ASQ 2008 World Conference on Quality and Improvement

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!