The RV Industry Association (RVIA) has appointed Thomas Ramsay as senior director of standards administration and technology, placing him in a leadership role overseeing standards development, industry code initiatives and member compliance programs that support recreational vehicle safety.
Ramsay will work with the association’s technical subcommittees and the Standards Steering Committee to help draft and revise industry codes while representing the organization on national committees, including the National Fire Protection Association.
His responsibilities also include maintaining the association’s American National Standards Institute accreditation and expanding standards education for members.
The appointment comes as the association continues administering its Standards program, which it describes as a core member benefit. The Standards Department employs a team of full-time inspectors who monitor compliance with standards adopted by the association’s Board of Directors for the construction of recreational vehicles and park model RVs.
The department conducts more than 2,000 unannounced inspections annually at member company manufacturing plants and provides educational resources and hands-on training to help manufacturers comply with adopted codes and standards.
Originally from San Diego, California, Ramsay studied agricultural and biological engineering at the University of Illinois before beginning his career at Thor Motor Coach, where he worked for nearly 10 years.
During his tenure at Thor Motor Coach, Ramsay served as a design engineer responsible for a variety of RV systems before transitioning to a compliance engineering position focused on Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards regulations.
One of Ramsay’s immediate priorities is completing the organization’s ANSI audit, a review conducted every five years to evaluate its standards revision process.
“Right now, we’re completing an ANSI audit,” Ramsay said in a News and Insights report of RVIA. “Every five years, ANSI audits our revision process for all the standards that we maintain through their accreditation procedures. We gather all the documentation that we’ve met all their policies as we go through code changes and they review all our processes.”
Ramsay said his interest in the RV industry developed through years of outdoor recreation and camping. He said he grew up camping, later spent part of his honeymoon canoeing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness area in northern Minnesota, and now owns a camper that his family uses for RV trips about five times each year.
Looking ahead, Ramsay said the opportunity to contribute to industrywide safety is the most rewarding aspect of his new position.
“I enjoy being part of the industry as a whole, and working for the betterment of the whole sector, and its safety,” he said.