorenzo Thione (SINCERT-FIDEA) elected as Director representing Accreditation Body Members located in a high income economy, as designated by the World Bank, for a three year term ending at the 2009 Annual Meeting.

Notes:

1. Ms Elva Nilsen (SCC) will complete her term as Vice Chair at the 2007 Annual Meeting.
2. Mr Girdhar Gyani (NABCB) will complete his term as Director representing Accreditation Body Members located in a low and medium income economy, as designated by the World Bank, at the 2007 Annual Meeting.
3. Mr Guenther Beer (BDI) will complete his term as Director representing the Industry and User Association Members, for a three year term ending at the 2008 Annual Meeting.
4. Mr Pierre Salle (IAAR) will complete his term as Director representing Certification/Registration/ Inspection Body Association Members, for a three year term ending at the 2008 Annual Meeting.

The General Assembly expressed its appreciation for the excellent arrangements and support provided by ema as host of the IAF Twentieth Annual Meetings, held in November 2006, in Cancun, Mexico.

The General Assembly accepted with appreciation the invitation by JAS-ANZ on behalf of IAF and NATA on behalf of ILAC to host the 2007 IAF Annual Meetings in Sydney, Australia, from 19 to 31 October, 2007, in association with the ILAC General Assembly.

The General Assembly accepted with appreciation the invitation by SWEDAC to host the 2008 Annual Meetings in Stockholm, Sweden, from 8 to 18 September, 2008, in association with the ILAC General Assembly.

The General Assembly accepted with appreciation the invitation by CAEAL (Canadian Association of Environmental Analytical Laboratories) to host the 2009 Annual Meetings in Vancouver, Canada, in association with the ILAC General Assembly.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the (JMC), and the JCCC, endorsed the draft Terms of Reference of Joint MLA MC and ILAC AMC meetings (JMC).

The General Assembly, noting that the technical requirements for the Inspection MLMRA have been agreed by the JWGI, and acting on the recommendation of the JMC, and the JCCC, resolved to commence the Inspection MLMRA peer evaluations, as soon as the guidance on ISO/IEC 17011 has been approved by ILAC and IAF.

The General Assembly resolves to approve a permanent joint ILAC/IAF structure for implementation and continual improvement of accreditation practices of ILAC and IAF members in inspection body accreditation.

The General Assembly received and accepted the list of apologies for non-attendance and accepted the notifications of proxies by members.

The General Assembly adopted the draft agenda (ref IAF–AM–05-001).

The General Assembly approved the draft Minutes as a true record of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting, held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 9 and 11 October, 2004 (ref IAF–AM–05-008) as circulated.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the report of the Chairman as presented.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the report of the Convener of the Chairman’s Advisory Group on Promotions as presented.

The General Assembly resolved to establish a Communications and Marketing Committee and directs the Board to circulate to all IAF Members draft Terms of Reference for 60 day comment and subsequent approval by 30 day ballot and to seek nominations for the chairmanship.

The General Assembly resolved to establish a Joint Working Group with ILAC for communications and marketing of issues of common interest. It was further resolved that the respective Chairs of the IAF and ILAC Communications and Marketing Committees, together with those from the Regional Accreditation Groups and a member representing unaffiliated bodies, should prepare draft Terms of Reference and a proposed constitution to be considered by the Executive Committee at its first meeting in 2006.

The General Assembly received the report by the Secretary on the current IAF membership as at September 2005 (ref IAF-AM-05-002 Rev1).

The General Assembly received the Secretary’s report (ref IAF GA19 Item 5.3) on the admission to membership since the 2004 Annual Meeting of the National Institute for Standardization (INN), Chile as an Accreditation Body Member having transferred from Association Body membership, and two new Observer Members (WFSO -World Food Safety Organisation and EASC – the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification for a 12 month period). The General Assembly also noted the resignation since the 2004 Annual Meeting of ITIC, the Information Technology Industry Council (USA).

The General Assembly, noting the information provided to it, voted to an extend invitation to OLAS, the Luxembourg Office of Accreditation and Surveillance to become an Accreditation Body Member and IPC, the International Personnel Certification Association, to become an Association Body Member.   Note: OLAS (Luxembourg) and IPC (Worldwide) signed the IAF MoU at a ceremony during the IAF-ILAC Gala Dinner on 17 September 2005.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the report from the Chairman of the Technical Committee (ref IAF 19 – Item 6.1) and approved the Technical Committee Program.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the Technical Committee resolved that the principles of the IAF Cross Frontier Accreditation Policy apply to all fields of accredited certification offered under IAF membership.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the Technical Committee, the Executive Committee and the JCCC, endorsed the draft Terms of Reference of the Joint Working Group (JWG) for Guidance to ISO/IEC 17011.

Given that a training course provider is not a conformity assessment body and so by definition assessment and approval of a training course provider is not accreditation; and given that as ISO/IEC 17011:2004, clause 4.3.6.a, states that an accreditation body will not provide any service that affects its impartiality such as those conformity assessment services that Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) perform, such as the certification of service providers based on ISO/IEC Guide 65, the General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the Technical Committee, resolved that accreditation of training course providers is not in conformance with ISO/IEC 17011:2004.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the report from IAF Vice Chair on behalf of the Chairman of the MLA Committee (ref IAF 19 – Item 6.2).

The General Assembly noted that the IAF MLA Group, on the recommendation of the MLA MC, agreed that OAA (Argentina) should be admitted to the IAF QMS, EMS and Product MLAs. It was also noted that as a consequence of EA MLA membership, PCA (Poland, EA) had been accepted for membership in the IAF MLAs for QMS, EMS and Product.   Note: OAA signed the IAF QMS, EMS and Product MLA at a ceremony during the IAF-ILAC Gala Dinner on 17 September 2005. PCA signed the MLAs in February 2005.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the MLA Committee, the Executive Committee and the JCCC, endorsed the draft Terms of Reference of the Joint Working Group (JWG) for Training of Peer Evaluators, the proposed composition of the JWG, the disbanding of the existing IAF Training Sub-Committee and the transfer of the existing membership to the JWG.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the MLA Committee, the Executive Committee and the JCCC, endorsed the draft Terms of Reference of the Joint Working Group (JWG) for Maintenance of the A-Series Documents and the composition of the JWG.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the MLA Committee, resolved to recommend that the IAF Executive Committee establish a Task Group for the consideration of the open questions regarding the use of the IAF MLA Mark for different programs and scopes and provide clear guidelines for use of the IAF MLA Mark.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the MLA Committee, resolved that the A-series documents (A1, A2 and A3) be updated to reference ISO/IEC 17011, for implementation by 1 January 2006.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the MLA Committee, resolved that the “IAF Policies and Procedures for a Multilateral Recognition Arrangement on the Level of Accreditation Bodies and on the Level of Regional Groups (Issue 4, version 1)” be circulated to all IAF Members for approval by 30 day ballot.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the MLA Committee, accepted the report of the Cross Frontier Accreditation Practices Task Group and urged that action be taken to confirm a date by which all foreign critical locations are assessed on-site with results to be reported by the MLA Committee at the 2006 General Assembly.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the MLA Committee, endorsed the draft Terms of Reference of the MLA Group.

The General Assembly resolved

• - to recommend to ILAC to hold joint meetings of the IAF MLA MC and ILAC AMC, with support by the Secretariats of both the IAF MLA MC and ILAC AMC, to consider evaluations with regard to regional MLA/MRA groups/non-affiliated ABs for the MLMRA on inspection body accreditation (once operational) and to develop a single recommendation for the IAF MLA Group and the ILAC Arrangement Council for inspection body accreditation signatories;
• - to recommend to ILAC to hold joint meetings of the IAF MLA Group and ILAC Arrangement Council for decisions by the IAF MLA Group and the ILAC Arrangement Council on signatories for the MLMRA on inspection body accreditation (once operational) and non-affiliated ABs;
• -to recommend to ILAC to hold joint meetings of the IAF MLA MC and ILAC AMC, for the organization and planning of peer evaluations (regional and non-affiliated ABs) for accreditation of other CABs where there are common activities, and to jointly consider common elements of evaluation reports from such evaluations.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the report from the acting Co-Chair of the Joint Development Support Committee (JDSC), noted the request of the JDSC, and recommended that the results of future surveys conducted by the Cross Frontier Accreditation Practices Task Group be presented to clearly indicate data from developed and developing countries.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the JDSC, requests that the MLA Committee be aware that the Cross Frontier Accreditation Policy can also be used for the purpose of training personnel from Accreditation Bodies in developing countries which are not MLA signatories.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the JCCC, resolved to proceed with a global Multilateral Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MLMRA) for inspection jointly with ILAC.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the JCCC, resolved to encourage the JWG for Inspection to reach consensus on the technical issues under debate and looks forward to a resolution of these matters at the Cancun meeting, November 2006.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the JCCC, resolved that the draft of the IAF-ILAC MLMRA Inspection text, be circulated to all IAF Members for 60 day comment.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the JCCC, resolved that the fee structure for accreditation of Inspection bodies would be introduced into the budgets of IAF and ILAC for the calendar year following the formal decision to start the process of implementing the IAF-ILAC MLMRA for Inspection.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the presentations and status reports provided by Committee Chairmen and Conveners on the IAF Strategic Directions, Customer Satisfaction Task Group, transition for ISO/IEC 17011, Cross Frontier Accreditation Policy implementation, status of the IAF MLA Mark registration and applications and Future Annual meetings.

The General Assembly received with appreciation the following liaison reports:

• - ISO/TC 176 report presented on behalf of the Chairman of ISO/TC 176 (ref IAF 19 -Item 8.1.1);
• - ISO CASCO report presented on behalf of the Chairman of ISO CASCO (ref IAF 19 -Item 8.1.2);
• - IPC report presented on behalf of the Chairman of IPC (ref IAF 19 – Item 8.2);
• -QuEST Forum liaison report as received (ref IAF 19 - Item 8.3); and
• - IAQG liaison report as presented (ref IAF 19 – Item 8.4).

The General Assembly received with appreciation the report by the Treasurer on the Financial Affairs of IAF and the Report of the Financial Auditor on the Financial Operations of IAF, December 31, 2004 as circulated and presented.

he General Assembly received with appreciation the report of the Financial Oversight Committee (ref IAF 19–Item 5.2.2), as circulated and endorsed the recommendation that the 2004 financial accounts be accepted.