> From: Paul Trusten <[email protected]>
> Date: August 10, 2012 16:28:26 CDT
> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [USMA:51843] Re: An Opportunity Lost
>
> Exactly. It would be shortsighted preparing metric promos for just one
> audience or one medium.
>
> Paul Trusten, Reg. Pharmacist
> Vice President
> U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
> Midland, Texas USA
> www.metric.org
> +1(432)528-7724
> [email protected]
>
>
> On Aug 10, 2012, at 16:06, "John M. Steele" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> Paul,
>>
>> I would like to suggest a slightly wider scope than just NBC and the
>> Olympics. The primary problem was the field events of track & field, and
>> road races (especially the marathon). However, I think we should widen it
>> to all cases (and venues) where the sport is already metricated, but this
>> fact is obscured from the audience. As a minimum, USMA should address this
>> with USATF, NCAA, NBC, and AP.
>>
>> *In collegiate track & field, NCAA is the ruling body. Except for high
>> school, where field events are measured in feet and inches, USATF is the
>> ruling body in non-collegiate track and field. Both require measurement of
>> field events in metric. Then they emphasize reporting to the audience and
>> the media in feet and inches. They need to understand that to tie into
>> Olympics and other international competition, their American audiences need
>> to understand field results in metric and that they need to be part of the
>> education process. They need to require that metric results be presented to
>> the audience and media. They may need to report dual for a while and then
>> examine when the feet and inches can be dropped.
>>
>> *NBC reports some collegiate track and field, USATF trials and championships
>> every year, as well as a professional set of meets called Diamond League.
>> They need to report field events in all of these venues in metric, not just
>> at the Olympics every four years.
>>
>> *Finally, most newspaper coverage of field events is written to AP
>> guidelines, and AP generally hates metric. We need to emphasize to them
>> that the metric results are the real results, the feet & inches are just
>> approximation. The athlete's real performance is the real story, and by
>> their guidelines, the metric should be left in.
>>
>> Very similar remarks apply to marathons and any other road races where the
>> rules of the sport require measuring the course in metric.
>>
>> I propose we start with only long road races and the field events of track &
>> field. However, we could potentially expand to any other sport where the
>> rules are in metric, but the metric is obscured from the public. I propose
>> we NOT put any early effort into sports where the rules are in Customary,
>> such as American football; that just won't go anywhere, until the country is
>> a LOT more metric.
>>
>> --- On Fri, 8/10/12, Paul Trusten <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> From: Paul Trusten <[email protected]>
>> Subject: [USMA:51842] Re: An Opportunity Lost
>> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
>> Date: Friday, August 10, 2012, 3:34 PM
>>
>> On the contrary: the Coach (you) just instructed his team on an excellent
>> strategy for the next play! Thank you. I'll get it ready.
>>
>> Paul Trusten, Reg. Pharmacist
>> Vice President
>> U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
>> Midland, Texas USA
>> www.metric.org
>> +1(432)528-7724
>> [email protected]
>>
>>
>> On Aug 10, 2012, at 11:25, [email protected] wrote:
>>
>> > With all this discussion about metric in the Olympics, it occurs to me
>> > that the USMA dropped the ball. We should have contacted NBC well in
>> > advance to offer assistance and to see whether NBC might give little
>> > "metric tutorials" during the events. What an opportunity to reach the
>> > American audience and demonstrate, live in action, how metric works
>> > better! This could have done more for the metric movement than any other
>> > single thing, given the huge audience. The solution, as always, is to
>> > educate.
>> >
>> >
>>
