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Towards a global
cyber institute – Part 2.
By Allan J. Sayle, President Allan Sayle
Associates |
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Headquarters
The BAMs provide secretarial services for administrating membership,
collection of dues, running the web site, selling courses and materials,
collecting, editing and publishing articles for the house magazine, selling
advertisements, arranging courses and so forth.
As stated in Part 1 of this article, the core material comes from members
time, effort, experience and largesse. Volunteer members run all sections,
divisions, branches, regions and work groups. HQ might post minutes, reports
and so forth, but that, too, is merely secretarial work. The associated
input is generally the result of the volunteer member efforts anyway.
All such material can easily be uploaded to a web site for all to see.
And it can be done quickly requiring no special skills. Cut, paste and
post are skills known now by four-year-old children.
In a new cyber based Institute, there would be a certain amount of administrative
work. Most can be done through information technology. As mentioned, dues
can be paid on-line; reminders can be automatically emailed to members;
knowledge materials can be ordered on-line; reports of local meetings
posted by members. Maintaining and running the servers does require centralized
human activity. Most of the rest does not. And since members are already
willing to spend time doing the essential work for the BAMs, why should
one believe they would not do the same for their new cyber-Institute?
If the new Institute is to have a HQ, it would be where the servers are
sited and maintained. Otherwise, the operational HQ rests within thousands
of PCs and laptops of the members, dispersed around the world.
One might ask “could a cyber-based Institute also coordinate courses,
curricula, training providers and so forth?” There seems no reason
why not and the possibility is allowed for in the suggested “Objects
and purposes of the Institute”, section, above. So that matter
will now be discussed.
Training courses and certification
Courses of many descriptions, some concerning “quality”,
are available through the internet. The number and variety are growing.
Professional people will likely want bachelor or master degrees in “Quality
Management” in future and these are now readily available on line
from accredited universities. Some employers acknowledge such certificates
as the ASQ’s CQE, CQM: others do not, as posts on the Cove reveal.
At technical level, the latter certificates are easily made available
through the internet as well and a new cyber based Institute could offer
them or approve providers that do.
The new Institute could easily set its own BOKs in various fields. It
could easily run its own training courses through outsourcing similar
to what exists at present. It could also issue certificates. Volunteer
work, why not? That is the foundation of existing BOKs and certificates
anyway. And it could be substantially cheaper than at present.
For particular certifications, each might have its own “eminent”
panel, curricula internationally agreed and embracing world-class practices,
tools, techniques and knowledge. Basic BOKs already exist that were created
by quality professionals: these could be quickly reviewed, upgraded and
published. The panel could decide whether or not training organizations
applying for recognition or outsourced services to the Institute meet
the Institute’s prescribed standards for delivery and conduct of
certification training courses.
Major corporations wishing to run their own internal courses could also
apply for recognition.
Examinations could be periodically held, run by volunteers, as at present
in the case of the BAMs. The volunteers would receive recognition for
their efforts and assistance.
“Grandfathering” should not be permitted.
Conferences
Conferences have become primarily cash cows and content is generally
of secondary importance in which HQ people have little if any interest.
Conferences tend to be constant repetitions of worn out themes that might
interest and impress newcomers to the quality movement but seldom do anything
to stimulate more experienced people. The quality world’s “demography
of experience” is constantly skewing towards greater numbers of
seasoned quality professionals and practitioners: for them worn-out themes
and mundane presenters lack attraction.
Side Bar: In 1995, I tried to advise an ASQ chairman
that the demographics of the quality movement and especially auditors
was changing. I observed the balance of numbers would inevitably swing
towards experienced people being in the majority. Thus, conference
content had to change and rookie tracks and topics must become a minority
part, if the real market of auditors was to be tapped in coming years
and their interest in participating was to be retained. I suggested
a number of cutting edge topics requiring discussion: I am still waiting.
A recent (2005) conference organized by the EOQ, held in Turkey, had
a disproportionate number of papers by academics, committee people
and so forth. The poor content failed to convince me spending on transatlantic
travel, hotel, attendance fees et al was a good investment.
I have also repeatedly suggested to the ASQ’s Quality Audit
Division that it should invite speakers from countries beyond the
USA. That still does not happen to a substantial extent and the event
tends to be predominantly American in terms of speakers. In an international
world, that is a pity.
But, it does not take long for one to spot the regular presenters.
In a global world, where the BAMs and registrars try to make much
about the international level of interest in “quality”,
the pool of good talent is considerable. |
In the case of the ASQ, as I understand it, volunteer members organize
the division conferences, assess and select venues, negotiate contracts
with the chosen location, design the sessions and tracks, vet and choose
submitted papers, organize the transactions, deal with sponsors and advertisers,
choose keynote speakers, create the copy for advertising brochures and
web sites, stuff the delegates’ conference bags with transactions,
act as track chairs, register delegates and undertake any number of duties
needed for thee smooth running of the events on the day. I am informed
HQ people do comparatively little and what they do could also be done
by volunteers or automatically using IT.
One is hard-pressed to know what an HQ could offer except, perhaps, a
legal entity that can provide hotel venues with a guarantee of funds and
an address for contractual purposes. A properly organized cyber institute,
too, could provide that.
Why do people attend? So often I hear them say, “I only really
come for the opportunity to network”, or “I like
to meet old friends each year”. Networking can be effectively
done through the internet and other means of communications: social events
are a little different.
Present day conference promoters organize registration, credit card payment
of fees, articles submission and so forth using the internet, as could
the new Institute. Conference proceedings could be downloaded from the
Institute library for a fee if one does not wish to attend. After all,
we are only discussing various applications of digital technology as most
conferences currently provide attendees with a CD anyway.
If a cyber institute wants to run a conference, everything is available
– especially the experience – for doing so. All that is needed
is for those members of BAMs who are experienced in running conferences
to join up and take the lead. More importantly, a cyber institute’s
conference could be a world event held anywhere: its members can create
the necessary teams – internationally – coordinating their
efforts through email etc.
The cyber Institute’s conferences might occur on line, using video
conferencing facilities. They could even be conventional ones. What would
be different would be the level of conference fees. Remove the costs associated
with the BAMs HQs “efforts” and its expectations of a considerable
share in the profit or a license fee for using its name and there may
be considerable savings.
Registration
schemes and registrars
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