ASTM International - Membership and Organization

Membership and Organization

Membership in the organization is open to anyone with an interest in its activities. Standards are developed within committees, and new committees are formed as needed, upon request of interested members. Membership in most committees is voluntary and is initiated by the member's own request, not by appointment nor by invitation. Members are classified as users, producers, consumers, and "general interest". The latter include academics and consultants. Users include industry users, who may be producers in the context of other technical committees, and end-users such as consumers. In order to meet the requirements of antitrust laws, producers must constitute less than 50% of every committee or subcommittee, and votes are limited to one per producer company. Because of these restrictions, there can be a substantial waiting-list of producers seeking organizational memberships on the more popular committees. Members can, however, participate without a formal vote and their input will be fully considered.

As of 2007, more than 30,000 members, including over 1100 organizational members, from more than 120 countries, including 120 members in China as of 2005. The 2011 Chairman of the Board is Catherine H. Pilarz; James A. Thomas is the President of ASTM International.

ASTM International presents several awards for contributions to standards authorship, including the ASTM International Award of Merit (the organization's highest award)

ASTM International is recognized by the United States Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.