Local News

Wisdom from our Wisest — Rosaire Ratelle

By Eric Hosking, Section Treasurer, Membership Chair, ASQ CQE, CSSBB, CQA and Samira Kazemi, Program Committee Member

Texte en français ICI

Last month in this column we featured Ruth Stanley, ASQ Canada’s former Regional Director. This month we are featuring one of our very longest serving members Rosaire Ratelle, B. Eng., ASQ CQE. April 1st saw Rosaire celebrate 46 years with the ASQ. Like Marcel Charbonneau featured two months ago, Rosaire was instrumental in the development and evolution of the Quality institutions in Quebec.

Rosaire has worked and consulted in various industries and companies. He had the opportunity to watch, act and share his thoughts on the evolution of various quality techniques at work and in various articles he authored. He was also a player in the Quebec quality movement.

You can read his story here.

If you enjoyed this article, send your comments to the Membership Chair.We will share them.

(2022-05-20)

Wisdom from our Wisest — Ruth Stanley

By Eric Hosking, Section Treasurer, Membership Chair, ASQ CQE, CSSBB, CQA and Samira Kazemi, Program Committee Member
Texte en français ICI

Last month, in this column we featured Marcel Charbonneau, a very long time member of the ASQ. Some of our members are not necessarily long time members of the ASQ, but they are long time practitioners of Quality. They also come with a myriad of talents that have helped them have very successful careers inside and outside the Quality domain. We had the pleasure of interviewing Ruth Stanley, former Regional Director for the ASQ Canada and Greenland region. She described her career in Quality and her career as a leader. This is what we learned.

RUTH STANLEY – PRESIDENT, BOANN CONSULTING

Ruth Stanley has 30 plus years in Quality working as a public servant in a number of branches of the Canadian Federal Government. While there she worked with ISO standards: 9001 for quality systems; 14000 for environmental standards; 17025 for laboratory information systems and 31000 for risk management.

Ruth became a member of ASQ in 2014 in the Ottawa Section. In 2017 she took the lead on organizing the first ASQ Canadian National Quality Conference which was hosted by the Ottawa Section. Following that she served as the ASQ Regional Director for Canada Greenland Region in 2019 and 2020, then stepping down to be Deputy Regional Director in 2021. From those positions, she was deeply involved in both the 2020 and 2021 ASQ Canadian National Quality Conferences hosted by Toronto Section and Montreal Section respectively. Now retired from the Federal Government, she is far from retirement. She is an author, presenter, blogger and now founder of Boann Consulting.

Samira had a number of questions for Ruth and you can read the article here.

If you enjoyed this article, send your comments to the Membership Chair.We will share them.

(2022-04-17)

Wisdom from our Wisest — Marcel Charbonneau

By Eric Hosking, Section Treasurer, Membership Chair, CQA, CQE, CSSBB
Texte en français ICI

Did you know that we have a number of ASQ Montreal Section members who have been with the section for more than 40 years. Four decades! What do you think they can tell us about the evolution of Quality in Quebec? What do you think they can tell us about being successful in the quality profession? What was their quality path and why have they chosen to be with the ASQ for so long?

We asked Marcel Charbonneau, who joined the ASQ 49 years ago, and he provided this fascinating story.

Lean start-up of a centre for pediatric emergencies – Follow-up

By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA Retired

We have learned that recently the UP (Unité pédiatrique) centre received visitors who were very interested in the approach of a health system centred on patient experience and access. Not the least of which was the Minister of Health Christian Dubé accompanied by Minister Lionel Carmant, Dr. Lucie Opatrny and Martin Forgues of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, and the management team of the CISSS Montérégie Centre Richard Deschamps, Lyne Marquis, and Dr. Inthysone Rajvong.
We really appreciated Dr. Sasha Dubrovsky’s presentation on the Lean start-up of a centre for pediatric emergencies last November 24 and that we said he should meet the Health Minister… well he did. See: LinkedIn.

** Where are you? **

By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA Retired
If you think that we can’t reach out to you, you’re probably right.

Our event surveys have shown that although our members get to learn of our upcoming events mostly through our Newsletter, we can only send it to you if we have your email address. Many members, probably because they are tired of receiving unwanted emails, do not share their address with ASQ.

If that is your case but you want the Newsletter delivered to your electronic device, Login to ASQ.org, click My Account and set the appropriate parameters (Address Information, Contact Information). To reduce noise from ASQ, click on Opt In/Opt Out then EDIT and select the options in the three categories. To receive our Newsletter, in Member Communication, check-off Section Communication.
Don’t forget to click Save and then surf or Logout.

ASQ Montreal Section LT Special Guest: Ann Jordan, ASQ CEO

By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior & CQA, ret.

Ann Jordan, ASQ CEO virtually attended last night’s Montreal Section Leadership meeting (June 8, 2021) via Teams.

Yes, quite an honour for the Leadership Team. We also hosted Puneet Manchanda, the Canada Regional Director and Ruth Stanley, our Deputy RD as well as other directors. Ann wanted to meet the valiant team (70 years and counting) and present an overview of ASQ’s key strategic initiatives. Mission accomplished. She explained how ASQ has been working on refocusing on its members and offer more value as well as recognizing that technology now offers more opportunities for improving this… a weakness identified ‘late’ by ASQ. They will be refocusing on improving that, educational support and quality expertise, as well as providing it in a multi-language environment through the support of the new technologies. More information from HQ will be available in the fall. We will be watching, Ann.

Chantale Simard, Montreal Section Chair sent her a follow-up message: I think I am speaking for the group here by letting you know that it was a pleasure for us as well. If we had had more time, probably everyone on the Leadership Team would have asked you questions and give you comments about the new key strategic initiatives to increase member value. I am glad that we had time for a few meaningful comments and ideas.

I truly believe in these initiatives involving benchmarking, technology, new and existing resources to enhance QBok content. The global provider network, ASQConnEx is also a great idea. Being open to modern ways, to the world, to younger generations, to diversity and other languages and proving it concretely by starting this virtual road show with Montreal, makes me believe that ASQ will achieve the long-term goal of improving member value.

We will look more closely at the presentation and start discussions with our members and other quality professionals in our community about these key strategic initiatives.

PS: Ann Jordan has agreed to be the opening key-note speaker of the 2021 ASQ Canada & Greenland Region: National Bilingual Quality Conference hosted by the Montreal Section on the 4th and 5th of October.

(2021-06-08)

Congratulations to the Montreal Section From The PEP Committee!

On behalf of the Performance Excellence Program (PEP) committee, we want to thank you for all the hard work your leadership team provided to your Section members this past year, as well as ASQ.

We are pleased to announce that the Montreal Section Committee has received the Gold award recognition for 2020. Measures included in the 2020 award program were:

• Contributions to ASQ thought leadership, as measured by myASQ content postings;
• Member Engagement and Experience, as measured by myASQ activity and member increases;
• Fiduciary responsibility, as measured by adherence to budget;
• Achievement of business plan objectives, as measured by self-reported progress on business goals and targets.

Attached you will find artwork that can be used within your Section to honor and promote your member unit’s PEP success in 2020.
Again, congratulations to everyone at the Montreal Section Committee for your achievements. We are proud of your service to ASQ and continue to look forward to what is ahead from your members.

With great thanks,
The PEP Committee

Quality Progress – April 2021: A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Events

Michael Bournazian, Eng., Newsletter Editor, ASQ Senior Member, CSSGB

If you are a member of ASQ, then certainly you receive the monthly ASQ magazine Quality Progress. And if you read closely the April 2021 issue, then surely you realized that a few of our ASQ Montreal committee members were part of a group of four people who authored the article entitled “A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Events“.

I am very proud of both J.P. Amiel and Raymond Dyer, who have both worked very hard to make sure that our current situation of “Virtual Webinar Events only” is well executed every last Wednesday of the month. As well, they have shown an openness to ideas and a regular drive to continuously improve the process of doing these kinds of events, and making them fruitful for everyone attending.

If you have not already read the article, then I encourage you to Click Here and start reading (You must login to your ASQ account first to access the full article).

Congratulations as well to the other two co-authors, Ruth Stanley and Michel Guenette.
Great job everyone!