MEMORANDUM

 TO:                 Committee Chairs

                        Public Relations Committee Members

                        National Office Staff

CC:                  Board of Directors

                        Clinical/Industrial/Corporate AT Committee Members

 FROM:            Julie Max, MEd, ATC

                        President

 DATE:             September 18, 2001

 RE:                   New Nomenclature

 In May, the Board of Directors approved a request by the NATA Clinical/Industrial/Corporate Athletic Trainers Committee that asked NATA to discontinue utilizing the terms “traditional” and “non-traditional” when referring to work settings.

 The reasons for this are as follows:

• These terms are outdated, and unnecessary.  The term “non-traditional” was originally coined for clinical athletic trainers in the late 1970s. The modern athletic trainer works in a variety of work settings, including athletic, clinical, and industrial, sometimes all in the same day.
• The use of these terms unnecessarily segregates our membership.  Once certified, an athletic trainer is an athletic trainer.
• The use of the term “non-traditional” may lead one not knowledgeable about athletic training into thinking that the work setting labeled “non-traditional” may not be appropriate for an athletic trainer to work in. 

The NATA BOD requests that instead of the terms “traditional” and “non-traditional”, work practice settings are referred to, e.g. secondary school, clinical, industrial, collegiate, etc.

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