Interest in hydrogen as a key player in the energy security of the United States has led the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) to gear up to be more active and responsive to the media, government and industry. Interest in hydrogen has led to increased NHA membership, conference registrations, partnerships, and information requests from stakeholders, the media, Congress and the Administration. In response, its Board of Directors has asked the NHA to prepare plans for responding to this awareness; including rejuvenating the NHA’s committees and revising the budget to compensate for additional staff support.

The current committees include Annual Conference Steering, Codes and Standards, Education and Outreach, Growth, and Policy.

Tasks of the Committee are:

Annual Conference Steering - Oversees all aspects of planning the annual conferences; recommends the annual conference location, dates, theme, agenda structure and topics, participation by other organizations, and sponsorship levels; reviews abstracts for relevance to the conference; suggests tours and networking events.

Codes and Standards – Oversees all work by the Association in the development, coordination and facilitation of codes and standards for the safe and efficient handling of hydrogen and hydrogen-related equipment; identifies C&S priorities for work items; identifies the Working Group chair for any work item of the NHA; assures work items advance; plans C&S workshops; identifies sponsorship and other forms of NHA cost-sharing for government grants.

• WG 8: National and International Regulations for Hydrogen Storage
• WG 9: Analyze Impacts of Draft Global Technical Regulations
• WG 10: Support DER Road Show
• WG 11: CSA support of NGV revisions for H2 tanks
• WG 12: Portable power coordination
• WG 13: Support NFPA Hydrogen Coordinating Group
• WG 14: Continue ongoing coordination activities with SDOs, others

Education and Outreach – Oversees plans and development of work products for public education, student education and education of safety officials; identifies E&O priorities, assures activities and work plans are completed; identifies partnering opportunities and funding sources for E&O activities.

Growth
Program Subcommittee- Oversees membership development and program development planning and implementation; develops strategies for growth in programs and program funding; develops and recommends changes in membership categories and definitions, dues structure and membership benefits; conducts membership drives; oversees efforts to engage members and Directors in growth efforts.

Membership Subcommittee- Sets policy on refunds, resolves membership issues such as non-payment of dues in a timely way, determines eligibility of membership, conducts membership drives, provides contact information for potential new members for staff follow-up.

Policy Committee
External Subcommittee - Develops and recommends external policy priorities, directs policy, government affairs and advocacy activities, prepares legislative, regulatory and agency testimony, and responds to member policy inquiries and recommendations. The Board of Directors approves new policy directions; the Board may decide to seek approval of significantly new, broad policy documents by the entire membership.

Internal Subcommittee – Develops and recommends internal policy priorities and proposes changes to Bylaws as necessary.

NHA’s goal is to energize the current committees by providing a framework that encourages participation through member and staff led initiatives. The purpose is to allow much of the NHA activities to be directed by members through more active committees. Each committee, or subcommittee, will have a dedicated staff liaison to assist the chair in arranging regular meetings, conference calls, and reports for the NHA Board of Directors and Executive Committee. The details of the committee restructuring will be available on the NHA Members’ Only Website sometime in August 2003.

In addition to being more responsive to today’s needs, the NHA is positioning itself for the next stage in the hydrogen energy evolution - the demonstration of the hydrogen infrastructure. In addition to working closely within the process used in the United States to codify technical requirements to enable these demonstrations and future commercial systems to be permitted, the NHA is also taking a role in demonstration activities. The NHA is available to work with industry in areas including educating permitting authorities, creating outreach materials to facilitate public support, assisting with the application of existing and developing codes and standards to ongoing demonstrations, and feeding lessons learned back into the process to improve safety and performance of future hydrogen energy activities.

For more information on the NHA’s activities, please visit www.HydrogenUS.org.