Baldrige Examiners: National Heroes

Posted by Zara Brunner

Two of my favorite things are converging and happening at once: the holiday season and recruitment for Baldrige Examiners!  Baldrige Examiners are heroes disguised as every day people in my book and we here at the program can't thank them enough.

Every year about 600 professionals at the top of their careers from various sectors across the US donate their time and talent to help evaluate applicants for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.  They are also learning about performance excellence from top-performing US organizations and developing a terrific network of colleagues, not to mention doing service for their country.  It's really remarkable what these folks do.  And keep doing-since so many return year after year (and some for decades!).  So if you haven't applied before, why don't you join this elite group of people who are changing organizations, their careers, and really--the country.  Take a look at what's involved and consider applying this year. 

Special thanks to the 2010 Baldrige Examiners who helped make last week's announcement of the 2010 Baldrige Award recipients possible.  You really are to be celebrated and commended.  And an extra shout out for those of you who have already answered the call to help us to Refer 2 Friends and Colleagues: Jerry Pradier, David Blanco, Ed Lee, Shirley Antes, Jeannie Mollohan, and Paul Grizell.  Please let me know if anyone else is interested in doing so. 

The final culmination of examiners' collective efforts can be seen in this video where Vice President Biden presents the Baldrige Award to recipient organizations.   

Comments

[Scott Bailey]

Zara: I am referring colleagues as Examiners for the upcoming year, as I found this to be a rewarding experience.

[Zara]

Thank you very much Scott. I am so glad to hear you got a lot out of the experience and are helping us to inform others about it. Hope you'll be reapplying as well!

[Scott Bailey]

Zara: Your posting refers to a video of Vice President Biden. However, I can't see a link. Is this an error on my end of the technology? Thanks!

[Zara Brunner]

Hi Scott. That's odd. The post has the video directly embedded, but obviously you're not seeing it. I'm wondering who else might be having the same problem. You can see it directly on our playlist on YouTube, so maybe try this link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/usnistgov#p/c/914FB9D44BF49C14/11/Db5dmgZVBmU

Please let me know if it works! Thanks much.