ASQ 2007 World Conference on Quality and Improvement

Dennis Arter taught me in his auditing class that in order to establish a fact, you have to have corroborated evidence. This could be through interview/conversation, documents, records, etc. Last night, I heard some rumors that I did not believe to be true, so I wanted to share that information with you.

Rumor one: Roberto Saco is Mike Nichol's business parter. FALSE. Both Roberto and Mike USED TO work for Amex. However, Mike left Amex before he started on the board, and Roberto had already left Amex by the time he was selected by the nominating committee. Evidence: Conversation with Roberto and Mike, business cards. Roberto is a principal for Aporia Advisors, Mike is a principal for Nichols Quality Consultants.

Rumor two:Roberto Saco co-authored Mike's Six Sigma book. FALSE. Roberto is mentioned in the book on Six Sigma for Financial Services, however, both books are co-authored by Rowland Hayler. Evidence: Conversation with Roberto and Mike, ASQ website.

It is easy to be critical when one is not satisfied with the results in an election. However, we need to remember that even when we do not agree, that in itself is not evidence that the process is broken.

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was another busy day. Did I get everywhere that I wanted to? No. Did I find value in where I went? Absolutely.

The day started with the opening session. Unfortunately, I was too tired to sit in a dark room, so after 9, I walked over to the exhibit hall and started walking around. I also got a chance to get a book personally autographed by Denise Robitaille (for free!) from Paton Press. Then I got to spend some time with my friend Eric, who promised I could get my picture taken in the BMW at the automotive division booth. Eric also convinced me to go see the featured speaker, Dan Korem, talk about Profiling. I had planned to attend a session on periodicals writing that overlapped it. While I was interested in the writing session, I am glad that I went to see Dan speak. I also purchased his book on profiling. I think that I can use his tools to try to improve the performance on some of the teams that I work on. The conference sessions I attended were on the Baldrige criteria, and supplier management.

After that things got a little crazy. The ECD had an after 5 session - I got to present about the RoHS technical committee, followed by a mad dash from the other end of the OCCC to the Rosen Center Hotel for a meeting of the research committee at the Executive Rountable Reception. Then, it was time for the Biomedical and FD&C joint dinner at Sleuths. We got to see the Squire's Inn. I won't tell you whodunnit, but perhaps Danny Whelan can tell you.

I mentioned last night that ASQ friendships really meant a lot to me. Today was a day that really highlighted that for me. I feel really lucky to have made the friendships I have here. However, what really means the most is that I have made friends that won't disappear when the conference is over. Perhaps lack of sleep is making me somewhat sentimental, but at a conference on quality, I don't want to mention quality of life. Friendship is a big component in that equation.

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was a very long day. Of course, some of it is self-inflicted (I stayed up way past my bedtime), however, there was a lot going on today. The morning started at 6:30am with the second part of the ideas to action gathering. There was a lot of great sharing. I had the opportunity to meet Sylvia Garcés Soria, and she said that she would blog on the conference on her Spanish blog - mission accomplished. At the end we had to make a committment to do something before the next meeting in the fall - I committed to share the "good" stuff from WCQI and the rest of my trip with my home section, and to continue blogging after the conference.

After lunch with the Lean Enterprise Division (I learned that Cliff Moser is a surfer dude), I got to attend some division meetings. I went to Lean Enterprise, EED and ECD. Lean Enterprise is looking at pairing up with the Six Sigma Forum for a conference. EED discussed the need for better control and understanding of their conference planning. ECD is working on documenting their BoK.

The annual meeting was next. I was disappointed to discover so few members had voted. Approximately 4,600 members voted. Dennis alreay blogged the presentation itself since he beat me here again tonight.

The conference opening reception was fun and filled with pirates. I got to see Michael Dreikorn from the Aviation, Space and Defense Division. I met him at the reception at my first conference in Philadelphia. I must have looked totally lost, and he took pity on me and had a conversation with me that evening in Philly. I didn't even go to the annual meeting that year because I thought it was not for people like me. It was nice ot see him again. Next was the certification board reception followed by a visit to the FD&C suite. It was a very full evening to cap a very full day.

One thing that we discussed at the cert. board reception was ASQ and friendships. I feel lucky to have the friendships I do within ASQ. The networking is important, especially since it leads to the exchange of information. The training is important, since it helps me do my job better. However, the thing that I have come to value the most is the friendships. I hope that this is something that you too can find within ASQ.

Aimee Siegler

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ron Atkinson presented the State of the Society:

Posted by Dennis Arter at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Dennis Arter at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Dennis Arter at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Registration opend at 7:00 am this morning , Oh my...Way to go staff.

I had a wonderful conversation this morning with an ASQ member that came all the way from Portugal. My Portugese is very rusty but we made it work. First conference for her and very excited to be here. What a treat for us.

The Ideas to action meetings went very well, the feedback we recieved on education and training will be helpful as we move forward.

Don't forget to attend teh annual business meeting tonight at 5:30 pm (est) and following with the reception in the exhibit hall.

See you all soon

Semper Qualitas

Will

Posted by Will LaFollettee at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can't believe that I actually beat Dennis here tonight... It has been a very long day. As Will said, many of us were downstairs and ready to go by 6:30 this morning. Tomorrow, we will be starting at the same time at the OCCC (I have been pronouncing it as "ock"). I had the opportunity to participate in the "fishbowl" discussion in the middle of the room, although this did not work too well, at least in part because of the poor acoustics. Some of the SOAR leaders shared some of the work they had been doing, and then we had the opportunity to share what we thought was exciting about the concepts, and what we thought the barriers would be. The plan would make sections, divisions and HQ partners in providing education and training to the members of the community, in place of the current competition model. For Sunday, I am planning to participate in a break out session on "working together to create and deliver courses." It has some pre-work for it that I have not done yet. When I was in HS, my mom used to think that I learned by osmosis because she never saw me study (I actually did - she just didn't see it). Perhaps if I put this under my pillow it will be done in the morning? I know that it won't work - I will just have to get the job done in time.

Next, I moderated 3 sessions at the member leader institute. The first session was a best practice on continuing education from the Design and Construction Division. Next, there was a session for section newsletter editors, followed by a best practice on division libraries from the Reliability Division. All of the sessions were very well received. During the fourth time slot, I joined the standards committe to listen to Dan Reid from GM talk about the AIAG approach to working with healthcare providers. I was invited there to learn more with the intent of getting involved in the discussion on how this might apply to education. I also had the opportunity to talk with Craig more about the No Child Left Behind pilot.

At 5:45, we started a very thorough SMP/DMP awards program. I was proud to accept the gold excellence award for my section. This was followed by a reception, and then I had the opportunity to join the biomedical division for dinner. It was interesting to hear more about what is going on within the division, chat with old friends, and discuss the day's events. I also got to sing in Croatian (just a few lines), see where the ducks walk (we missed the ducks), and make some new friends. All in all, I consider this to have been a very successful day. Now, I just need to figure out when I am ever going to get any sleep!

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The DAC meeting yesterday was packed with a lot of information. My compliments to everyone for working so hard to stay on task and focused, often information overload kicks in, but not this time! Great job DAC. Many divisions shared success stories related to initiatives from their business planning. Best practices will be captured by ASQ staff and made available on sharepoint.

Group facilitators, division chairs, and national directors were recognized for their service. I am moving out of the vice chair role for the DAC and Steve Wilson is assuming that role. I stepped in to cover for a resignation we had a year ago. (job related) and finished the rest of that term. Now I am happy to welcome Steve aboard and look forward to all the great work we have planned.

Having a great time meeting so many new people. It is astounding all the new faces. This conferences is shaping up to be one of the best.

Semper Qualitas

Will 

Posted by Will LaFollettee at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Quick break at the Ideas to Action gathering. (The gathering) Some very good feedback on where we have been and where we are going. Couple hundred member leaders have given their time to be here early and participate, Kudos!

Looking forward to the breakout sessions Sunday.  Remember The gathering is at the OCCC with a 7:00 am start. You know, it occured to me that to get this much done by 9:00 am it must be quality. Another way Quality...We get more done by 9 am than most people do all day...(my apologies to US Army)

Semper Qualitas

Will

Posted by Will LaFollettee at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two of the comments should have some answers that are visible rather than on the comments section. The first was a questions as to whether the Spanish sessions will be covered. For those of you who were unaware, ASQ has partnered with INLAC to co-host one Spanish-language tutorial (turtle diagrams with Jose Dominguez) and 9 conference sessions. While I would love to say that I will provide my own comments on these sessions, I did not bring my dictionary. While I did minor in Spanish in college, I have only had the opportunity to use it twice since then, and the vocabulary we learned in college is not sufficient to support this because I never took a Spanish for business class. However, I will commit to finding some comments to share on this blog.

The second question was on how many people were attending the conference. I had heard that it was something around 1500, but I will see what I can find out and post on this topic again.

Aimee Siegler

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today, of course, included more meetings. My first formal meeting was the SAC/DAC meeting at 1, followed by the SAC meeting. I was an observer rather than a participant this time. This meant that all that I had to do was stay awake and take notes. So far, I have done a good job staying awake in everything - always a challenge in meetings.

The joint SAC/DAC meeting was fairly short. Ron Atkinson commented on the work the board did on "going international," stating that SAC should be the geographic representation worldwide, and DAC is the technical representation worldwide. Grace Duffy talked about the economic case for quality, and mentioned that the Quality Management Division will be releasing four guides related to the subject. Belinda Chavez and Lou Ann Lathrop presented on strategic planning.

From there, the group split up, and I joined the SAC meeting (Dennis - you may have posted first, but you didn't get the same news posted that I would have posted!) This meeting started with recognition of the members of SAC, including especially those that had been involved with various committees. Those receiving plaques for their service included Clay Hodges, Brenda Fisk, Jeff Lackey, David Levy, Rick Litts, Belinda Chavez, Jad G.B. Jadanuth, Roger Keller and Dick McKeever.

The first presentation was from John Breckline, and dealt with using a balanced scorecard for the Excellence Criteria for the SMP awards. SMP currently looks at retention rate, loyalty and satisfaction. The proposed new measures would be retention, membership, growth, loyalty, section activities and section perceptions. The new measures would make use of data that is already available and use +/- scoring to give a final percentage. This percentage would be compared to designated buckets to determine award qualification. There was much discussion, and many action items were recorded. Next, Brenda Fisk presented the status of the SAC restructuring team, and talked about their use of TRIZ within this team. They are looking to schedule their next meeting in June. Next, Clay did some RD training. Finally, Belinda talked about how the business planning that the board does relates to the sections. This seemed to be a very productive meeting.

As we go forward, I have been seeing more and more people that I know in the lobby and in the halls at the Rosen Centre. I ran into Jeff Israel in the lobby tonight while he was on his way in. He previously spoke at my section on Customer Satisfaction, so it was nice to have the opportunity to renew the acquaintance.

The evening ended with a chance to spend time with a high school classmate that I haven't seen since her wedding. This was certainly another full day, and I am looking forward to the next one!

Aimee Siegler

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weather and Driving Report by Dennis Arter

It's warm here in Orlando, reaching to 90 degrees F and lots of humidity. The Rosen Hotel is large and very comfortable.

It is very easy to drive here from the Orlando International Airport. You exit the airport to the north, coming to the 528 Tollway in less than a mile. Head west on 528 (towards Tampa) to exit 1. As you exit, keep right. You are now on International Drive. The Convention Center is a huge building in front of you on the right side. The Rosen Centre Hotel is directly across the street from the Convention Center. There's plenty of parking in the Rosen Hotel covered garage, but it will cost you $5 a day.

Posted by Dennis Arter at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Division and Section Meetings
Friday afternoon
by Dennis Arter

Division and Section leaders received some good information this afternoon.

1. Economic Case for Quality

This initiative focuses on, "How do we convince execs that quality programs and people have value and they are worthy of support?" We have lots of information about this on the ASQ main web site. The Quality Management Division has also developed information in this area. Four small books and pamphlets are coming out.

2. Business Planning

We really want Divisions, Sections, and Headquarters moving in the same direction. This year, we had significant Division and Section participation in the earlier strategic discussions and the resulting specific business plans. As a result, we had significantly better understanding of how we are achieving our collective goals together.

We now have a good chart, showing various groups within ASQ, including HQ staff, member units, and committees. This led into a discussion of how Divisions and Sections can support ASQ goals.

3. Member Benefits

There is some confusion about the many different member categories we have developed recently. A single-page cheat sheet was given to all participants for publication and use.

4. World Conference Speakers

Our 2008 WorldCon will be in Houston next May. The 2009 WorldCon will be in Minneapolis. Our Technical Program Committee folks developed a wonderful process map on activities leading to speaker presentations. We have a Call for Papers for the Houston event. We had considerable discussion on how papers are selected and how the Divisions can support those selected. We also talked about non-traditional topics. Finally, the new qualification criteria for speakers was presented.

5. International Expansion

Our current and incoming President shared their thoughts on some steps the Board approved to further explore ways we can become an international organization (if we want to) and various challenges we might need to overcome to get there.

Posted by Dennis Arter at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just wanted to welcome everyone to Orlando, We have had agreat start with the board of driectors meeting and DAC/SAC meetings.

It has taken months of prep. to ensure we have efective meetings and are able to present great ideas.

Let me know your thoughts on proceedings 

Posted by Will LaFollettee at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since Dennis already provided a lot of details on the meeting itself, I am not going to attempt to duplicate it. Perhaps he and I will attend different meetings tomorrow so that we can report on more than one thing. I think that as we go on, we will have more different things to report - people are continuing to arrive as we speak. Dennis did a very good job of providing details on what went on in the meeting. Since I am a member of the research committee, it was exciting to see that our pilot project was approved. This project was requested by our healthcare market manager Ray Zielke.

I get the impression that many members believe that the board is some kind of secret society. It isn't. There are some portions of meetings that I have attended that have been closed door, for example ethics issues, however, any member is allowed to attend the open parts of a board meeting. Once the minutes have been approved, they are posted out on the ASQ website. The business plan is posted too. The How We Do It section of the website is a great way to better understand the governance of the society. I get questions from people all of the time about how things work, and this is where I find a lot of my answers. Do you have any questions? Feel free to post them and I will either answer them or get you an answer.

In the conversation about "MoC 1" (Million Members of Community), one question that was brought up was "How would you balance how much value you get from the society vs. how much you would give back to the society." I think that is a difficult question as sections and divisions struggle to find people who are both willing to volunteer and follow through on their committments. To grow our community will require more member leaders who are willing to commit their time and bring their passion about quality to the society. We already need that now. How do you volunteer? Contact your section or division or visit the ASQ website. 

Of course, we can't have all work and no play, and after the reception tonight, it was fun to go to Hard Rock Cafe for the first time. I even came back with a souvenir - the Hard Rock Cafe Barbie. Apparently, she is the only Barbie that has a tattoo. She won't fit in well with my collection (mostly angel Barbies), but I couldn't resist. I was just wondering - I have never seen a defective Barbie - have you? Besides the Barbie purchase, we also got to see a decent band playing covers in the lobby. The security guards let us step in and check it out. It was quite loud.

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Board of Directors Meeting
by Dennis Arter, Orlando, Florida

It's Thursday evening and the Board of Directors meeting is finished. Five major topics are worth reporting.

1. State of the Society

Membership is growing. Web activity is growing. Books continue their ten-year decline. (But we still sell over $2 million a year!) Large conferences continue their five-year decline. We are slightly shy of where we financially wanted to be, but nothing significant. All this says that the ASQ is providing more smaller, more customized, products.

2. Business Plan for Next Year

We talked about strategic direction. This is refined in the fall, and composed of
- vision,
- strategic themes,
- strategic success criteria, and
- BoD input.

Our strategic direction drives our organizational (mostly HQ) direction. This is developed in the spring, and composed of
- how we will respond to the themes,
- what strategic challenges present themselves,
- what are our success outcomes and scorecard measures,
- what should be our organizational (HQ staff) direction, and
- valuable input from stakeholder dialogs.

Finally, the organizational direction must be translated into an annual plan and budget. This next year's essential activities will continue to be
- Communications
- Membership
- Quality Body of Knowledge (Q-BoK)
- Education and Training
- Member Unit Performance

The Board approved the annual plan and budget.

3. International Presence

The Board spent about an hour in cafe sessions on the topic of improving our international presence. They approved a major initiative to develop ways to increase ASQ's international presence and better serve international needs. This will be a long-term effort to see how we can become an influence on global quality.

4. Research

The Board approved a new research model. They also approved a new research project:

Penetration and application of six sigma and lean six sigma in US hospitals.

While we know that these approaches have resulted in successes, we really don't know about the failures. (They aren't exactly publicized!) If we find that these approaches are working (and many Board members feel they are), what is the success ratio? Finally, what tools and methods caused the successes?

5. Living Strategy

The Board finished the day, discussing an interesting question:

If we want to serve a community of one million people, what would that community look like? How might we do it?

Board members agreed to take these conversations to the Divisions and Sections for further dialog over the summer. Perhaps by the fall meeting, we will know more about what this means and how to achieve it.

You are welcome to add your thoughts to the comments below.

Posted by Dennis Arter at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now that I have told you how I have been preparing for the conference, I thought I would go backwards and introduce myself. In high school geometry, I always did my proofs backwards. I suppose that as an adult, I still sometimes do things backwards. Fortunately, the end result is typically the same. I was fortunate to have a teacher that understood that doing things differently is not doing things wrong. He believed that positive mental attitude was the key to success.

My name is Aimee Siegler, and I am a National Director on the ASQ board. I am a Director at large, which means that I don't represent the divisions or the sections. As I put it, I am an equal opportunity trouble maker. In reality, I spend a lot of my time listening to what issues people are facing, and then trying to answer questions or connect people with others to accomplish what I need. I am not sure that this was part of the job description, but I have always been an answer person, so this is what worked for me. I have also been a member of the nominating committee as well as the research committee. Most recently, I have been involved with the electronics and communications division RoHS technical committee.

At home, I am the Global Compliance Manager for Benchmark Electronics. The compliance that I am responsible for is environmental compliance, specifically looking at how we ensure we meet our customer's requirements in relationship to the RoHS legislation that has been released or is pending around the world. I am married, and have two children (Matthew and Hannah, ages 3 and 5), and live in the small town (less than 100!) of Centerville, WI. In my spare time (what spare time?) I enjoy sudoku puzzles, cross stitching, gardening, and cooking.

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 08:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have been preparing for the World Conference for weeks now. I started my preparation by sharing my copy of the conference program with our Supplier Development Engineering Manager and Quality Manager, and asking them what sessions topics they would like me to document. Then I had a call with a fellow board member to talk about the sessions we were interested in attending. Next, I highlighted my on-site program (including two sessions I am moderating) with my selections. Finally, I put all of this into my Outlook calendar. Now I just have to print it and I will be all set.

This is my third World Conference since joining ASQ in 1998. I still keep in touch with people I met at the first conference I attended in Philadelphia, PA. I have also exchanged many e-mails with members and member leaders that I met in Milwaukee, WI last year. I am looking forward to the new networking opportunities that this conference will bring. I tend to evaluate a conference at least in part on the number of business cards I bring home, and what I am able to learn from these new contacts.

I am looking forward to sharing notes and details on the board meeting, division meetings, sessions and other events that I am planning to attend at the conference. I learned today that we will have access to the press room during the conference, so I hope to be able to provide you some of the details hot off the presses, while other times, I will post in the evening after the last event. I will provide an honest view of what I see (although I promise not to name names if people are measuring wingspan in the Inspection Division hospitality suite like they were last year...).

Aimee Siegler

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

• Thu, Apr 26 - Board of Directors Meeting
• Fri, Apr 27 - Board of Directors Meeting
• Fri, Apr 27 - Division and Section Affairs Meetings
• Sat, Apr 28 - Community Leadership Meeting
• Sat, Apr 28 - Division and Section Awards
• Sun, Apr 29 - Fellows Luncheon
• Sun, Apr 29 - Various Division Meetings
• Sun, Apr 30 - ASQ Annual Business Meeting (including election results)
• Mon, Apr 30 - Opening Session and Keynote
• Mon, Apr 30 - Standards Session
• Mon, Apr 30 - Quality and Disasters Session (I am moderating)
• Mon, Apr 30 - Education and Training Reception
• Mon, Apr 30 - Various Division Hospitality Events
• Tue, May 01 - Value Stream Mapping Session
• Tue, May 01 - Supply Chain Mgmt Session (I am moderating)
• Tue, May 01 - Auditing Session

I have a class to teach on Wed-Fri, so I will probably end my blog Tuesday evening.

Dennis Arter, WorldCon Blogger 

Posted by Dennis Arter at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)