The Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation (ITSDF) needs financial support to continue its current level of services to the forklift industry. Annual costs approximate USD120,000.

ITSDF assumed management of the development process of Standard B 56 for industrial forklifts from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in April 2006 and has received support only from the Industrial Truck Association (ITA) and the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA).

"The ITSDF board of trustees is due to meet at the end of June and will examine the current panoply of services in light of current economic conditions," says William Montwieler, president of Washington-based ITSDF and executive director of ITA. "Additional funding must be found if services are to be continued at their current high level."

Montwieler says ITSDF hopes that those parties benefiting from the free distribution of standards will support the organization. Since the ITSDF website opened, users have downloaded more than 26,000 copies of standards relating to safety, accessories, measurement of sound, visibility evaluation and LPG fuel cylinders. Requests for the standards came primarily from manufacturers and dealers, 37%; users, 22%; educators, 6%; and government agencies, 5%.

"Difficult discussions will occur in June, and difficult decisions will be made," Montwieler says. "ITSDF is seeking a way to contact those individuals who have downloaded standards and request their support. While there is great goodwill to be had, ITA simply cannot continue to contribute upwards of USD100,000 a year to the development and management of standards that are widely used by a variety of manufacturers, end users, dealers and others."

Montwieler points to the possibility "that ITSDF will decline to manage the work on standards for organizations that do not exhibit financial support."

Montwieler issued an initial appeal in a February 27 letter. "Because, and indeed in spite, of the continuing economic challenges facing us, we need to ask you to ask your employer for more help," the message says. "We would like you to ask your employer to commit to contribute USD1,000 or USD3,000 or USD5,000 to ITSDF. Funds are deductible as a charitable contribution."

Players other than Washington-based ITA and Charlotte, North Carolina-based MHIA need "to step up to the plate," Montwieler says. "This should be a shared burden. . . . Should funds not be forthcoming, it is conceivable that services will need to be cut. . . . We need help to continue the service at this level."

In 2004, the non-profit American National Standards Institute (ANSI) authorized the transfer of Standard B 56 from ASME to the newly formed ITSDF. ANSI, which has its operations center in New York, coordinates the US voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system.