ASTM International continues to sponsor educational activities for local students at Riverbend Environmental Education Center in Gladwyne, Pa. The third-grade class from Whitehall Elementary School in Norristown, Pa., recently spent time at Riverbend learning about watersheds. Students learned about different bodies of water and how water moves from one body to another. They also learned how the quality of water can be determined by the macro-invertebrates living in it.

An armoire used by ASTM International Subcommittee F15.42 on Furniture Safety during a meeting on standards for furniture tipover safety at ASTM International headquarters in West Conshohocken, Pa. was donated to the Kelly Anne Dolan Memorial Fund earlier this year.

ASTM International has donated two portable radios to the Washington Fire Co. in Conshohocken, Pa. The radios, which cost $5,800, are used by firefighters to communicate with each other and with other police, fire and emergency medical services personnel during emergency situations.

Ambassador Ron Kirk
United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20508

Mr. Michael Froman
Deputy Assistant to the President and
Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs
National Security Council and National Economic Council
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Cass Sunstein
OIRA Administrator
The Office of Management and Budget
725 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20503

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, National Foreign Trade Council and more than a dozen industry trade associations sent a joint letter to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) stating their strong objections to a European proposal in current World Trade Organization (WTO) Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations. 

ASTM International has contributed $25,000 to the American Red Cross in support of the relief and recovery efforts in Japan following the earthquake and devastating tsunami. The American Red Cross offers assistance to the Japanese Red Cross in helping the many thousands of people affected by the natural disaster.

The Afghanistan National Standards Authority (ANSA) submitted a recent annual report to ASTM International documenting its use of ASTM standards this past year.  ANSA and ASTM International signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in 2005.

On March 23, 2011, the local section of NATAS (North American Thermal Analysis Society) held their annual symposium at ASTM headquarters in West Conshohocken, Pa.

Ms. Margaret Lungu, ASTM Standards Expert Program Alumna (2006), of the Zambia Bureau of Standards, presented the Zambian perspective on the benefits of the ASTM MoU Program at the meeting of the Southern Africa Development Community - Cooperation in Standardisation on March 23.  The SADC-STAN met in conjunction with the annual meetings of the SADC - Standardisation, Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SADC-SQAM) in Gaborone, Botswana. 

ASTM International will sponsor Ashley Vincent, a junior at the University of Idaho, in the 2011 Washington Internships for Students of Engineering (WISE) program.