Walk with a Doc Newsletter
Good morning! Let’s get right to it.
The last time we activated a component of our bylaws was August 2014 (bylaws crafted at the April 2005).
We always strive to keep the tone of our Friday newsletter lighthearted.
As you will see today, we can’t always do that.
Back in 2005, Walk with a Doc’s founders created bylaws stating the following:
Article VII, Section III: Should Walk with a Doc (WWAD) reach twenty-five (25) chapters residing in a territory primarily employing the SI (metric) system, ALL other active chapters must be converted to SI before the completion of the ensuing 28 days.
We welcomed our 25th territory on January 18th, 2019.
Our soft go-live date for the conversion is tomorrow, Sat Feb 9th.
The Zero Tolerance date is Feb 16th at 0000 hours EST.
Soft go-live means we will understand if someone asks for say, a cup of water, or shares that they walked a mile or two.
From 2/16 on, none of that. At every single one of our 473 sites, and our leaders are now aware, you will kindly be asked to speak metric.
Let’s do a couple of dry runs to make we are all on the same page.
Feb 9th (soft)
Kevin: “Hey David, nice hat. You want to grab a pint after the walk?”
Me: “I’m sorry, Kevin, but here we say liter (litre also acceptable) and no I would not. It’s too early.”
Another February 9th example,
Kathy: “Whoa this coffee is hot!! It feels like it’s 150 degrees!”
Me: “I assume you are speaking in Fahrenheit and if I hear that again next week, you’ll be out of here so fast it’ll make your head spin”.
Feb 16th (Zero Tolerance)
John: “I’m so glad we’re in the park to walk. After last night’s dinner, I feel like I weigh a ton.”
I clarify, “You mean 2000 pounds, Jack?”
“Well, yeah”
“Gone. Out of here, now!” In this particular scenario, I’d cuff him and call the ranger.
Now if he’d said, 907 kilos, kilograms, honestly anything in the 900-ish range, he’d be fine.
This is what I mean by Zero Tolerance.
I can see how my tone and mention of handcuffs could be off-putting, but we’re sharing this now because we really don’t want to see problems. This is not personal. It’s simply enforcement of our Bylaws
A couple more examples:
“Dr. Darrell, would you please pour me a few more ounces of coffee?”
Nope. Bye, bye.
Immediate 3-month suspension from your local WWAD and 7 contiguous WWADs. For example, say this incident occurred at our
Nishihara, Japan walk. Your walk for next week and the 12 that follow will be in
Rajapakar, India. That will be an expensive few ozs of coffee and I bet you won’t make that mistake again.
Another:
“Thank you for the 237 cc (or milliliters) of water”
“Oh my gosh, Cindy, you are more than welcome! Anytime! Is it cold enough for you? Great to see you.”
Another
“I’m so glad I just walked a full 3218 meters!”
“Beautiful, Annie! You just cut your risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer. That’s huge!!
Finally,
“Hey Doctor, since I started Walk with a Doc in New Jersey last year I’ve lost 23 pounds!! Isn’t that cool?!”
“Pam, guess what? Your next newsletter will arrive in 3 months and your next 12 walks will be in, wait for it…Brazil! Here’s a flight schedule for our South American walks.”
You see, financially alone, that was a big mistake for Pam and Peter.
It is not lost on me that the tone of this email might upset a couple of you.
