MAY 2011 - Association of Marina Industries

Part 2, 1988 – 2002Technical AdviceFrom Bob AdrianceThe History Of The ABYCIt was getting late, and after sitting through lengthy interviewswith about a dozen candidates to replace Lylse Gray,ABYC’s outgoing CEO, Dick Snyder was getting frustrated.Snyder was chairman of the six-person committee thatwas tasked with conducting the interviews and making thefinal selection. The process hadn’t gone as well as he hadanticipated; the committee had met with the finalists (theinitial screening had been done by Gray), and while somecandidates had been better than others and all were good,none stood out as being the right person for the job. Thecommittee was now down to the last person on its list, arecently retired Naval Officer named Skip Moyer. Snydersaid no one had heard of him and, after a day of mostlyfrustrating interviews, no one was expecting much.Moyer began with a brief presentation about his backgroundand then for the next hour or so, patiently answered all ofthe committee’s questions. It quickly became clear that hewas smart and knew what it took to run a successful organization.He was also tactful, which was critical for dealingwith the many personalities at ABYC. And, to everyone’ssurprise, he had an impressive depth of knowledge aboutrecreational boats and their systems. When Moyer was finished,Snyder said the members of the committee looked ateach other “in near awe.” The vote was unanimous: ABYChad found its next leader.Gray would be leaving Moyer an organization that was, byall accounts, in good shape. While it was still relatively smallcompared to what it would eventually become, ABYC wasgrowing and its finances, to use Snyder’s words, “were in reasonableorder,” which is about as much as can be expectedwith a non-profit organization. Boat builders and surveyorshad resumed cooperating, which greatly benefited thestandards-writing process. As for the duplication of effortwith the NFPA 302 standards, which had been a concernwhen ABYC was launched in 1954, ABYC soon establisheda distinct advantage over its more established rival; whereasABYC’s schedule called for committees to meet at least oncea year, the NFPA 302 Committee for Pleasure and CommercialMotor Craft committees met every five years. This gaveABYC the ability to adjust much more quickly to changesin boatbuilding materials and technology, both of which21had begun to accelerate in the 1990s. ABYC also had an advantagein manpower: The broad range of topics that hadto be dealt with by a single NFPA committee with only 20members were covered by seven ABYC committees--Firefighting, Fuel and Vent, Electrical, Electrical Components,Engine and Power train, Galvanic Isolators, and ThermalAppliances—with a total of 128 members.Following Gray’s lead, Moyer continued to work closely withANSI (American National Standards Institute) to have moreof ABYC’s standards ANSI certified. Having a large, internationallyrecognized association like ANSI approving theABYC standards-making process, including the makeup ofits committees and boards, gave the organization more credibility.(ABYC’s constitution and by-laws also require that themakeup of committees be in proportion to its membership.)Working closely with ANSI helped to dispel the impressionamong some people in the marine industry that ABYC wasdominated by industry, a perception that had haunted Gray.The ANSI connection also had the potential to improveABYC’s clout in court. So while NFPA continued to be recognizedas one of the country’s preeminent standards writingorganizations, ABYC’s advantage in numbers—the numbersof committees, the frequency of meetings and the numberof experts on the committees—as well as the growing numberof standards that were ANSI-certified, was steadily raisingABYC’s stature in the marine community. It would beanother standard-writing organization—ISO—that wouldchallenge Moyer during his years at ABYC.The Rise of ISOThe on-again, off-again push to develop international standardswent back to the 1940s but finally got jump-startedin the mid-1990s when the European Union (EU) adopteda common currency and adopted free trade agreementsamong the participating counties.The initial push soon went well beyond Europe and grewinto a monster effort that included 2,700 technical committees,subcommittees and working groups, 40 of which weredirectly related to recreational boats. The countries that hadelected to participate were as diverse as Japan and AustraliaTom Hale, who was then Technical Director at ABYC, saidthat their first reaction at the ABYC was to ignore the effortTechnical Advice Continued on Page 23