The Soil Association's elected council appoints standards board members, with the aim of ensuring a representative spread of appropriate expertise on the board. It meets around three times per year. The standards board is responsible to the council for upholding organic principles in the Soil Association standards. It does this by overseeing their development and maintenance. It works in conjunction with the standards committees who provide the expert, technical input. The charity's standards department provides the administration and management for the process. The standards board also guides the strategic direction of the standards department and agrees the annual work programme of standards development. The standards board have recently completed work on governance and accountability in standards setting. To read more about this work and the implications it has on our standards setting, please click here. The meetings We like to keep our standards setting process as transparent as possible. To view the agendas, please visit the links below. SB Agenda 06/10/08 [PDF, 24 KB] SB Agenda 03/07/08 [PDF, 13 KB] SB Agenda 26/06/07 [PDF, 17 KB] To view the last meetings minutes, please open the pdfs. Minutes 03/07/08 [PDF, 40 KB] Minutes 06-07/02/08 [PDF, 49 KB] Minutes 09/10/07 [PDF, 74 KB] Issues that have arisen in recent meetings: Air freight In-conversion feed Ethical trade Review of processing standards EU regulation and implementing rules EU logo Communications strategy Standards work plan 2008-10 Approving standards amendments for Council Current board members and their expertise: Anna Bradley: independent chair of the standards board Jo Fairley: health products standards committee chair and freelance writer on health and beauty issues William Lana: textiles standards committee chair and licensee – textiles and retailer Charles Weston: producer board chair and licensee - farmer Andrew Whitley: processing standards committee chair and bakery consultant Nigel Woodhouse: aquaculture standards committee chair, Soil Association council member and licensee – trout farmer Simon Wright: ethical trade committee chair, Soil Association council member and organic food consultant John Newman: agriculture standards committee chair and licensee - farmer Jill Vaughan: horticulture standards committee chair, licensee - grower Vacant: forestry standards committee chair Lizzie Vann: Organic Trade Group representative Ian Bretman: lay member Isobel Collyer: lay member Alistair Cruickshank: lay member Rob Haward: grower representative and licensee - grower This page will be updated as changes to the standards board arise. The next board meeting will be held on the 12th January 2008 in Bristol. In 2009 the meetings will be held on 5th March, 1st July and, 14th and 15th of October. For more information, please contact Amanda Woodman-Hardy at awoodmanhardy@soilassociation.org.