I have been working as a quality professional for many years and ASQ has played a significant role in my professional growth and advancement. I’m honored to share my story with you and hope that it helps some of you to understand that the more you get involved with ASQ, the more you will get from your membership.
My introduction to ASQ was through one of Denise Robitaille’s books. I remember reading her book, understanding everything she was teaching me and when I finished, I wanted more. It didn’t take much searching to find that Denise was very active in an organization called the American Society for Quality. From that day forward, I began using ASQ as a reliable source of quality information. At the time, I was a new quality manager looking for information, training, certifications, and conferences – anything that would help me do my job better and support me in meeting my career goals. I would get what I needed from ASQ and then press on, only going back when I felt I needed something from them.
The more I used ASQ for those things, the more aware I became of the incredible community of people that makes up this organization. I was so taken with this community of people who were willing to engage in discussion and share their experiences, people who wrote books and provided training that helped me understand how to use different quality tools and methods, and people who were willing to take the time to talk with me to help me understand what I needed to learn and do to reach my goals. There were people from this community working in teams to plan and hold conferences, and working in groups called Divisions and Sections where they were holding meetings where I could engage with them in person to discuss anything related to quality. It was very intriguing and the more I became aware of how vast and impactful the ASQ community was, the more I wanted to become a part of it - and so I did.
In 2007, I took on the Audit Division Financial Audit Chair position. Since that time, I’ve held several different member leader positions. Fast forward to today, I am the Immediate Past Chair after holding the Audit Division Chair position for three and half years.
Being an ASQ member leader has fostered my passion for quality because every effort that I’m involved in is a learning and/or sharing opportunity. It is exciting to learn something new and to me is even more exciting to help someone else learn something new. Through working on ASQ efforts, I have gained hundreds of contacts, people I know by face and name, whom I can reach out to if I need guidance or support in my quality endeavors for my job or ASQ. At my job, I often don’t have anyone who truly understands or the right people to bounce ideas around with and get guidance from. I can always count on my ASQ community to help me out!
Some of my favorite activities are ASQ conferences. I have been to many WCQIs over the years. It brings so many people from around the world together to learn and share about quality and is also an opportunity for member leaders to get to talk and spend time together in person. I have always left this conference feeling rejuvenated and have always gained several new ASQ friends as well.
Having been a member leader for the Audit Division for 17 years, it’s probably no surprise that I have a soft spot for this Division. We have been putting on conferences for 30 years this year! During my three and half years as Chair, leading the effort to hold these conferences has taught me new skills and honed some that I already had. It helped me to gain and improve my skills in leadership, project management, change management, working with different behavior styles, marketing strategies, and even a little contract negotiation. Imagine that…after all those years of being an active member leader, having attended many, many training courses, webinars, conferences, being on special teams and ASQ is still giving me so many opportunities for growth and improvement! I feel like I am a living testament to the more you get involved with ASQ, the more you will get from your membership.
