Applications for WFA's 2009 Board of Examiners are available for download. The application deadline is Friday, October 24, 2008. Call us at (608) 663-5300 if you have questions about the Board of Examiners, the review process, or the application.

Wisconsin Forward Award congratulated fifteen Wisconsin organizations at its upcomong Award Ceremony & Gala Reception on July 8, 2008. Agnesian HealthCare and St. Mary's Care Center both received the Governor's Forward Award of Excellence, WFA's highest level of recognition.

The American Society for Quality, Bay Area Medical Center, Physicians Plus Insurance Corporation, Sacred Heart Hospital, St. Clare Hospital & Health Services, St. Clare Meadows Care Center, and St. Mary's Hospital were recognized at the Mastery level of achievement.

Also receiving recognition in 2008 are Franciscan Skemp Healthcare and Red Cedar Medical Center, both part of Mayo Health System, Kohl's Department Stores–Credit Division, Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center, Saint Michael's Hospital, and Stoughton Hospital. We salute all of our 2008 applicants for their achievements and best practices.

Click here to read the official press release from Secretary Roberta Gassman of the Department of Workforce Development, on behalf of Governor Jim Doyle (.pdf).

Summary applications of the five recipients of the 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award are available for free viewing or download from the Baldrige National Quality Award website.

2007 recipients include:

• PRO-TEC Coating Co. (small business), a provider of coated sheet steel primarily to the U.S. automotive industry for use in
  manufacturing cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles.
  
• Wisconsin's own Mercy Health System (health care), a fully integrated health care system with three hospitals and a network of 64 facilities consisting of 39 multi-specialty outpatient centers located in six counties throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
  
• Sharp HealthCare (health care), San Diego County’s largest integrated health care delivery system, serving greater than 27 percent of the county’s 3 million plus residents—some 785,000 people—each year.
  
• The City of Coral Springs, Florida (nonprofit), home to about 132,000 people and employer of about 770 full-time employees and 300 part-time and temporary employees, with an annual budget of $135 million.
  
• The U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) (nonprofit), one of the specialized research, development, and engineering centers within the U.S. Army Materiel Command, and which develops 90 percent of the Army’s armaments and ammunition including warheads, explosives, all sizes of firearms, battlefield sensors, and advanced weaponry based on high-power microwaves, high-energy lasers, and nanotechnology.

You can access application summaries by clicking here. Hard copies of these documents will also be mailed upon request by e-mailing npq@nist.gov or calling (301) 975-2036.

The W. Edwards Deming Institute will be holding its annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin on November 8–9, 2008. Contact the Madison Concourse Hotel for hotel reservations. Further details about the 2008 fall conference are available here.

We are happy to annouce that Wisconsin's own Mercy Health System in Janesville is among five organizations nation-wide selected as 2007 Baldrige recipients. Mercy Health System was previously recognized at the Excellence level of achievement by Wisconsin Forward Award in 2003.

Other National Baldrige Quality Award recipients for 2007 include:

• PRO-TEC Coating Company, Leipsic, Ohio (small business)
• Sharp HealthCare, San Diego, California (health care)
• City of Coral Springs, Coral Springs, Florida (nonprofit)
• U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey (nonprofit)

The Baldrige National Quality Program has announced the host states for the 2008 and 2009 Regional Conferences. Wisconsin is very happy to be selected, along with Massachusetts, as a 2009 host state.

Watch this or the BNQP website for more about the 2008 Regional Conferences, taking place in Colorado and Louisiana, as they become available. Wisconsin looks forward to seeing you at the 2008 and 2009 conferences, as well as our own l Excellence at Work conference on February 28 and 29, 2008.