Building Excellence in the New Year

We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.                                                  

~ Aristotle

Another year has passed and once again, we look ahead at what 2012 has to offer both from a personal standpoint and what your ASQ Vancouver Section Leadership is looking to do to provide member value in the New Year. 

Firstly, we have an exciting slate of monthly programs for 2012.  Our Programs co-chairs, Nadia and Elena, have been working really hard to secure top notch speakers and presentations, so much so that we are “re-branding” our programs.  Our programs are now called “Quality and Business Excellence Programs”.  Part of the reason for this is the response from our members who tell us they are looking for more diversified programs. As well, it is our desire to re-enforce that Quality and Business Excellence are one and the same.  With our programs, we hope to provide members with valuable, practical insight.  So look forward to more Quality clinics and hands-on, participatory programs in 2012!  To kick off our new year, make sure you sign up for the January Quality and Business Excellence program/mixer…and as an Added Benefit to Members, it will be a free program! As always, if you are interested to present a program/provide a tour, please contact us through the website.           

Next, we will be reducing the number of times our electronic newsletter goes out from monthly to quarterly.  Manjit, our Newsletter Chair, prides himself on developing the newsletter every month but it can be difficult to populate it with fresh local content every month.  With all of us getting so many emails each day, we want to ensure that the newsletter remains a Member benefit…that it provides local content  and an avenue for our members to provide articles and success stories (hint, hint – submit those articles to Manjit!!).  In addition, most of us tend to go to our website for updates as our Webmaster Chair Fara does a great job ensuring everything is current. 

Speaking of the web, we cannot thank Fara enough for the wonderful work she does on the website as our Webmaster Chair.  Program notices are up quickly, PayPal is available for registration and job postings are current and relevant. However, never one to rest on her laurels, Fara is looking to do a complete redesign of the website to ensure it stays fresh and exciting. Changes will be coming in the next little while, so keep checking back.  In addition, you can always stay connected with ASQ Vancouver through social media!  We are on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – I encourage you to join us on all of these mediums to always be “in the know” with what’s happening at ASQ Vancouver.  Just follow the links from (where else?) our website! 

Finally, the New Year also brings an excellent opportunity for members to be involved in ASQ Vancouver’s sponsorship of the Social Enterprise Dragons!  As part of our Angel Level Sponsorship, our section has donated two Community Good Works Programs (think Black Belt Projects) to the winners of the Social Enterprise Dragons.  These will be non-profit groups looking for assistance with their business – assistance we can give by looking at how our members can provide their knowledge, expertise and compassion with projects that support these social enterprise groups.  Slobodan, our CGW chair, is asking for members who would like to be involved either as team leaders or team members.  Participation would begin around the end of March/beginning of April so there is plenty of time to get involved. Feel free to contact him and check out Social Enterprise Dragons information through the website if interested.