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 

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

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

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be!  And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be.  Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810.  And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico. So, why Cinco de Mayo?  And why should Americans savor this day as well?  Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862.

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.