| Federation
Bureau of Measures & Standards Created by: Garry Stahl Appearance: None Yet Number of Members: About 100,000 Federation wide Nature of Members: Bureaucrats, people fascinated with decimal points and accuracy. Organization: Bureaucracy Game Role: Occasionally someone you might have to deal with. World Role: Maintain the Standard of weight and measure. Relative Influence: Major: Trade throughout the Federation is affected. Public or Secret?: Public, but hardly noticed. Publicly Stated Goal: Maintain the accuracy of the standards of measure. Relative Wealth: Minor. A small budget is all that is required. Group advantages: Authority over the Standards of weight and measure. Group disadvantages: Bound by the rules governing the Federation civil servants. Those who favor them: People wanting fair measurements. Those opposed to them: People trying to short the scale. Area of Operation: Federation wide Headquarters Location: Shi'kar Vulcan Public Face: Soulless bureaucrats flogging minutia, if any. Notable Members: None History of the Organization: Established by the Articles of Federation as a body to establish and govern a unified system of time, weights and measure throughout the Federation. At the time of the Federation signing each world had it's own system for measuring everything. Nothing matched and conversion was a bear. It was the duty of the Federation Bureau of Measures & Standards to come up with a unified standard and to regulate that standard. To that end such things as the Stardate, the Unified Meter, Unified Light Year and other methods of measure came into being. The Federation Bureau of Measures & Standards also keeps accurate conversion tables for each and every system of measure used in the Federation today. Most local systems have not gone out of use, but don't tend to leave their planet of origin. All Starships are built to The Federation Standard system, use the Federation Standard Stardate and so forth. This ensured that navigation is possible and that there is interoperability between dockyards and at least ships built within the Federation. Those merchant concerns that deal with interstellar trade also prefer the use of the Federation system to facilitate trade and making sure Andorian bulk containers fit in Vulcan ships. The average Federation Citizen couldn't tell you where the office of the Federation Bureau of Measures & Standards is located on their world. There will be one, but they quietly work behind the scenes.
© Garry Stahl: 2009 unless
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