ASQ Leadership Meeting Oct 16 - 18

[Steve Prevette]

Who of you all will be attending? I will be there, and I know Wes Bucey has agreed to be there.

Is there any common platform that we want to present to ASQ? ASQ has not provided much in advance about the meeting, and I am hoping it will not turn into a ASQ HQ/Board selling to the volunteers what we ought to be doing.

[Govind]

Originally Posted by Steve Prevette

Who of you all will be attending? I will be there, and I know Wes Bucey has agreed to be there.

Is there any common platform that we want to present to ASQ? ASQ has not provided much in advance about the meeting, and I am hoping it will not turn into a ASQ HQ/Board selling to the volunteers what we ought to be doing.

Steve,
I will be there representing our section. I hope to see you both.
Regards,
Govind.

[RosieA]

Sorry I didn't see your post before I left, Steve.

So, Steve P, Govind, Graeme, Statistical Steven, and others, how do you think it went?

Honestly, I'm still processing it.

I was favorably impressed by Jerry. He seems genuine.

Whatshername, the consultant turned me off with the "consultant-speak". If I'd heard, how "privileged" we were or the word "rich", one more time, I think I might have "thrown up in my mouth a little" (to quote Rachel). In silent protest, I kept my eyes open during the "Guided Reflection" stuff.

Steve, thanks for articulating the concerns expressed often here in the Cove. You're right. If they want to see how a real community works, they need to come visit the Cove and use that as a model to build a Leadership forum with. Please let me know when/if the forum is established, as I will certainly participate. I gave the same idea to Clay Hodges and asked him to look into it. Your offer to moderate made it real.

[Graeme]

I am skeptical and optimistic at the same time ...

• I am excited about being invited to participate in the formulation of the change process. It's the first time I have seen that since I joined in 1990. Usually "they" have just told us (sections & divisions) what happenend after it was already decided.
• Some of the stuff was too "new age" for me, but a lot of it was just another adaptation of the usual suite of problem-soloving tool we are familiar with. (When you dress the old reliable tooks up in fancy new packaging you can sell it all over again for lots more money. See "Six Sigma", for example.)
• I was impressed by the way Jerry scrapped the formal agenda and adapted to the concerns that were being stated. I got the idea that it was the first time some of them have heard concerns that have been argued at length here in The Cove.
• The article that came out the end of last week was a pretty fair look at the process. Certainly not the "company pravda" that organizations so often put out. I forwarded it to my whole leadership team -- no feedback yet.
• Like RosieA, I'm still processing it. I'm sort of waiting for all of the other stuff that was promised. I haven't looked at any of the stuff in the four-inch three-ring binder yet!
• I hope the executive leadership takes the suggestion to look at discussions here on the Cove -- but I'm not holding my breath for that, either.

I will probably hear more at the DAC meetings next month ... I'm curious about what will be happening, especially as the Board meetings are the two days before that.

Graeme

[Govind]

Originally Posted by RosieA

So, Steve P, Govind, Graeme, Statistical Steven, and others, how do you think it went?

I am happy with the interaction that happened between ASQ Senior Management and Section/Division leaders. Inputs were flowing in from all directions for the member value questions and proposals. I thought the questions were not well structured. But eventually we were able to make a common interpretation and move forward. Most of the inputs were at “tactical” level. I was expecting at a “strategic” level. Anyways, it is all useful stuff.

If ASQ had to send a survey to this 183 section leaders, probably 20 of us would have responded. We probably would have received a fraction of the inputs that were received during the summit. So, calling this summit did bring a lot of inputs and interaction. These are very much required for a community like ASQ. If the ASQ management prepares a Business plan based on these inputs and move forward as indicated in the summit, I think this is money well spent for both ASQ and sections.

Monday afternoon started with pretty heated discussions. ASQ management did respond to most of the questions. ASQ Staff were very quick to compile the discussion points, summit summary and circulate. I was introduced to this “Graphic Reporting” approach. I collected an additional one of “Blueprint of the Future” and have it hung in my office. This is now creating curiosity for my colleagues to enquire more about this summit.

This summit also created an interest towards this café approach. I am yet to explore the web pages and learn more on this approach. Most members expressed that they wanted more free knowledge, training. In my opinion, “free” does not necessarily mean adding “value”. Value in one’s perception is a point where necessity and affordability meets face to face.

Meeting several section leaders in that summit, I got a consensus on the issues typically faced by all sections big or small. I was not alone.
1. Declining membership
2. Lack of funding to organize value add events
3. Lack of volunteers to run the section effectively
4. Lack of volunteers leading to succession issues.
5. Poor Program attendance (averaging 7% of section membership)
6. Overall unique participation of section membership not exceeding 20%
7. Difficulty finding speakers for programs
8. Difficulty covering members outside city limits for section events
9. Lack of trainers for certification refresher courses
10. Poor participating by section members on Member satisfaction Survey
11. Sections struggling to even achieve section basics.
and more..


ASQ Summit is a good start. Hopefully addressing the root causes resolves the above issues one by one. Most of them are interrelated. If we happen to attend the Milwaukee WCQI 2006, we will pick up from where we left. Hope to see more “covers” there.

Regards,
Govind.

[Govind]

Summit details have been posted in this ASQ Web page
http://www.asq.org/media-room/news/2...ip-summit.html

and the sharepoint site:
http://asqgroups.asq.org/summit/

You may notice all the "Graphic Reporting" in the Page:
http://asqgroups.asq.org/summit/Grap...s/AllItems.htm

Summit picture are available at:
http://www.asq.org/members/volunteer...005/index.html

Regards,
Govind.

[Wes Bucey]

Thanks, govind, for posting the links. As you are aware, I have a special interest in how our association follows through after this meeting. I am really sorry circumstances forced me to miss meeting with you all, especially since it was only an hour drive away for me.

My regret about the links is the photos didn't have captions of who was who. I didn't see a photo of Steve - the only one of our gang of four I know by sight.

I was really impressed by some of the artwork and caricatures displayed in the gallery - someone had talent.

I can really imagine the first day was near chaos - no one was really prepared [I'll bet] for the type of situation engendered by the cafe style of meeting. I infer from the one report that others besides Steve put some ASQ feet to the fire to develop "actionables."

Let's continue to follow up and press for results on the actionables. It's been a month - where is the Discussion Forum which Steve was to moderate? I consider its presence or absence a key marker for the actionables. When it does become reality, I expect ASQ staffers to actively participate. If not, I would have the definite feeling all you folks got was some expensive lip service.

[Steve Prevette]

Originally Posted by Wes Bucey

My regret about the links is the photos didn't have captions of who was who. I didn't see a photo of Steve - the only one of our gang of four I know by sight.

I was really impressed by some of the artwork and caricatures displayed in the gallery - someone had talent.

Let's continue to follow up and press for results on the actionables. It's been a month - where is the Discussion Forum which Steve was to moderate? I consider its presence or absence a key marker for the actionables. When it does become reality, I expect ASQ staffers to actively participate. If not, I would have the definite feeling all you folks got was some expensive lip service.

I did end up with a caricature . . . the one labeled you're witholding the business plan.

Larry Smith, Pat Corkran, and I had a conference call last Thursday. ASQ Staff refused to do anything without the call first. Now, they are starting the process to create a new board. It will be limited to ASQ volunteer leaders (but I will post any interesting tidbits here and take inputs from the Cove). It may take several more weeks, ASQ says.