I found this on the White Collie Club site. Very interesting.  The  Standard has been changed before and it will change again. It seems that the best way for change in the standard is to have people that are higher up in the organization to be FOR the change! Unless of course the standard review committee does not squash the idea of adding the Sable Merle to the standard and the actual membership gets to vote on the matter.

Here is the full link http://colliedog.org/InternationalWhiteCollieClub/InternationalWhiteCollieClub/AR-JamesAMcGlynn-Marvel.html 

 I believe we are fortunate that McGlynn did not limit his efforts on behalf of the
white Collie to breeding only.  In 1949, McGlynn served as a consultant in the
re-writing of the Collie Standard, which gave the White Collie official recognition
for the first time.  Next, McGlynn wrote an excellent article on the White collie for
the 1950 CCA Yearbook.  Mickey's efforts on behalf of the white Collie were
numerous as Vivian Ivey points out in her article on the "White Collie Breeders
Association" (part of The Collie Record, White Collie Issue, editor Claudia P.
Schroder), that the first edition of the White Collie Club Bulletin was published in
November 1948, and the club itself was officially organized the following year under the
leadership of its founder, J.A. McGlynn.  The Association, "for the purpose of
popularizing, publicising and promoting improvement in the quality of the color.

This article from 

The White Collie Chronicle  Dec. 2006

& Collie Cues, issue 2 , 1981