Inside this Issue

Office of Weights and Measures Sees

Progress in Proficiency Testing 1

Event Calendar 2

Weights and Measures Historical Moment 1

Weights 

and 

Measures 

Historical Moment

From the Report of the Second Conference on

Weights and Measures, April 12, 1906.

In opening comments made by Dr. Stratton,

Director of the Burueau of Standards, to all

those gathered to participate in The Second

National Meeting on Weights and Measures,

he stated how pleasurable it was to see many

new and old faces and that it was a pleasure

to be able to confer with friends from many

different states to hear and learn what they

were doing. He was very interested in what

they were doing right and what they were

doing wrong. 

While the Bureau of Standards (current day

NIST) was very interested in weights and

measures and “inaugurated the movement”

Dr. Stratton said, 

“. . .while it is our (weights and measures participants) duty to improve

conditions affecting weights and

measures, we believe that it will be

better for you to perfect your own organization, (continued on pg 5)

1

Volume 5 Issue 3

April 28, 2014

Office of Weights and

Measures Sees Progress in

Proficiency Testing

Byline: Curt Suplee, PML 

Americans rely on many measurements of mass and volume in their

daily lives, from weighing broccoli at

the grocery store to putting gas in the

family car. In order to ensure both

consumer confidence and uniformity

in commerce, the accuracy of the devices used in those measurements

must be tested at regular intervals.

The degree of accuracy achieved, in

turn, ultimately depends on the competence of the metrologists who calibrate over 350,000 measurement

standards per year that are then used

by weights and measures officials

when testing measuring instruments. Val Miller demonstrates a volume guage.

SPRING 

HAS

SPRUNG

What a welcome vision after a

long, cold, snowy winter. This

flowering tree is outside of the

NIST Administration Building. A

beautiful reminder that spring

has finally arrived.

Pictures courtsey of Lisa Warfield and Linda Crown
W&M Connection 2 Volume 5 Issue 3

HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT THE TRAINING CALENDAR?

Calendar 2014

Registration for training in the NIST Office of

Weights and Measures is handled by Yvonne

Branden at yvonne.branden@nist.gov.

Course descriptions can be viewed on the Office of Weights and Measures website at

http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/calendar.cfm

and clicking on the name of the course. 

May 5 - 8 (4 days)

Northeastern Weights and Measures Association (NEWMA) - Annual Meeting

Manchester, NH

Contact: James Cassidy at

jcassidy@cambridgema.gov

May 7

NIST Training at the Northeastern Weights

and Measures Association (NEWMA) Annual

Meeting

Evaluating Performance, Learning Objectives,

and Training Effectiveness for Managers

Class No. 5308

Manchester, NH

May 19 - 22 (4 days)

Central Weights and Measures Association

(CWMA) Annual Meeting

St. Louis, MO

Contact: Sherry Turvey at 

sherry.turvey@kda.ks.gov

May 22

NIST Training at the Central Weights and

Measures Association (CWMA) Annual Meeting

Evaluating Performance, Learning Objectives,

and Training Effectiveness for Managers

Class No. 5310

St. Louis, MO

June 2

Webinar - NISTIR 6969 - SOP 8, Part 1

10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Class No. 5315

Webinar - Calibration Method Validation

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Class No. 5317

June 2 - 6 (5 days)

Liquefied Petroleum Gas Liquid-Measuring

Devices Instructor Training

Class No. 5314

Las Cruces, NM

June 3

Webinar - NISTIR 7383 - SOP 18, Part 1

10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Class No. 5319 (Continued on pg 3)

Training and evaluating those personnel is the year-round responsibility of

PML’s Office of Weights and Measures (OWM), and nationwide the demonstrated abilities of lab staff are trending upward. OWM has just compiled its

summary training and proficiency-test data for 2013, which show the highest

overall success rate on proficiency testing since the program began collecting

data in 2006: 98.97 % now, versus 92.76 % seven years ago.

That improvement is directly tied to OWM’s recent efforts. “All persons who

work in a standards lab must be able to demonstrate proficiency in order for

their labs to be recognized by NIST,” says Georgia Harris of OWM’s Laboratory

Metrology Program. “Each of the 45 or 46 active labs* is recognized with a

certificate of measurement traceability to support their state legal requirements; they may also be accredited by NVLAP. When we issue a certificate,

the facility, equipment, staff, standards, procedures – the whole system – is

examined against international standards. A very big part of that process is

training and proficiency testing (PT).”

A big part indeed. In 2013, OWM staff and highly trained volunteer instructors trained 446 students in seminars, 110 students in webinars, and 55 students in workshops for a total of 633 students. In addition, there were 14

proficiency tests conducted in conjunction with several of America’s six Regional Measurement Assurance Programs (RMAPs). Proficiency tests averaged 20 participants, each of whom took measurements of 10 different items,

for almost 3,700 points of possible pass or failure.

Many factors have contributed to the rising PT success rate. “For one thing,

we completely re-designed all our training courses over the past three years,”

Harris says, “emphasizing adult-learning concepts and ensuring that the training is activity-based and hands-on.** Now when participants come in to our

seminar on mass measurement, we issue them a test-weight kit on the first

day, and they have to submit comprehensive calibration certificates on their

measurements of those artifacts at the end of the two-week course. There’s

no way to put it off or get more time.”

In addition, OWM has implemented a dynamic assessment

scheme to respond to changes in

student needs. “When we see an

area develop a significant failure

rate in an area of PT testing, we target it for more training in subsequent years,” Harris says. “In the

volume-measurement category, for

example, we started observing too

many failures, so we began providing additional training for three

consecutive years.” The numbers

tell the story: In 2011, only 62 % of

participants successfully passed

the volume-measurement PT; this

year it was 89 %. Georgia Harris with a mass scale.
W&M Connection 3 Volume 5 Issue 3

June 3

Webinar - Software Verification and Validation

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Class No. 5318

June 4

Webinar - NISTIR 6969 - SOP 8, Part 2

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Class No. 5316

June 5

Webinar - Conducting an Effective Management Review

10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Class No. 5321

Webinar - NISTIR 7383 - SOP 18, Part 2

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Class No. 5320

June 6

Webinar - Uncertainty Budgets for SOP 14

10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Class No. 5322

June 9 - 13 (5 days)

HB 133, Basic - Checking the Net Contents of

Packaged Goods

Class No. 5304

Williamston, MI

June 9 - 13 (5 days)

Laboratory Administration

Class No. 5291

NIST/Gaithersburg, MD

June 25 - 26 (2 days)

HB 130 - Price Verification

Class No. 5325

Hartford, CT

July 13 - 17 (5 days)

National Conference on Weights and Measures - Annual Meeting

Detroit, MI

Contact: info@ncwm.net 

July 28 - 31 (4 days)

NCSLI Conference 2014

Orlando, FL

Contact: info@ncsli.org

August 11 - 15 (5 days)

HB 133, Basic - Checking the Net Contents

of Packaged Goods

Class No. 5313

Little Rock, AR

August 14

Webinar - Calibration Certificate Evaluation

2:00 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Class No. 5292

August 18 - 22 (5 days)

Volume Metrology Seminar

Class No. 5293 - NIST/Gaithersburg, MD 

(continued on pg. 4)

About 20 % to 30 % of PT participants are not from state weights and measures labs. They come from the military, DOE national laboratories such as

Sandia and Oak Ridge, and industry. Pharmaceutical companies including Abbott Laboratories and Eli Lilly and Company have sent staff.

Similarly, the training program serves a broad community. OWM conducts

training sessions both in the field and at a special educational lab on the NIST

Gaithersburg, MD campus. “We have the only training facility of its kind in

the world,” Harris says. “So we also get people from many other countries,

including government and industry metrologists from Canada and Mexico.”

Training begins with a course in Fundamentals of Metrology. Passing a math

exam is now a prerequisite. “Historically, the biggest challenge with our students has been their math skills,” says OWM instructor Val Miller. “Many of

our students have been out of school for 10 or 15 years and haven’t retained

those skills. So we used to spend up to a day of remedial math exercises on

simple thing like order of operations.”

Another area that typically requires review is correct use of units and symbols.

“We spend a lot of time on that,” Miller says. “If you give a customer a calibration report with an error on it, it’s not simply wrong – it compromises trust

and ruins your credibility. We start emphasizing that at the first session of

our Fundamentals course, and keep it up throughout the program. The calibration certificate that goes out has got to be right.”

The entire basic course sequence takes four weeks, with two weeks spent on

mass. (Ninety percent of all measurements done by state labs involve mass.

Volume measurement makes up another 8.5 %.) In addition, OWM conducts

numerous specialty classes, offers webinars to improve skills and methods,

and holds training sessions for trainers.

“At the end of the day, our goal is to assure traceability and uniformity in commerce,” says Carol Hockert, chief of OWM. “The only way for us to know

whether or not our training is truly successful is by evaluating its implementation. Proficiency tests are an excellent way for us to measure success, so

we will continue to improve and expand the use of PTs in our program.”

* With the exceptions of Rhode Island, Delaware, and North Dakota each state has a

weights and measures lab. The District of Columbia also closed its laboratory about

three years ago. However, Los Angeles County, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and

the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration maintain separate lab operations and are participants in the OWM program.

“Active” labs are those which participate in the training, regional measurement assurance program training and proficiency testing, and submit requests for laboratory

recognition according to NIST Handbook 143, Program Handbook.

** Last year, OWM was named an “authorized provider” by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training, which certifies that the OWM training

program is compliant with internationally accepted standards. 

(Continued on pg. 4)

The NIST Office of Weights and Measures

homepage: http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/index.cfm
W&M Connection 4 Volume 5 Issue 3

August 20 - 21 (2 days)

NTEP Grain Analyzer Sector Meeting

Kansas City, MO

Contact: info@ncwm.net

August 21

Webinar - Contract Review

2:00 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Class No. 5301

August 26 - 28 (3 days)

NTEP Joint Meeting of:

Weighing Sector (Aug. 26 - 27) (2 days)

& Software Sector (Aug. 27 - 28) (2 days)

Atlanta, GA

Contact: info@ncwm.net

August 28

Webinar - Document Control and Record

Keeping

2:00 p.m. - 4 00 p.m.

Class No. 5299

September 8 - 11

Central Weights and Measures Association

(CWMA) Interim Meeting

St. Charles, Missouri

Contact: info@ncwm.net

September 8 - 19 (2 weeks)

Mass Metrology Seminar

Class No. 5297

NIST/Gaithersburg, MD

September 14 - 18 (5 days)

Western Weights and Measures Association 

(WWMA) Annual Meeting

Portland, OR

Contact: Brett Saum at bsaum@co.slo.ca.us

NIST Training at the Western Weights and

Measures Association (WWMA) Annual

Meeting

Evaluating Performance, Learning Objectives, and Training Effectiveness for Managers

Class No. 5328

Portland, OR

October 4 - 8 (5 days)

Southern Weights and Measures Association

(SWMA) Annual Meeting

Raleigh, NC

Contact: info@ncwm.net

October 5

NIST Training at the Southern Weights and

Measures Association (SWMA) Annual Meeting

Evaluating Performance, Learning Objectives, and Training Effectiveness for Managers

Class # 5327

Raleigh, NC

(continued on pg. 5)

Among its many activities, PML’s Office of Weights and Measures conducts training

classes for trainers.

LAST CHANCE

NIST TRAINING

AT

CWMA--EVALUATING PERFORMANCE, 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND TRAINING

EFFECTIVENESS

FOR MANAGERS

WHEN: Thursday, May 22, 2014; 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

WHERE: CWMA Meeting, St. Louis Missouri

CLASS No.: 5310

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Friday, May 2, 2014

REGISTER HERE: https://tsapps.nist.gov/WMD/

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION HERE: http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/5310.cfm

Purpose: This half day session will explore the role of the manager in ensuring

effective training and implementation on the job for performance improvements.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this half day session, using notes, provided

resources, and insights from other participants in the class, participants will be

able to:

• Clarify your role as a manager in ensuring successful and effective application

of employee training;

• Evaluate and match learning objectives to employee performance requirements; 

• Identify and evaluate tools for evaluating the effectiveness of staff training;

and

• Identify applicable methods to assess student learning after the training

event."

Audience: Training managers and supervisors who want to evaluate training effectiveness.

NIST Database Contact: Isabel Chavez at isabel.chavez@nist.gov, (301) 975-2128
October 7 - 9 (3 days)

NTEP Measuring Sector Meeting

Raleigh, NC

Contact: info@ncwm.net

October 15 - 16 (2 days)

Northeastern Weights and Measures Association (NEWMA) Interim Meeting

TBD

Contact: info@ncwm.net

October 19 - 23 (5 days)

Combined Regional Measurement Assurance

Program*

Class No. 5157

St. Louis, MO

October 22 - 24 (3 days)

HB 130 - Packaging and Labeling

Class No. 5323

Fort Worth, TX

November 3 - 7 (5 days)

Fundamentals of Metrology

Class No. 5309

NIST/Gaithersburg, MD

November 4 - 7 (4 days)

HB 130 - Packing and Labeling

Class No. 5324

Lake Mary, FL

2015

January 18 - 21

National Conference on Weights and Measures Interim Meeting

Daytona Beach, FL

Contact: info@ncwm.net

January 26 - 30 (5 days)

Fundamentals of Metrology

Class No. 5329

NIST/Gaithersburg, MD

February 12

Webinar - Conducting an Effective Management Review

2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Class No. 5295

February 26

Webinar - Internal Auditing Best Practices

2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Class No. 5296

*Invitation Only

**Limited to State Laboratory Program Participants

W&M Connection 5 Volume 5 Issue 3

REMINDER

THE 99TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

ANNUAL MEETING

July 13 - 17, 2014

The 2014 Annual Meeting will take place in Detroit, Michigan. Early Bird

registration closes June 20, 2014. Information can be obtained on the

NCWM website at http://www.ncwm.net. Register today and share your

valuable experience and knowlege with the membership. Federal, state,

county, and industry participation is welcome.

Contact: (402) 343-4880 or info@ncwm.net

OFFICE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

General Inquries: (301) 975-4004; e-mail: owm@nist.gov

Office Chief, Carol Hockert: e-mail: carol.hockert@nist.gov

Newsletter Editor: Linda Crown; (301) 975-3998; e-mail: linda.crown@nist.gov

(continued from pg. 1)

elect your own officers, and carry on these annual meetings in a manner independent of the Bureau, just as any scientific organization would. The first

thing in order, therefore, will be the perfecting of the organization. I would

suggest that this be made the first business of the meeting. After that I would

be pleased to say a few words in regard to uniform laws and some other matters in connection with our work. . . .Remarks on the proposition to form a

permanent organization are now in order.”

The meeting began with discussions of the “number and character” of the offices to

be contained within this organization. The first mentioned were those positions of

chairman, secretary, board, and executive committee. The participants began hashing out what would develop into today’s organization, but even with this daunting

task ahead of them, the big concern and prime objective of the meeting was to put

in place uniform laws for all the states and uniform methods of inspection. This led

to a question from Mr. John Richardson (Virginia), “Would it not also be wise to petition Congress to pass uniform laws, and make suggestions as to what we would

like.” 

Discussions circled back around to the establishment of the organization, what to

call it, who would be the chairman, and who would be the correct people to represent the various states. Many possibilities were put forth; however, it was agreed

that the Bureau of Standards should take the lead. So the attendees continued to

work on fleshing out this new organization. More can be read on this second meeting

in the Report of the Second Conference on Weights and Measures meeting. 

Linda Crown, Editor

NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

THE REPORT OF THE 98TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WEIGHTS

AND MEASURES (2013)

http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/pubs/sp1171.cfm