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METROLOGY SYMPOSIUM

Antigua - Jan 2003

The opening was attended by over 80 persons from a wide cross-section of the public and private sector nationally as well as a number of international participants including the SIM (Inter-American Metrology System) Council. Forty-three (43) participants (19 local and 24 overseas) on average attended the working sessions. There was little initial response at the national level, but this improved when the Bureau's staff explained to the prospective participants what the workshop entailed and the importance of Metrology and Quality Systems to their organisations. The response from the hemispheric metrology community was always very good. The evaluation forms completed at the end of the workshop showed that the participants were all very pleased with the arrangements for, and content of the Symposium.

The facilitators were all members of the SIM Community and are all very experienced in their various fields of metrology. As such the presentations were of a very high quality and were enhanced by the extensive practical experience of the facilitators and the wide cross-section of expertise of the participants. The sessions all included a short question and answer period at the end of each presentation and this helped to concretise the issues being discussed.

Metrologists from three National Metrology Institutions (NMI's), namely Jamaica, Trinidad (relatively small institutions) and Mexico (fairly large institution), were invited to outline their experiences in implementing quality systems in their own institutions. This activity successfully achieved the objective of consolidating all the information covered in the three day workshop.

The topics presented included; Role of Metrology in Economic Development, Metrology and Regulations, Metrology and Free Trade Agreements, Conformity Assessment, Traceability, Quality Systems, and Uncertainties.

In Conclusion the Symposium achieved its objectives of:

i) sensitising the general public in Antigua and Barbuda to the role and importance of metrology in economic development, trade, consumer safety and Quality Systems in Testing Laboratories (ISO 17025); and

ii) introducing metrologists/laboratory personnel from across the Caribbean Region, Belize and Panama to the importance of Quality Management Systems in Testing Laboratories (ISO 17025).

The ABBS will continue to run courses of this nature as well as assist those organisations who wish to implement quality management systems.