ASQ 2008 World Conference on Quality and Improvement

On Saturday morning, we had some cafe conversations on the topic of communities: what are they and what makes them effective. This approach to generative thinking, where the members of the group add there perspectives and build on the thoughts of others is really insightful.

At the end, I got a "blinding flash of the obvious" and shared my new-found model with the others. I also drew a picture for Barbara Markoff, the new Manager of Community Development in Milwaukee.

Picture a bull's-eye target with several concentric rings. This represents a community. A community depends on some common interests. These interests could be politics, religious beliefs, a school, a family, quality, energy sources, the Q-BoK, etc. The closer to the center, the more specific the common interests and the easier it is for the community to form. As the rings get smaller, the professionalism generally increases.

There are three arrows going into the target and one arrow coming out.

1. A community requires repeated interaction to exist. This interaction used to be face-to-face. Now it can also include virtual interactions. But the interactions must repeat.
2. A community requires a safe and comfortable environment. Members of the community must feel welcome and enjoy themselves.
3. A community must ask members to contribute and recognize that contribution. Most people learned from childhood not to volunteer for anything, but will contribute to the success of the group if asked. Recognition can be private, public, and both.
4. Going out of the community is outreach to others. This is the only way to prevent stagnation. Through reaching out, others will join and add diversity to the community's population. Diversity will promote innovation and all those other wonderful things.

This model, developed from the generative conversations of the cafe, seemed to be well accepted.

Dennis Arter 

Posted by Dennis Arter at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It is always both saddening to leave WCQI and a time of joy for me.

Leaving is always difficult because it involves saying good-bye to old friends, possibly for another year and leaving new friends that I've hardly had the time to really get to know.  On the flip side, leaving is joyous because, after an extended absence I am returning home to my family!

I am now home, sitting in my kitchen and internally reminicing over the past week+ spent imbedded in ASQ activities, activities that included:

• Wed, 4/30: Attending my first Office of the President (OOPs) meeting, while I was only there for a short period as compared with the full day meeting that was held, I none-the-less was a welcome visitor and a voice at the meeting.  The mystique and mystery of this meeting has been removed from my mind.  I've learned that is involves planning for ASQs future, preparation for managing the upcoming BoD meeting and an opportunity to address unexpected issues that may arise during the BoD meeting so that the President may be prepared to address these issues...nothing mysterious, no back-door politics, nothing!
• Thu 5/1 & Fri 5/2: Attending and participating in the last face to face BoD meeting of FY 07-08.
• Dinners with friends and fellow member leaders between business meetings.
• Sat, 5/3
• SAC / DAC joint meeting.  As incoming SAC Chair I was a very active participant and partnered with incoming DAC chair Steve Wilson.
• The Ideas to Action Gathering focused on building community.  I will be providing ASQ with more on this from an observer / participants prospective.
• Moderating and presenting at the Leadership Institute.  I presented 2 sessions on the Quality Management Process (QMP) which is a merger of the SMP and DMP (Section and Division Management Processes).
• SMP / DMP Awards ceremony.  As previously discussed, this year we presented 171 awards, including many individual awards typically presented during the reception that follows the ceremony.  These individual awards were presented at this time because at the reception, most attendees are not really paying attention and we felt that these individuals deserved attention for the efforts they've put forth over the past year(s) for ASQ.  I will take a liberty here as the writer and share of photo of me receiving a couple of awards from SAC Chair Brenda Fisk.
• Leadership Reception on Sat evening which was a sit down dinner this year (as opposed to hors devours and stand-up tables.  As previously reported, it was a real Texas BBQ, okay, hotel caterer style of course!
• Sun 5/4
• Again we started with a SAC / DAC joint breakfast meeting
• SAC meeting
• Then I went to the ball game - Astros vs. Brewers
• ASQ Annual Business Meeting
• Conference Opening Ceremony
• Mon 5/5 - Wed 5/7
• Conference sessions
• Exhibit hall
• Business meetings including the QMP meeting in which I passed the baton on to our incoming SAC Vice Chair and QMP committee Chair Belinda Chavez...Best of Skill (not luck) to you Belinda!
• More conference sessions
• Other receiptions and social events including hospitatilty suites
• I attended the Organization / Sustaining Members luncheon as a guess of my friend, former colleague and past Quality mentor, John Stine, Director of Corporate Quality Assurance for L3 Communications.
• President's receiption prior to the annual Banquet
• The Annual Banquet
• And some more conference session

Late morning on Wed was spent saying fare-thee-well to many people before I headed off to 'work'.  I did take a lunch break first (before work) to spend a few more minutes with my fellow blogger and very special friend Aimee Siegler.  We had another delicious meal at Josephine's...my third in one week. 

I also had a chance to catch up with another dear friend over dinner, Cynthia Nazario.  For those of you who don't know her, she is a warm, caring individual who is so dedicated to the work she does for ASQ as a Community Development Adminstrator (these are the ASQ staff folks that guide and assist member leaders).  We barely saw each other during the conference so I was glad to have this one-on-one time.  We truly did our best to talk about life outside of ASQ, however, as we realized it is so imbedded in both of us, we kept sliding back into how we can resolve this problem or improve that process, etc.  In the end though, I really feel we did catch up on what's going one with each other!

I did not leave Houston until late Thu night as I was conducting Internal Audits for one of my clients while I was in town.  Before I left the hotel on Thu morning I ran into Michelle Mason, ASQ Managing Director.  After a brief chat on just about everything under the sun, Michelle gave me a parting gift of chocholates and we said our final so-long, until next time we talk...

So, onto the glad part...I am home, thrilled to be here and cannot wait to really see my family.  They were asleep when I arrived at 1:30 am today (Fri, May 9).  Even so, I got warm hugs from Danielle (my 13 year old daughter), Alex (my 11 year old son) and Sharon (my wife, life-long partner and bestest friend ever!).  When they all left for work / school this morning I was somewhat comatose so I'll have to wait a few more hours for the real home-coming hugs and kisses.

See All Y'all next year in Minneapolis or sooner!

Signing off

David Levy, WCQI blogger, etc. etc. etc.

Posted by David Levy at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This session alone would have been worth the cost of the entire conference. Jd taught us about Hoshin Kanri with a hands on exercise, and gave us some useful information that you could take back and use right away. I am really looking forward to sharing this with my colleagues.

After the session, I said goodbye to some old friends as well as new friends, and then headed to my company's facility in Angleton, TX to prepare for an audit there on Thursday and Friday. It is hard to return to the real world after spending so much time with my ASQ "family." I am already looking forward to next year's conference in Minneapolis... Don't worry - I won't start counting days until we get closer!

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 07:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Luckily, I did start the day in the same session as Aimee, Value Stream Mapping, so I don't have to tell you about that as she already did.

I stayed in the room to learn about Kaizen Events for the Office from Karen Martin and Mike OSterling, co-authors of Kaizen Events Planner.  The session was very informative as it showed me that the Kaizen Event, which is traditionally applied to a manufacturing enviromnent does easily traslate into the office.

I also attended 5S's in Construction presented by Dennis Sowards.  Two facts shared by Dennis were:

1. Lean Works in other industries
2. Lean also works in Construction

Some examples from the session included photos of work sites that have piles of old equipment retained from project to project 'just in case we need it'...this is waste! and a quick exercise was performed with regard to Sorting...he had us take out our wallets and find all the waste that we carry every day such as expired credit cards, coupons for fast food restuarante that have expired, etc.

Next I attended the Organization Member luncheon as a guest of friend and colleague John Stine from L-3 Communications.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time and my meal.  I connected with some others I've not seen yet this year such as Lloyd Barker from Alcoa and Joe DeFeo from The Juran Institute.  

The afternoon session I attended was a two parter...Mind the Gap: Communication between the Generations.  This session addressed that, for the first time in US history, there are 4 generations in the workforce.  The generations are segmented as:

• Traditionalists - the older generations - those born prior to 1945
• Baby Boomers - those born between 1945 and 1964 (I still believe its up to 1961 which puts be on the trailing edge of the Boom)
• Gen X - those born between 1965 and 1980
• Millenials, also known as Gen Y or Babyboomettes - those born between 1981 and 1999

We learned that Generations are defined by 5 categories:

• People - notable figures, both positive and negative
• Places
• Things
• Events
• Personalities

Each generation was examined and the 5 above categories were filled in for each generation.

The second half of the session was a World Cafe the expolred two questions:

1. How do you think your generation defines success and failure both at work and in life?
2. What are the biggest issues you have experienced while working and communicating with members of other generations?  How can these be lessened or resolved?

Results if the cafe will be shared on the Customer Supplier Division's Blog - I'll add the link when I get the info!!!!

I also sat in on the kick off meeting for the development of a new Network for ASQ - a Consultants Network.  Unfortunately, I needed to leave early so I don't have an extensive report at this time.

The rest of the day was socialization...beginning with The President's Reception, the cocktail hour prior to the grand Banquet.  What always impresses me about this single event is that while I am in a room with many of the greatest minds in the Quality field and past, present and future leaders of this great organization we call ASQ, we spend our time socializing...there is no "do you know what's wrong with ASQ" or "do you know what I would do if I were back on the BoD" or "when I was on the BoD, everyone...".  This is catch-up time.  How's the family?  How's business?  What have you been up to?  Great to see you again!  And most significant, "It is my great pleasure to meet you!"

After about 1 1/2 hours we wandered up to the Grand Ball Room in the Hilton Americas for a the annual banquet.  I sat at a table with some friends, some people I've never met before and several staff members.  We had a great table, and a wonderful time was had by all.  Good meal, great discussion, lots of laughs.  The jokes were flying, and those of you that know me know that telling a story, a joke, is essential to my good health and my enjoyment of an event...I thoroughly enjoyed this event.

The night went into the wee hours of the morning connecting with other conference attendees both in receptions, hospitality suites and the hotel lobby lounge.  All in all a great day and a wonderful night!

Posted by David Levy at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One speaker in particular that I was interested in was Tony Manos. I met him at the World Conference in Milwaukee in 2006, and have spoken with him since then, but have never gotten the opportunity to hear him actually speak. The topic was Value Stream Mapping in the Office and Support Functions. I was glad that I did make it to the presentation. I am very interesting in the topic, and I have lots of notes to take home.

The other session I was particularly interested in was Applying Lean Six Sigma to Environmental Management. Some of what I do in my job relates to environmental management, so I was very interested to see what Steve Babb would present.

I also spent quite a bit of time wandering the exhibit hall, and connected with Cathy Krier from Medtronic in the career area. While I am not looking for a job, Cathy and I had a great conversation about women's technical organizations, and it was also nice to connect with someone from my area who knows many of the same people that I do in her company.

The evening kicked off with the President's Reception, and it was nice to see many of the past presidents there, as well as spending some time with friends. This was followed by the banquet, and an inspiring speech by the incoming chair Roberto Saco.

It is hard to believe that our time in Houston is coming to an end already!

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 07:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I attended Gary Johnson's session on the joint quality and environmental auditing standard - ISO 19011:2002. Because of some shortcomings in this standard - it was written mostly for third party registration users - the USA developed a supplement for application to internal auditing and supplier auditing. The supplement was published in 2004 and is quite popular, here in the USA and around the world.

We were asked to include occupational health and safety auditing in our supplement a few years ago. The USA committees have been meeting over the last year and we now have a revised USA supplement approved and being printed. Gary thinks the new edition will be available for purchase in June or July at the latest.

The USA supplement will continue to have the full text of the approved (2002 edition) ISO 19011 standard, along with the additional guidance. The number will be ISO/ANSI/ASQ 19011S:2008. (wheew!)

This will be the first (known) auditing standard to integrate quality, environment, and safety management systems. It will, of course, be used for the revision of the baseline ISO 19011 standard, which just started the review cycle.

Dennis Arter

Posted by Dennis Arter at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday was a busy day.

The morning started with the usual welcoming and recognition of the many conference team members. After that, we learned about the "No Touch Order" system being used at Bayer Material Science company. Greg Babe, the CEO, took us on a journey from the disaster of first installing SAP. They realized the processes and data and work flows weren't as smooth as they first thought. Greg told us of their recovery efforts and the goal of no human messin' with the customer orders, raw material deliveries, production orders, and final shipment orders. Everything needed to work together in harmony. While they still have a ways to go, Greg told us about the 25% achievement at the Baytown, Texas, manufacturing plant, just down the road from here. As a result, customer satisfaction has greatly increased, productivity is way up, and employees are less grumpy. Seems like a really good thing.

After our Keynote address by Greg Babe, the exhibit hall opened and the conference participants flooded in. Lots of exhibitors, lots of ASQ Divisions, lots of books and flyers and ASQ staff members, all networking and exchanging business cards. It's really great to see all your friends in such a lively environment.

The first of the technical sessions started mid-morning and lasted until about 5 p.m. It is a good thing this convention center is so big, as there were certainly lots of paper sessions going on.

The day ended with receptions by the various committee and program groups. This is also the evening when many of the ASQ Divisions open up their hospitality suites. The rooms are crowded with members, member leaders, ASQ staff, and a few guests thrown in for good measure. All are talking and sharing. It's like a super family reunion.

I got back to my hotel room about 11 p.m. and crashed!

Dennis Arter

Posted by Dennis Arter at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of the rest of the day was a blur - it is hard to do so many things in one day!

One thing that I saw in the Networking Session is that the groups really did not want to stop talking. I was glad that we could create this opportunity - next year I hope that we can find a way to create more time.

After the last after 5, the evening's fun began, with a visit to the FD&C and Biomedical Division dinner. The meal was certainly chosen to reflect Cinco de Mayo, while the entertainment was pure magic... literally. After dinner we were treated to a magic show.

Finally, after some time in the service quality division suite, it was time to call it an evening - quite a whirlwind day! Thanks for the pictures Paul!

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ASQs World Conference on Quality and Improvement has two purposes to me.  It is about learning what's going on in the world of Quality, what new opportunites lie out there for quality professionals and practitioners, what others inside and outside our various business sectors and arenas can share with us that will provide us opportunites to improve our businesses and ourselves.  And WCQI is about people.  Its about making connections with old friends and colleagues that we may not have seen since last WCQI or even longer ago and its about making new connections.

A bit on the learning opportunities I had on Monday first.

Keynot speaker Gregory Baby from Bayer Materials Science prvovided us with a stimulating overview of a major improvement process that, through his leadership, has lead to an enterprise-wide improvement for Bayer.  Their NTO (No Touch Order) team addressed three key areas within the organization - Systems, Processes and Behavior.  Per Babe, "Everyone is part of someone elses supply chain" and without involving people and their behavior you cannot improve a process or system. 

At the Women in Quality (WIQ) Networking Session (yes, I am a member of the WIQ) both women and men had an open discussion on four topics:

1. Mentoring
2. Work / Life Balance
3. Reaching out to young women involved with quality and technical careers
4. How do you (the WIQ members) want to network?

I participated int he Work / Life balance discussion and captured a few key items including:

• Balancing home life between partners and with the whole family has to be established in orde to allow for a real work / home balance.
• Your organization's and / or immediate boss' leadership / management style truly has a direct effect on the balance. An autocratic time manager will never allow an individual to reach a true balance while a task oriented leaders will allow you to achieve a true balance.
• Working from home greatly improves a true balance
• It was suggested that if each person develops a time budget they will identify 'spare time' available during each and every week that they can better allocate to achieve a good balance...start with 168 hours in your week and then determine how you use this time on average during the week.  When you are done removing your regular activities (yes, even sleep time) you will find that you do truly have some spare time that can be reapplied where  you want to apply it, even to ME time!!!!

I also spent much of the day networking with old friends and meeting new people.  I had a wonderful time with the people I met during the conference day and in the social network opportunities throughout the evening.  Some examples include:

• Michael McDermott and I had a very interesting discussion on the Service Quality Body of Knowledge which is being developed by ASQs Service Quality Division.  A key point of this discussion was what constitutes Service.  We both agreed that Service exists in all business sectors, yes, even inside a Manufacturing plant!
• I had lunch with a fabulous group of member leaders frome the Greater Fort Worth section including Jack Marlett, Peter Stamps, Dolores Harris, Bob Mitchell, Reba Barker and Teri Savage.  We discussed a whole bunch of issues going within ASQ and what their section is continuing to do to truly serve their members.
• Tim Koester, Region 6 Director, introduced me to a Member Leader from his home section of Seattle.  Caroline Babcock lives in the Seattle area but spends much of her work time in the New York Metro area and was interested in connecting with someone from my home section - the Tappan Zee Section, since she is in Westchester county most weeks.  This lead to some fun for me.  When Caroline handed me her business card (I also handed her mine) I spend a moment studying the card, then looked up and asked her a couple of questions about the location of her office in Westchester.  The look on her face during these questions was priceless as she had no idea where I was headed.  In the end I asked her if she ever drove about half a mile past the parking lot entry to her office's business park and she said yes.  I told her the next street she would come to on the right would be Cross Road then I said, "now look at my card".  She then noticed that my address (work and home) was on Cross Road in the same town.  This new friend works around the corner from where I live!  She is now, truly connected with an alternate section on the opposite side of the country from where she lives!
• I hooked up with two old friends during the FD&C / Biomed Division joint reception.  Phil Reger, Paul Blixt and I have been taking a 'fun photo' together for about 8 years...who can tell which head belongs to whom?
• I was thrilled to run into my friends from the Monterrey Mexico student branch.  And even more excited that some of these young professionals have remained ASQ members even as they have moved from Student to members of the working world.  Andres has move from Mexico to Raliegh, NC and is applying his tools of Quality to improve the manufacturing of plastic eating utensiles.  Mónica Martínez Castilo is working with Mexico's largest convenient store coumpany also guiding them in the use of Quality Tools and techniques as they grow.  By the way, that's Will LaFollette along with Monica and me.

Posted by David Levy at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The morning started at 7:00am with the membership committee meeting. While much of the rest of the group went to the SAC or DAC meeting, since I am not on either, I decided to head back to my room for a nap. Finally awake, I headed back out to attend the fellows lunch (as a guest, not a fellow), followed by my mad dash to the meetings.

Over the next several hours I visited the Electronics and Communication Division, Energy and Environment Division, the Customer-Supplier Division, and the Society Examing Committee. It was quite a whirlwind, and it was nice to at least briefly have a view of the planning going on in the divisions. Having done business planning for my local section, I know that it is a challenging process.

Finally, I reached my last meeting of the afternoon, the Women in Quality Network Advisory Committee meeting. There are many things that we would like to accomplish over the next year. I am looking forward to seeing how things develop. We had a visitor with us from the Anita Borg Institute, Deanna Kosaraju. We are working with Deanna to get a proposal for bringing one of their programs to ASQ in 2009. She also contributed a lot to the meeting based on her experience at a non-profit supporting women.

The evening kicked off with the Annual Meeting, followed by the opening reception in the exhibit hall. It was a great way to get around the exhibit hall and check out the vendors as well as network and see old friends.

Finally, after spending some time at the certification board reception and seeing Elizabeth Burns pass the leadership torch to Daniella Piccioti, I made it an early night, to be ready to face another busy day on Monday.

Aimee Siegler

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wanted to remind you that today a sprecial day to our Mexican members (thanks for the correction Hector Aviles)!

Currently ASQ has about 5 Sections plus very active Student section(s) in Mexico and that Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States) is one of ASQs Global Transformation target markets.

Posted by David Levy at 07:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today was my transition day...after 5 days of ASQ work, I finally got to move into the play ground!  Dennis has already reported on some events from the SAC meeting and since I was the co-facilitator of this meeting, I will not talk about its details.  I will share some images from the meeting which included some recognition...see photos below.

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Region 2 Director Dan Sneizek

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Region 6 Director Tim Koester

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Region 7 Director Holly Duckworth

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Region 9 Director Dick McKeever

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Region 10 Director Darlene Deane
 

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Region 11 Director Diane Byrd

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Region 12 Kam Gupta

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Community Development Administrator Leta Thrasher

 Brenda Fisk recognizes Community Development Administrator Cynthia Nazario

After the SAC meeting concluded I finally found a few minutes to register for the conference.  With that behind me it was time to play.  Much like Aimee reported a couple of days ago, a group of us headed over to Minute Maid Stadium to catch a Houston Astros - Milwaukee Brewers baseball game.

 Joining me at the statium included (front row) Herb & Lori Goldstein from Tappan Zee Section; (back row left to right) Carey Mayo from Rochester Section, Lynnette Hale a Houston resident and frind of Carey, Athena Visel from Rochester Section, Richard Soltys and Linda Sroka both from Tappan Zee Section.

The heat got to Herb part way through the game so he took a nap. 

This was a tough game for us to take sides...with 8 ASQers enjoying the game together and 7 being from New York we had to choose between our host city's Houston Astros and ASQs hometown team - the Milwaukee Brewers.  After 12 innings Houston finally beat the Brewers.  Regardless, we all had a great time networking, getting to know some new friends, hanging with old friends and meeting up with a Rugby team from Great Britian.  I had a great time and hope the rest of the group also enjoyed the afternoon.  I did leave at the top of the 11th inning in order to get back to the hotel to change for the ASQ Annual Business meeting and WCQI opening ceremony. 

The rest of the day was much more relaxing than the past 4 days have been.  Once again I got to meet up with old friends and make some new ASQ friends building my personal network.  I was thrilled to see regular WCQI attendees like Birgit Otto from Germany, Eric Hayler from South Carolina,  Grace Duffy from Florida, and Robert Dembkoski from Connecticut among others as well ask get to know others like Richard Simon from Philadelphia who works around the corner from me in NYC (in the Empire State Building).

For those of you that cannot be here, consider joining us next year in Minneapolis, MN...the network of friends and colleagues you'll build at this fabulous, dynamic event cannot be fully described.  Come join us, live it and find out for yourself!

Posted by David Levy at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday, May 4, 2008 once again with DAC and SAC started the day together for a breakfast meeting and a presentation by Sellery Associates.

Sellery Associates  is ASQs Washington, DC presence.  Bill Sellery and Amy

Kimball have been working with ASQ for 14 years (since 1994).  They began with a special thanks to ASQs BoD, ASQ Executive Director and Strategic Officer Paul Borawski, ASQ Managing Director Michelle Mason, John Ryan from ASQ staff and ASQ Director at Large Kay Kendall. 

Bill let us know that he has no idea who will be the Democratic candidate or the next President of the United States of America.  He followed this statement by reminding the attendees that Sellery Associates and ASQs position within DC is non-partisan, non-political.  Our position is to impact and enhance ASQs mission and enhance our position as a known, respected presence. 

Our past successes were listed, which include:

• Baldrige Expansion into Healthcare, Education and Non-profit sectors.  We were also reminded that Baldrige is 20 years old at this time.
• Education - no child left behind
• Healthcare -
• Prescription drug errors
• Patient safety and quality improvement act
• 21st Century Health Care Caucus Form with Baldrige recipients

The recent success of a Baldrige grassroots effort to encourage President Bush to present this years award through hundreds of letters / emails from ASQ members not only lead to the President presenting the award but doing so in the White House Oval Office.  This was the first time in 5 years that President Bush did not delegate this responsibility to Vice President Chaney. 

Next they went on to discuss a recently developed ASQ council known as the Public Policy Advisory Council (P-PAC) which is a liaison committee between ASQ, Sellery and Associates and Washington DC.  P-PAC, chaired by Kay Kendall

• Alerts the ASQ BoD of what's happening in DC
• Establishes ASQs position on issues
• Ensures effective strategic alignment.

I learned today that the SAC Chair is a member of P-PAC so, according to Brenda Fisk, SAC Chair, I get to join this council beginning July 1, 2008 as the SAC representative. 

Finally, Bill and Amy let us know what's going on right now including:

• Health care - Office of Human Research Protection checklist issue - is it a quality tool or research?
• Upcoming Baldrige Congressional hearing to recognize the awards 20th anniversary
• Federal perfromance Improvement Council which requires every Government Agency to appoint a Chief Quality Officer
• Sustainability / Social Responsibility
• Education - always looking for opportunities and ideas
• Food safety
• Import safety
• Nanotechnology
• Manufactured housing - improvements in the quality of mobile homes is needed as those build as a result of the Katrina recovery, which were coming off the production line every 15 minutes were substandard quality
• International issues.

Bill Sellery ended the presentation with a simple statistic to satisfy all the Quality Geeks in the room - the current Political Environment is leading to a tough economic environment:

• 81% of the US population is on the wrong track
• the other 19% are at gas stations!!!!

Thanks for the chuckle Bill!

Posted by David Levy at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After the Annual Business Meeting, the Exhibit Hall opened for networking. While there, I met Rachel Lin, one of our ASQ China staff members. We had a very nice conversation and I learned additional details on how they are operating. Rachel is one of six staff members over in China and lives in the Shanghai area. I consider Rachel an "old" friend because we have been communicating for about a year via the Chinaquality site on Yahoo Groups. It was very nice to meet her in person. We talked about auditing (of course) and supply chain risk and training event in China. The world is so very small now.

Posted by Dennis Arter at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I normally attend the Division meetings, but this year I decided to join the Sections. I learned four new things:

• The Division Management Plan (DMP) and Section Management Plan (SMP) have merged into one common approach, called the Quality Management Program (QMP).
• Our customer satisfaction surveys will be sent out in February, which is earlier than before. This is so we can use the analyzed results for new fiscal year planning. We are also trying to get greater participation and use of these surveys.
• Sections are struggling in their attempts to support the Economic Case for Quality initiative. (I think Divisions also struggle here.)
• The next Board of Directors meeting will be early September, rather than November. It will still be held in Milwaukee.

Dennis Arter

Posted by Dennis Arter at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Next year's World Conference will be held in Minneapolis. The dates are May 18-20, 2009.

• Quality Basics

• Customer Service

• Raising Quality Throughout the organization

• Improved Performance

• 21st Century Needs, Competencies, and Issues

Posted by Dennis Arter at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

With so many opportunities to learn, share and be recognized, today was a great day for ASQ Member Leaders!

Highlights of the day included:

SAC / DAC joint meeting covering:

• Education and training initiative system design overivew
• Voice of the Customer overview of a future Train the Trainer system
• Global Transformation Strategy overiew (Dennis Arter covered this in detail already)

That meeting lead very neatly into an Ideas to Action Gathering (ITAG) focused on Building Community within ASQ.  On this I will be presenting more in the near future.

At this point you might be thinking to yourself, what a full day the member leaders had...well, the ITAG concluded in time for a light buffet lunch!  We still had a long way to go. 

The afternoon was consumed with the Leadership Institute...our Training / Education event for member leaders from all types of Member Units (Divisions, Sections, Forums, Networks, etc., etc.). 

I had the opportunity to both lead 2 sessions and moderate 2 other sessions.  My offerings were both on the Quality Management Process (QMP) (which is a merger of the Section and Division Management Processes - SMP & DMP).  Each session lead to very lively discussions on business planning and member unit leadership / management.  I was delighted with the interchange and level of curiousity / questions which arose during each session. 

Once again you might be thinking that the day ended after the institute, and again you'd be mistaken.  Shortly after the institute concluded the majority of the member leaders present filled another room in the Hilton's America Hotel to 'recognize' superior leadership and performance throughout the society at our annual Member Unit / Leadership Awards Ceremony.   I had the opportunity to co-MC this event with Steve Wilson, DAC Vice Chair.  Along with the assistance of ASQ President Mike Nichols, DAC Chair Gary Johnson and SAC Chair Brenda Fisk we presented 171 awards to a host of society member leaders, Sections and Divisions.  As the SMP committee Chair this year, one of my goals was to improve the awards ceremony process.  Last year this ceremony took almost 2 1/2 hours.  Many attendees lost interest and left before we'd handed out all the awards.  Our objective was to keep all the attendees engaged and interested.  Additionally we wanted the attendees to stay through the whole ceremony.  We succeeded fabulously by completing the whole program in about 65 minutes (25 minutes early) while keeping the attendees guess who would be next to be recognized.  This kept all engaged.  I am quite proud of the improvement we've made to the process and hope next year we can present twice as many awards in as controlled a period of time!  Plan to join us next year to see how we do!

Taking a liberty, I am sharing a photo from the Member Leader Recognition / Awards ceremony...the liberty is that this photo is of the representatives from Region 3 - my Region!

Following a very successful awards ceremony we were treated to a real Texas Bar-B-Que dinner! 

I ended my day with a dip in the hot tube before sitting down to share my thoughts of the day with you.

Posted by David Levy at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During the joint meeting of the SAC (Section Affairs Council) and DAC (Division Affairs Council) this morning, we heard additional information on the Global Transformation Initiative. The effort is to:

• Promote ASQ membership everywhere
• Leverage certifications
• Move from American Society for Quality to ASQ
• Establish local operations in other countries around the world

This is from the press release.

Global Transformation Message
Houston, May 1, 2008

At the May 2008 meeting, the ASQ Board of Directors approved a Global Transformation business plan and first-year funding. The plan is designed to respond to the growing member needs and quality community growth opportunities outside the USA. The plan will also result in enhanced and expanded opportunity for all ASQ members, today and into the future.

To support growing member interests, the plan includes three parts:

• expanded and enhanced services through ASQ China and ASQ India,
• Addtional focus on membership and other quality community opportunities in three other countries: Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea, and
• Creation of an ASQ Global business unit.

The ASQ Global Transformation will:

• Produce increased member value, through new products, services, career path support, and other capabilities for quality professionals and practitioners, locally and globally,
• Respond naturally and appropriately, to support the growing global quality community,
• Make comparable member benefits available to all members,
• Creat a more diverse and global quality community for members who work in global settings and deserve a global ASQ,
• Result in global content, global network of technology and people, global sharing of expertise, solutions, quality applications, and global coverage of global developments,
• Target membership, community and product/service growth to achieve economical viability in key countries in 3-5 years,
• Be supported through increased resources, and focused attention, so as to expand and enhance all ASQ services to members,
• Include new technology and other shared platforms, such as 24/7 support and web enhancements,
• Be directed, driven, monitored and adapted by the ASQ board. The transformational approach has been and will continue to be informed by research, due diligence, and data-driven decisions.

The May board decision follow upon its 2006-07 direction to explore the prospect of becoming a global organization and to develop plans to support that, and to better understand the current problems and issues in servicing the global community in addition to identifying further opportunities.

Posted by Dennis Arter at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday morning started with the DAC/SAC meeting. The energy when I walked into the room was almost visible. I spent a few moments chatting with Paul Borowski, and commented about how much I felt like I was in the sitcom Cheers, where everybody knows your name.

The meeting started with a review of the Education and Training Initiative (ETI), but the focus was different from the presentation at the board meeting, which was more at the strategic level. This presentation looked at how the initiative will involve the divisions and sections and improve the delivery of education and training to our member and non-member constituents.

After a few introductions, Ron Atkinson and Mike Nichols came up to share some remarks and highlights from the board meeting. The Global Transformation Initiative was one of their key points.

Myriam Ochart from the Southeast Florida Section gave a presentation on implementing Voice of the Customer with the sections and the divisions as part of the ETI. This will be rolling forward with Train the Trainer Training (say that three times fast!).

After recognition of the Community Development staff, we had a presentation on the Global Transformation Initiative. Watch this website for additional information as this program is rolled out. I am excited to see how this is going to impact our members worldwide, and help us provide consistent service to ALL our members around the globe.

This was followed by a shorter version of the Ideas to Action Gathering on Communities. With 3 rounds of cafe style dialogue and report outs, this was a great opportunity to share ideas with other member leaders.

After lunch, we headed to the community leadership institue, to learn how to better manage our sections and divisions. After moderating most of the membership track, I shifted gears for the last track and led a session on Women in Quality and the Networks. and we had a great conversation about how to reach out to members in member units using the networks.

SMP and DMP awards were given to the sections and divisions who had achieved them. This year, there was a major process improvement in the delivery of the awards, and the awards were given during a shorter scheduled time, and then finished early. This was followed by a dinner, and networking.

Another full day - I already need more sleep!

Aimee Siegler

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, with so much detail on the board meeting on David's page, I will focus on some other things.

If you have met me, or read last year's blogs, one of the things that I have truly valued from my ASQ membership has been the networking. For both my ASQ life and my work life, the networking has proven to be invaluable over time.

Recently, the Membership Committee lost a member, and I was able to quickly find a replacement. Chris Anderson is the chair of the St. Louis Section, and we were introduced by Dave Prins, chair of the Racine-Kenosha Section. I met both of them at a member leader event in Milwaukee in 2005. Chris did not make it in time for the membership session, but he did make it in time to participate in the living strategy session. I know that he is going to be an asset to the membership committee.

After the meeting, I had an e-mail from Eric Hayler, a volunteer from many member units, and most recently involved in launching the Minorities in Quality Network. I am excited to see that they are now online. Given the support that I received in launching the Women in Quality Network, from our advisory committee, from the staff, and from the member units, I am sure that Minorities in Quality will also have a successful launch. I am looking forward to finding their reception on Monday night. I also met Eric at a member leader event, at the 2006 WCQI in Milwaukee. He was one of the people that I ran into everywhere at that conference.

One of the jobs that I seem to be inheriting from Brenda Fisk as she exits her role on the board is the coordinator of meal plans for whoever wants to go out with the group. On Thursday night, we had a (full) table for 20. Tonight we had about as many at the "fish place." I enjoyed the meal on Thursday night, but this was outstanding, and the service was amazing for dealing with a group this size. It was about 2 blocks from the Hilton. So, if you are at the conference and looking for a place to eat, if you ask the concierge for information about the fish place that is in walking distance, they should be able to help you. I will update this with the name tomorrow - it is already past my bedtime! It was a diverse group, that included members from Belgium, Canada, and throughout the US, members of the board, past members of the board, section leaders, spouses, etc. Brenda will certainly be missed, but I know that she won't be too far away.

As Tigger would say TTFN!

Aimee Siegler

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's late Friday evening in Houston, TX. I arrived at the airport about 4 p.m., took the Super Shuttle into town, and checked into my hotel room. Then I walked over to the lobby of the Hilton Hotel, where many of the member leaders were congregating. After many greetings and sharing short snippets of life, a couple of us walked down the street to have a few beers. We learned that the Milwaukee Brewers were in town to play the Houston Astros at the new baseball stadium, just a few blocks away.

Three of us decided to go to the ball game instead of the group dinner being planned, so we walked on over, purchased $12 "cheap seat" tickets, bought a couple of hot dogs and beers, and walked way up into the clouds.

The stadium is very nice and much like Jacobs Field in Cleveland. We could quite easily watch the game. Our Milwaukee Brewers surged ahead by four runs until the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Houston Astros started to get the best of a tired Brewers pitcher. Three home runs brought in five runs, putting Houston ahead. It only got worse for Milwaukee as the night continued.

After the game ended, they retracted the dome on the stadium, turned out the lights, and had a wonderful fireworks display set to 50s rock and roll music. A good time was had by all.

Dennis Arter 

Posted by Dennis Arter at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the bulk of the business decisions behind us from yesterday, today was looking toward the future strategically.

But first we began the day with some recognition.  Several members of our BoD are moving on toward other exciting times within their ASQ lives.  Leaving the BoD after this fiscal year is over and receiving testimonials for their 'time served' were:

• Jochen Amelsberg, Director at Large
• Kam Gupta, Director representing SAC
• Brenda Fisk, Director representing SAC
• Gary Johnson, Director representing DAC
• Ron Atkinson, Chairman of the Board

Additionally, Mike Nichols was presented his Past President's pin and a gift of new golf clubs for serving as ASQ President 2007-2008.

Ron Atkinson was also presented with a gift of a new Cannon EOS Digital SLR Camera.

Next we moved on to the Global Transformation Initiative, led by Mike Nichols, having a conversation about what the future should bring.  Did you know ASQ has members in 129 countries around the world...we already are a Global organization.  this initiative is to better align out current position with a the future growth that we anticipate! Some further benefits will include:

• It is driven by elected delegates, not staff and is an outcome of ASQs Future Studies and Stakeholder Dialogues

• Your BoD provided additive resources so there will not be any loss of services to existing members

• The concept of 'ASQ Global' is to focus external to North America while ASQ (HQ in Milwaukee) will focus internal to NA.

• Our services will be enhanced to a 24 x 7 operation!!!!

Then we moved on to Membership, led by Aimee Siegler, and addressed the 'Segmentation' of our membership based on years of membership, not years as a quality professional or practitioner.  In each segment of a members tenure as a member, they have different needs and expectations.  We addressed how we can best serve each segment...more to come on this in the future.

We had a Living Strategy exercise navigating through uncertain times led by Paul Borawski.

Reports and a sense of the board on a Baldrige Body of Knowledge was presented by David Spong.  The sense of the BoD is to move forward with development of a business plan to build a B-BOK.

Then we had reports on Public Policy Advisory Council and Research Committee activities by Kay Kendall.

Finally, Michelle Mason gave us an overview of tomorrow's Ideas to Action Gathering...you'll get more on this tomorrow!

Before we adjourned, Ron Atkinson gave us these parting words:

• Good meeting, thanks to Mike for a good agenda
• We accomplished a lot of difficult things this week and did it with a degree of easy
• After 7 years, Ron wished the BoD a fond farewell and mentioned that he has no idea what to do with the time he's getting back...we all believe he'll find a way to put that new camera to work!

To end my day I headed to the hotel lobby and had a chance to greet some old friends and colleagues before heading to a working dinner at a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant named Kim Son...it was wonderrful.  I highly recommend it!

Posted by David Levy at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was an energy charged, very full day in the BoD meeting.

Some highlights of the days events included Board Member Satisfaction, reviews of ASQ's performance to Business Plan and Financial Status for year to date FY 07-08 (which ends June 30, 2008) and approval of the Business Plan and Budget for FY 08-09.

Kay Kendall, Director at Large presented the results of the last board satisfaction survey (from the Feb 2008 BoD meeting).  She reported the BoD is looking toward continual improvement of the BoD.  Additionally, Kay reported that the dynamics of the board operation have improved over the past several years in which this activity has been undertaken.

 Kay Kendall

Kay went on to advise all BoD members that if some issue arises during the BoD meeting that can be addressed or corrected during the meeting it should be raised at that time and not wait for the surveys to be completed.  The info should also be included in the survey so as not to be lost.

Brian LeHouiller reported onthe status of ASQs performance to date with regard to the 07-08 Business Plan.

 Brian LeHouiller

Chris Bauman presented ASQs year to date financial status.

 Chris Bauman

Most of the day was spent addressing the FY 08-09 Budget and Business Plan.  A new approach was taken this year to make this process more effective and dynamic.  First we tackled the issue of the Business Operating Budget.  With that completed, we moved on to address 6 key Essential Activities from a budgetary perspective.  These activities included:

• Global Transformation
• Education and Training Initiative
• Quality Body of Knowledge (Q-BoK)
• Awareness / Cause
• Community
• Social Responsibility

Once these budgetary items wereaddressed and approved, then we moved on to address and approve the business plan that will utilize the budget to make these activities happen.

Several significant items that were also brought up were:

1. Introduction of a new web site targeted toward Social Responsibility.  www.TheSRO.org will launch this coming week at WCQI;
2. A new financial management system is in the process of being implemented at ASQ HQ.  This enhanced version of the currently used J.D. Edwards software is a web enabled system.  It will be launched by HQ by July 1, 2008 and bring both RABQSA and ANAB on board by Dec 31, 2008.  Divisions will roll into the system during FY 08-09 with a plan to integrate Sections into the system during FY 09-10.  For those member units that have been requesting an centralized web-based vesin of Quickbooks, this is believed to be the system that allow for improved financial management at the member unit level.

Posted by David Levy at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was the first day of the board meeting. Since I did not have to present anything, I was able to sit back, relax, and listen and discuss. Beyond the consent agenda, today's topics included the business plan, the budget, and education and training, as well as the other essential activities. Some of the topics led to some lively discussion.

One thing that was impressive is the amount of work that the team working on the education and training initiative has done in building a new and improved system. I have not been involved in the process, but it is amazing to know exactly how many member leaders have been involved in the process, and to look at the coordinated output of the many subteams.

The global transformation project is another impressive project. Looking at the amount of work that has been done to date by the international task force is just astounding. All of these projects require dedication on the part of both the staff and the involved member leaders. It takes both passion and hard work to turn an idea into reality.

After the meeting, we went for dinner at Josephine's Italian Restaurant. It was recommended by an old friend of mine, and it was excellent. For those of you coming to the conference, it is 3 blocks from the hotel, and the pricing was quite reasonable. I ordered an appetizer that was unique - fried artichoke hearts... Yum! There were ~20 of us at dinner, and it was nice to spend time with everyone in a more relaxed atmosphere. I was hoping my old friend (think middle school) would  join us, but she ended up running too late. Fortunately, she works 3 blocks from the hotel, so I should get to see her tomorrow.

Aimee Siegler

Posted by Aimee Siegler at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)