FORMATION OF THE NEW STA ADVISORY COMMITTEE (STAAC)

We all want the Seal of Testing Assurance (STA) Certified Compost Program to be the gold standard for compost! To help with this, the USCC Board of Directors has formed the STA Advisory Committee (STAAC) to serve solely in an advisory role. The committee chair is Bob Yost, USCC Board of Directors Interim Past President and Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at A1 Organics. The staff liaison is Hilary Nichols, STA Program Manager and Market Development Coordinator for the USCC. STAAC will pre-vet items related to the STA program and make recommendations for review and application. STAAC will advise on STA program management, upgrades and compost use specifications. STAAC will work with the Standards and Practices Committee (S&P) which is housed in the Composting Council Research & Education Foundation (CCREF), related to Test Methods for the Evaluation of Composting & Compost (TMECC) revisions. And STAAC will work with the Market Development Committee (MDC) on items related to marketing the program.

The Committee is made up of the following positions and members:

• USCC Board Member Representative- Jeff Dannis, Operations Division Chief at DPW- Bureau of Environmental Services of Howard County, Maryland
• Technical Advisor- Frank Shields, Director of Laboratory Services at Gabilan Laboratory at Keith Day Company
• Industry Consultant- Ron Alexander, Principal at R Alexander Associates, Inc.
• Marketing Development Committee Representative- Chuck Duprey, President of Naturcycle LLC

The committee meets monthly and has established a rolling prioritized agenda of program management, end-user, and lab issues to work on. These items are based on information gathered by Hilary Nichols over several years of managing the program, Bob Yost in preparing for the new position, and Ron Alexander after creating a report for the board on the topic. STAAC Chair Bob Yost states: “The STA Program is foundational to the success of the USCC’s mission and the expansion of composting and compost use. It provides not only a consistent, science based, compost targeted analytical standard, but also undergirds both the credibility and accountability of its participants that in turn delivers confidence to an ever-growing marketplace of diverse stakeholders. The STACC’s focus is to help strengthen and grow the STA Program in North America.” The STAAC committee will keep you updated on the work in progress via our website and media outreach.