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Vol. 21, No. 1 The Newsletter of the Measurement Quality Division, American Society for Quality March 2007
 
The Standard
is published quarterly by the Measurement Quality Division of ASQ; deadlines are February 15, May 15, August 15 and November 15. Text infor-mation intended for publication can be sent via electronic mail as an attachment inMS Word format (Times New Roman, 11 pt). Use single spacing between sen-tences. Graphics/illustrations must be sent as a separate attachment, in jpg format.Photographs of MQD activities are always welcome. Publication of articles, prod-uct releases, advertisements or technical information does not imply endorsementby MQD or ASQ. While
The Standard
makes every effort to ensure the accuracyof articles, the publication disclaims responsibility for statements of fact or opinionmade by the authors or other contributors. Material from
The Standard
may not bereproduced without permission of ASQ. Copyrights in the United States and allother countries are reserved. Website information: MQD’s homepage can be foundathttp://www.asq.org/measure. © 2007 ASQ, MQD. All rights reserved.
The Standard
Vol 21, No. 1, March 2007
Managing Editor and Publisher
Jay L. Bucher6700 Royal View Dr.De Forest, WI 53532-2775Voice: 608-277-2522Fax: 608-846-4269Email:yokota-69@charter.net or jay.bucher@promega.com 
Advertising
 Submit your draft copy toJay Bucher, with arequest for a quotation. Indicate size desired.Since
The Standard
is published ‘in-house’the requester must submit a photo or graphicof their logo, if applicable. The followingrates apply:
 
Business card size............................$1001/8 page ..........................................$1501/4 page...........................................$2001/3 page...........................................$250½ page .............................................$300Full page .........................................$550Advertisements will be accepted on a ‘perissue’ basis only; no long-term contracts willbe available at present. Advertising must beclearly distinguished as an ad. Ads must berelated to measurement quality, quality of measurement, or a related quality field. Adsmust not imply endorsement by the Measure-ment Quality Division or ASQ
.
 
Letters to the Editor
The Standard
welcomes letters from mem-bers and subscribers. Letters should clearlystate whether the author is expressing opin-ion or presenting facts with supporting infor-mation. Commendation, encouragement,constructive critique, suggestions, and alter-native approaches are accepted. If the con-tent is more than 200 words, we may deleteportions to hold that limit. We reserve theright to edit letters and papers.
Information for Authors
 
The Standard
publishes papers on the qual-ity of measurements and the measurement of quality at all levels ranging from relativelysimple tutorial material to state-of-the-art.Papers published in
The Standard
are notreferred in the usual sense, except to ascer-tain that facts are correctly stated and to as-sure that opinion and fact are clearly distin-guished one from another. The Editor re-serves the right to edit any paper.
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Chair’s Column...............................................................................3Letter’s to the Editor.......................................................................4MQD-NCSLI Collaborations Continues.........................................6CCT Program Staus........................................................................8Metric Resources Available............................................................8Daniel Child Wins Simmons Scholarship.......................................9The Learning Curve......................................................................10MQD & NCSLI Metrology Job Description Initiative Update....13Chair-Elect’s Column...................................................................14NCSL International Workshop & Symposium 2007 info.............15MQD Officers and Committee Chairs..........................................16MQD Regional Councilors ……………………………………..17Joe Simmons Scholarship Informational Brochure......................19MSC 2007 Report.........................................................................20MSC 2008 Call for Papers............................................................27
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The Measurement Science Conference (MSC) 2007has come and gone for another year. Dilip Shah hasprovided coverage with an article that is attached atthe end of this edition, including pictures. Thanks,Dilip, for the timely and informative write-up. It ismuch appreciated.We again would like to pass along our congratula-tions to Phil Painchaud for being the 2006 recipient of the MeasurementQuality Division’s highest honor, the Max J. Unis Award.
On the cover:
Some of the artifacts in the ‘museum’, and Phil Painchaudmanning the MQD booth, both from the 2007 edition of the MeasurementScience Conference.
 
MQD Page 3
Vol. 21, No. 1 The Newsletter of the Measurement Quality Division, American Society for Quality March 2007
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 By Graeme C. Payne
Continual Education
One of the foundations of quality is continual im-provement. As metrologyprofessionals we are allinvolved in the qualityprocess, probably in severalways. At a minimum, anybusiness that makes meas-urements using tools or in-struments should be usingcalibrated instruments andhave an effective calibra-tion management program as part of their qualitysystem.I am sure that most of us also know that in order tostay up to date in our profession we need to partakeof ongoing continual education – besides, it canalso be used for recertification units. But we alsoknow that the overall scope of the disciplines cov-ered by metrology is so broad that most of us canreally only maintain our knowledge in the areas weuse most often. The rest of the education that mayhave been stuffed into us at one time grows staleand fades away ...Sometimes the improvement through continualeducation comes from unexpected sources. Justbefore Thanksgiving, my wife was diagnosed withbreast cancer. Surgery a few days before Christmasgot the tumor out (it was very small) and it had notspread so there is no need for chemotherapy. How-ever, she is now going through course of radiationtreatments. Doing my research on what was goingto be happening was my unexpected source of continual education.When I first learned about ionizing radiation (in thevery early 1960's) everything was in roentgens,rems and rads. That learning was reinforced in thelate 1960's and the 1970's by classes on protectionfrom nuclear weapons effects while I was in theMarine Corps, and when my wife was working inthe nuclear power industry for a few years. Overtime all of that receded into the background. Of course I noticed the newer versions of the Interna-tional System of Units (SI) had some unfamiliarunits, gray and sievert, but they were outside thescope of my work so I did not pay any attention tothem beyond what was necessary to pass the CQEand CCT exams. Now, suddenly, I was readingabout radiation therapy and realizing that I did notknow what they are talking about! For example: “...the typical dose for a solid epithelial tumor rangesfrom 50 to 70 Gy ...” and “... the typical fractiona-tion schedule for adults is 1.8 to 2 Gy per day, fivedays a week.”
Time for a refresher!
Now for the learning. According to the SI, the gray(Gy) is the unit for absorbed radiation dose. Onegray is the absorption of one joule of energy by onekilogram of matter, and is a measure of the physi-cal effects of radiation. More importantly for myantique knowledge, one gray is approximatelyequal to 100 rad. OK, now I know what they aresaying. She will be getting a total dose of 50 Gy(5000 rad) spread out in daily doses of 2 Gy (200rad) five days a week. That fits with what I knowfrom discussions with people who had radiationtherapy years ago, when
they
got doses measuredin rads. It's about the same amount, just the namehas changed. (By the way, the sievert is the SI unitfor dose equivalent or effective dose, to measurethe biological effects of radiation. One sievert isequal to 100 rem. I won't discuss that further be-cause it quickly gets even more complex.)Your initial learning and professional education isvery important. I have long believed that it is atleast equally important to retain the ability andwillingness to learn, so you can refresh old knowl-edge and learn new things that are necessary toadapt to a changing social, technological andphysical environment. For me, this is just a recentone of many examples. Continual learning is asimportant for an individual as continual improve-ment is to a process or a business.Finally, my wife's cancer was detected in her rou-tine annual mammogram. The learning from that isthat if you have any of the risk factors for breastcancer – the biggest one is being female – getchecked regularly.
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