ASQ 2008 World Conference on Quality and Improvement

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.