**New Chairman's Address**

**G. Weston Diggs**

**Virginia Product & Industry Standards**

First, I want to take this opportunity and thank in advance my family,
staff in Richmond, as well as the Conference Staff for the support they
will be giving me over the next twelve months. Until you have served as
Chairman, you have no comprehension as to the amount of time the
position requires. I believe this is the first time in recent history
anyone has served two terms as Chairman of the National Conference on
Weights and Measures. I consider it an honor and I look forward to
working with the NCWM Board of Directors, Henry Oppermann, his staff at
NIST, and the members of this conference.

I believe the NCWM is a strong organization and serves an important
purpose, but its real importance is not truly appreciated by anyone but
the members of our own organization. One of the problems of being
involved in Weights and Measures as long as I have been (37 years) is I
have seen a lot. Over the last decade and a half, I have seen weights
and measures programs deteriorate or in some cases, cease to exist as
they compete for funding. This is true at all levels of weights and
measures \-- local, state, and federal government \-- and I believe some
foreign programs fall into this category. I am not pointing fingers; the
program in my state has suffered like many other jurisdictions. I
believe one of the problems we have when seeking funding for our
programs is there is no national standard for weights and measures
programs. Other professions like teachers, firemen, and police can point
to recommendations by federal agencies. For example, the Departments of
Education and Justice have specific recommendations on pupil-teacher
ratios or police officer to citizen ratios. These recommendations
include organizational structures. Weights and measures organizations do
not have anything they can point to as being a national standard.

Developing a standard is not something the Conference can or should do.
I do not believe we can be objective. All of us have our personal biases
and priorities that are most often established by our legislatures or
other governing bodies. This is the responsibility of the Department of
Commerce and some may argue not necessarily that of NIST. As a first
step, the Department of Commerce should re-examine its decision, made
over a hundred years ago, to use the NCWM to ensure the uniformity in
weights and measures in the United States. I question if this commitment
is still valid based on the NIST paper "Proposed Changes to the
Development of Legal Metrology Issues". However, if it is still valid,
the next step should be to establish what constitutes an ideal weights
and measures program in terms of personnel and activities. Once the
"standard" is in place, we will have something to point to when seeking
to justify the funding for our programs. Most of us know where we are
relative to our weights and measures programs. What we do not have is a
standard showing us where we need to be. It would seem to me a national
standard for weights and measures programs would aid in securing federal
money if we could demonstrate where weights and measures is nationally
against where we need to be.

My second issue is the revision of NIST Handbook 44. This is the same
issue I brought to the conference four years ago and I believe revision
is even more critical now. More of the conference members use
Handbook-44 than any of the model laws developed by the NCWM. I see it
as outdated, contradictory, confusing and not reflective of today's
technology. I would like to make some suggestions as to how this could
be best accomplished but I cannot. However, I believe if the NCWM does
not do something about bringing Handbook 44 up to date, DWM/NIST will
have to. The question is, do we want to lead or follow?

From an organizational standpoint I have some issues I believe we need
to consider. First, should the past Chairman of the Conference
automatically become Chairman to the NTEP Committee? We have been lucky
so far but we may find the Chairman of the NCWM will not have the
technical background or interest to be Chairman of the NTEP Committee.
Many NTEP issues require several years to develop thereby requiring each
new chairman to be brought up to speed. Take for example, the issue of
Conformity Assessment, which has been in development since 2000. I
believe the Conference would be better served if the NTEP Chairman were
appointed for a term of several years and had the technical background
necessary to best serve NTEP.

Second, we need to expand our use of work groups to support our Standing
Committees. Besides the number of issues submitted to the committees
each year, the issues are becoming more complex. There is no way to
staff a Standing Committees with "experts" that can cover the wide range
of issues before the Conference. We need to utilize work groups to
develop some of these issues. We have used work groups in the past very
effectively and we need to expand their use in order to more fully
develop issues through the conference process in a timely manner.

Third, the locations of our Annual and Interim Meetings are largely
influenced by the availability of federal per diem rates. A second
consideration is our tradition of rotating the meetings through the
Regions. As a result, we find ourselves meeting in Chicago in 2006 at a
hotel with a room rate of \$155.00. I might add, the locations for these
meetings are selected by the NCWM Board. I realize many states cannot
exceed the federal per diem, but I suggest, in order to keep meetings
affordable, we need more flexibility in determining meeting locations.
This may mean breaking with the tradition of rotating our Annual and
Interim Meetings. Would a meeting at a hotel in Kansas City at \$95.00
(\$7.00 over per diem) be better than Chicago at \$155.00?

These are some of the issues I think are worthy of discussion. I would
appreciate feedback from you as individuals or from your Regional
Associations as they meet throughout the year.

This is not exactly the way I envisioned phasing out my career in
weights and measures. I thought I would be more like the old soldier and
just fade away. Serving as Chairman is a true honor and I will serve to
the best of my ability. With your support this will be a successful
year.