December 8, 2004 — ASQ’s Ottawa Valley Section has become the first volunteer organization to achieve Level I certification in the Progressive Excellence Program (PEP I), which is part of Canada ’s framework of national quality awards.

The Canada Awards for Excellence, begun in 1984, are presented to nonprofit organizations as well as private and public sector organizations. The National Quality Institute, which administers the awards, designed the NQI-PEP program as a four-step, progressive implementation framework that can prepare organizations for the coveted Canada Awards for Excellence.

The process began in September 2002, when the Ottawa Valley Section started to review itself against the NQI criteria. Members changed and the organization changed, and the effort lost focus.

“Like all good quality activities, it started, then it stumped, then it started again,” said Michael Hart, who heads the Ottawa Valley Section’s Canada Awards for Excellence team.

The process was revived in 2003 with new vigor and a new group of interested Section members. The Ottawa Valley Section leadership had formed a consensus to go the way of the PEP program, wherein awards may be given at stages within the excellence journey.

They took the first step, seeking Level I recognition. At this step, commitment is vital, and the organization begins to assess itself and train people. In the case of the Ottawa Valley Section, as with all volunteer organizations, getting member volunteers focused on the task was a challenge, primarily because their available time is so scarce. So the Section decided to devote one of its monthly member nights to the assessment task. Section officers had conducted preliminary planning at their executive meetings and had formed a team to head up the activity.

The Section undertook the assessment at a member night meeting in February 2004, which involved both Section members and the public. Attendees learned how to do assessment to the PEP criteria. Also attending this meeting were the president and CEO of NQI, Dan Corbett, and NQI’s executive director for the national capitol region, Don Wilson.

Based on the assessment activity, the Section made revisions to its application before submitting it to NQI. The Section was awarded it’s PEP I certification on April 23, 2004.

The NQI evaluators made special mention of the Ottawa Valley Section’s unique self-assessment process, which they termed “very impressive.” They noted in particular the Section’s linkage of congruent action to the ASQ mission and vision, the clarification of customer base, and the focus on training.

Section Chair Mike Austreng is firmly committed to pursuing PEP level 2 and continuing the journey all the way to applying for a Canada Award for Excellence. “Many of our members work in organizations that have enthusiastically embraced the PEP principles,” he says. “It is therefore only logical and appropriate that as a professional society for quality practitioners we should do likewise.”

Mike firmly believes that by pursuing this journey the section management will be strengthened by having well defined and documented processes and key performance indicators to facilitate trending and continual process improvement. He sees this as important in a volunteer-based organization where there is a regular rotation of members in to and out of the executive positions.

“It’s a win–win situation where members can learn about the program and principles at the same time as seeing the tangible benefits that it brings to the section,” says Austreng.

Considering the success of conducting assessment at a member night function, the Section decided to continue this approach for Level II. The meeting was held on June 8 at which the PEP Level II program was introduced. The purpose of this session was to show continuity with the earlier work on Level I, to familiarize members and the public with the PEP program and Level II activities and requirements, and to perform a mini-assessment in order to gather baseline readings on how well the Section met Level II criteria.

Whereas in PEP Level I the main focus is on commitment, in Level II a primary focus is on planning. During the spring and early summer of 2004, the Ottawa Valley Section added several certified NQI assessors to its CAE team. This core group then worked with other Section members to conduct a thorough examination of the Section’s strategic planning process as the first step in the journey to Level II certification. This work is ongoing; early in 2005 the Section will define and document key processes and will do an assessment to PEP II criteria at another member night function. The goal is to gain certification to PEP Level II by October 2005.