Spring is on the way or at least that’s what the weather folks are saying. Quality is marching onwards to March and spring. But before I get into our March event I would like to thank Tom Southworth for his presentation and discussion on Training within Industry. That concept is as old as our section and is still needed today.

    Our March 11th meeting we will have some fellow members from the Greater Boston area who are active with the Mass Excellence [M.E.] effort.  Mass Excellence is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s effort in the Malcolm Baldrige [M.B.] effort. Len Deneault is the Executive Director of the program. We will also have David Manalan, ASQ Fellow and also a member of the Board of Directors of Mass Excellence. David is very active with BOSCON which will be held on April 8th of this year. Len will be giving us a high level overview on the M.E. and the M.B. then go into more detail. Len and David have offered to have a question and answer session following the presentation. David will be able to answer any questions on BOSCON for this year as well.

      Our April event will be a combination effort with Jay Patel and NEQC once again.. This year Jay and I have put together this effort based on what we did with the 50th anniversary of NEQC. We will have Steven Hodlin from Steven F. Hodlin and Associates with Jay Patel and Jack Reardon from NEQC. The subject matter will be on Lean Six Sigma for Insurance/Service and Manufacturing. The Dinner meeting will feature Jay Patel on Design for Six Sigma discussion.

This year’s plant tour which is held every May has yet to be determined so please stay tuned for updates. Also if anyone would like to host this year’s plant tour or suggest a location please contact any member of the board.

     June’s event is going to be a special event for the Hartford Section. Our very first Quality Café event, sponsored by ASQ Headquarters which we will have either Melissa Griffin or Paul Borowski or both as presenters. This will be an extended event coupled with presenting our Quality Professional of the Year award winner for this year. Please note that we are currently accepting applications for this award.

    The next subject I would like to update the membership on the Quality Management Plan or QMP. There are two levels of awards covering different aspects of what is required and desired for a Section’s Business Plan and Performance from ASQ Headquarters and the Section Affairs Council or SAC. I have received an email that we are on the list for Total Quality and Bronze Level Excellence. The staff at ASQ Headquarters has told me that we should get Gold as our retention rate is 70.7% and the national average is 67.7% which is what HQ is concerned about. Keeping our member in the Society is a key characteristic. I will keep you posted on further developments.

This economy is the single most important issue we all face. I have been hearing from those who have lost their jobs and your Leadership Team will be holding a special meeting to see what we can do to assist those in that position. Headquarters handles the discounted dues for those folks. When we have a plan together we will update the website with the offerings. Keeping with that thought, if you haven’t updated your contact information, please do so.

   Thanks for a great year so far!

Bob Dembkoski ASQ-CQIA, CQA
ASQ Hartford Section Chair 2008-2010
Deputy Regional Director [Region 1] 2009-2011