National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Advisory Committee

(Committee) Meeting

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Gaithersburg, Maryland (via teleconference)

July 2, 2015

Meeting Summary

Committee Member Attendees:

Jeremy Isenberg, Chair Stanford University

Ron J. Coleman Fireforceone (retired)

Paul A. Croce FM Global (retired)

Susan L. Cutter* University of South Carolina 

Carlos Fernandez-Pello* University of California, Berkeley

Anne S. Kiremidjian Stanford University

R. Shankar Nair exp US Services Inc. 

James R. Quiter* Arup 

Sarah A. Rice The Preview Group, Inc.

* not in attendance

NIST Attendees:

Jason Averill Division Chief, Materials and Structural 

Systems Division, EL and Alternate Designated 

Federal Officer

Long Phan Acting Director, Disaster and Failure Studies 

Program, EL

Benjamin Davis Management & Program Analyst
Summary of Discussions

I. Call to Order

Chairperson Isenberg called the meeting to order at 3:35 pm. He welcomed everyone to the meeting and 

informed the Committee of the purpose of the meeting, to review the draft 2015 National Construction 

Safety Team Advisory Committee (NCSTAC) Annual Report to Congress

(http://www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/ncst/upload/2015NCST_ReportToCongress.pdf). His expectation 

is for moderate edits.

Jason Averill informed the group that Dr. Carlos Fernandez-Pello’s and Dr. Susan Cutter’s terms on the 

Committee would be coming to an end in October 2015.

II. Committee Review of Draft Annual Report

Dr. Isenberg asked for overall comments before reviewing each individual paragraph; the group was 

overall satisfied with the general structure of the draft report.

Dr. Isenberg reviewed the first several paragraphs of the draft report with the Committee, and it was 

approved without comments or issues. The paragraph covering the NIST Disaster Data Repository

generated a significant discussion. Dr. Isenberg noted the potential usefulness of the repository of data on 

disasters. The committee discussed whether users would be pre-qualified for access to the database. The 

committee suggested that pre-qualifications should be constructed in a manner to allow NIST to evolve 

the requirements as needed. The committee asked “Who at NIST is in charge of determining prequalifications for access to the repository?”

Jason Averill responded that the program would need to work with the NIST legal office regarding prequalifications for adding users to the repository.

Dr. Isenberg suggested that the NIST should not distinguish between who can add and view data in the 

repository.

The Committee suggested adding the following phrase to the last sentence of the Disaster Data 

Repository paragraph: “and urges NIST to address the development of such pre-qualifications.”

Dr. Isenberg reviewed the Disaster Investigations paragraph with the Committee, and they agreed to 

advise Congress that the criteria for deployment of the NCST should be expanded so that teams can 

collect data from more events than is currently within the scope of the legislation. The Committee decided 

to add stronger language to the paragraph in order to get feedback on what was studied, and to elaborate 

on the last sentence regarding the Washington landslide, as it was out of the NCST’s scope to investigate.

The following sentence was added to the same paragraph, and approved by the Committee: “A report 

from NIST on the ramifications of such an expansion would be appropriate at our next face to face 

meeting.” 

After concluding the review of the draft report, Dr. Isenberg provided the following actions for next steps:

1. NIST will send the updated report to Dr. Isenberg for review and approval along with the 

addresses of the members of Congress who are required to receive the letter.

2. Dr. Isenberg will then send the updated report to the Committee for signature and provide 

to Benjamin Davis within two weeks.
3. NIST will create poll to identify a time all members are available for the next meeting. The 

Committee identified September as the best month for availability for the next meeting.

III. Public Comment Period

Dr. Isenberg opened the floor for the public comment period. There were no comments or attendees from 

the public.

IV. Final Remarks and Adjournment

Dr. Isenberg thanked all for their attendance and input. The meeting was adjourned at 5:18 pm.