PROTOCOL for DEVELOPING NEW
CAS STANDARDS and GUIDELINES
October 2003
The CAS Board of Directors will move to create new Standards and Guidelines for functional areas as needed. The standards creation protocol is based on a broad based and inclusive process. It encompasses an internal-external-internal drafting procedure that is outlined below.
1. Identify the Functional Area: The CAS Board of Directors identifies and defines the functional area for which a CAS standard is to be written. Functional areas for which standards are developed may be proposed by any professional entity or group of concerned professional practitioners. If other standards created by one or more organizations currently exist outside of CAS, CAS will identify its source and seek its sponsoring agency's cooperation on developing CAS standards and guidelines for that functional area. The CAS Board of Directors must agree by majority vote to sponsor development of a new professional standard.
2. Charging a Drafting Committee for New Standards Creation: When the CAS Board determines that a new CAS Functional Area Standard needs to be developed; a Drafting Committee of three to five CAS Directors (or Alternate Directors) will be formed to guide the development process. At least one person on the committee must be or have been especially connected with the functional area about which the standard is to be written. The chair cannot be a representative of a professional association that has significant interest in the standard. The Committee is encouraged to use every available method of electronic communication, including the conference call service, to facilitate the process of soliciting and receiving input and feedback.
3. Initial Draft: If a professional association connected with the standard area is a member of CAS, that association is asked to write a rough draft of standards. If that professional association is not a member of CAS, the association would be asked to join provided they meet the membership requirement and/or be included in the drafting of the standards and guidelines. If they decide not to join, CAS will continue to move forward with the draft. This rough draft is forwarded to the Drafting Committee that uses it to create a first draft in the CAS standards and guideline format. The CAS General Standards and any other existing standards will be used as the foundation for any newly developed functional area standard.
4. Soliciting Internal Expert Review and Comment: The Drafting Committee then identifies all CAS member associations that have a significant interest in the functional area for which standards are being developed. The first draft will be sent to CAS Directors of identified organizations and asked to provide timely and substantive recommendations of the first draft of proposed standards. One month return time should be allowed for response. The Drafting Committee then creates a second draft based on feedback from CAS Directors. The second draft is posted on the CAS Management site. A minimum of two months should be allowed for the writing of the second draft.
5. Soliciting External Expert Review and Comment: Next, the Drafting Committee identifies expert professionals of both CAS member associations and non CAS member associations for their personal review of the second draft. Such experts could include chairs of ACPA commissions (www.acpa.nche.edu) and NASPA Knowledge Communities (www.naspa.org). It is recommended to consider soliciting feedback from practitioners through an on-line professional list, organizational web pages, and the data base of users collected from purchasers of CAS materials. A CAS designee, such as the graduate assistant, may be appointed to assist the drafting committee in contacting experts in the field and in soliciting their feedback. Also, CAS Directors should be consulted for names of those currently filling positions with interest in standards under review. It would be the goal to receive feedback from at least 5 experts from the field within six weeks.
6. Incorporation of comments into a second draft document: The Drafting Committee will evaluate all substantive recommendations, provide its own well-considered ideas to the standards development process, and prepare a third draft of the functional area standards and guidelines. This draft should be prepared within 6 months after initiation of the process.
7. Submission to the a member of the Executive Committee through the Editor: The proposed revisions to the standards are then forwarded to the CAS Executive Committee for review at least two weeks before their scheduled meeting.
8. Executive Committee Review and Approval: The Drafting Committee chairperson and/or functional area expert who participated on the Drafting Committee will present the draft to the Executive Committee in person or by phone conference as needed. The CAS Executive Committee reviews the draft and formulates a penultimate draft for consideration by the CAS Board of Directors. The CAS Executive Committee votes to send the standards and guidelines to the full Board of Directors. This is sent to the Directors no later than 30 days before a board meeting.
9. Full CAS Board of Directors Review and Approval: The CAS Board of Directors reviews the document and votes to adopt the standards and guidelines.
10. Publication: The newly developed standards, upon adoption by the Board, are then put into the CAS Self Assessment Guide format by the Executive Committee for distribution to the profession at large. Upon completion, the Standards and Guidelines will be published in the Book of Standards along with the appropriate contextual statement.
Creation Process Timeline
Event Time Allotted Chronology Chronology
Drafting Committee Chair and
Committee member identified
Initial rough draft created by
interested association
of professionals 2 month 2 months
Rough draft converted
to first draft in CAS format
including the General
Standards 2 months 4 months
First Draft sent to
Interested CAS member
Associations for review and
comment 2 months 6 months
First Draft completed by
Revision Committee
and forwarded to CAS
designee 2 months 9 months
Second draft created from
feedback and posted on
Management Site 2 months 11 months
CAS designee identifies
experts and sends experts second
draft for feedback 2 month 13 months
Third draft created from feedback
and sent to executive Committee
for review two weeks before
Exec Committee meeting 3 months 16 months
Penultimate Draft is reviewed by
Executive Committee and
feedback given to
Drafting Committee 1 month 17 months
Final draft is forwarded to full
Board for approval30 days before
Board meeting 2 months 19 months