Maryland Performance Excellence Awards: 2008 Opportunities to Participate

The Maryland Performance Excellence Awards program, which honors organizations working to increase their effectiveness through performance excellence, is looking for individuals and organizations to become involved in the 2008 awards program. Your organization may attend a workshop to learn about the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and / or submit an application for the 2008 awards program. Individually, you may become an Examiner and receive extensive training and hands-on experience assessing an application in the 2008 awards program.

Maryland Performance Excellence Awards: Call for Examiners

The Maryland Performance Excellence Awards program, which honors organizations working to increase their effectiveness through performance excellence, is accepting applications for examiners in the 2008 awards program. This Baldrige-based program recognizes organizations for performance excellence with the U.S. Senate Productivity Award and Maryland Quality Award.

• Examiners receive valuable training and experience in applying the Criteria for Performance Excellence by reviewing an award application as a member of an Examiner Team.
• Learn how leading organizations achieve performance excellence.
• Gain visibility, credibility and recognition in the state and from your U. S. Senators.
• Develop analytical, consensus-building and systems-perspective skills that can be applied to your organization.
• Must participate in 3 days of training, led by national Baldrige examiners, and commit to spending 100 to 150 hours for pre-work, training, application review individually and as a team member, and writing the final feedback report. Examiners meet with their applicant at the MPEA Conference and Awards Ceremony in April 2008 to provide feedback.
• Being an examiner is the best way to learn the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and to develop skills that can be applied in your organization.
• Applications for the MPEA Board of Examiners are accepted from April 1 to June 16, 2008
• The application form for the 2008 awards program will be posted on the MPEA website by April 1, 2008.

Maryland Performance Excellence Awards Announces Getting Started Workshop

**CANCELLED**

Learn from Senate Productivity Award recipients about their performance excellence journeys—why the Baldrige Criteria, how they got organized; how they collected data and more. Learn—1) How a data-driven management system can help you achieve the results you desire for your organization; 2) Organizational Profile—what it is and how to address the questions; 3) How to conduct an organizational self-assessment; and 4) How to get your organization started on the path to performance excellence using the Criteria for Performance Excellence and Maryland’s awards program. Lunch included.

Presented by Mike Perich, Executive Guidance Board & Senate Productivity Award Recipients

GETTING STARTED WITH MPEA & THE CRITERIA FOR PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 12 Noon - 4:30 PM
University of Maryland, College Park
Fee: $119; $69 for each additional person from organization
Reservation Deadline: April 29, 2008

Sponsored by: Maryland Performance Excellence Awards, Senator Barbara Mikulski, Senator Benjamin Cardin & University of Maryland

Maryland Performance Excellence Awards: Writing Workshop

Delve into the Criteria for Performance Excellence and learn how to write an effective application. You will be taken step- by-step through the application-writing process from the Organizational Profile, through addressing process categories and finally, tips for addressing the all-important results category. Presenter will discuss challenges faced by applicants, provide hands-on experience and answer questions. Suggest participants become familiar with the Criteria in advance of workshop—visit www.mpea.umd.edu. Lunch included.

Presented by LaWanda Burwell, EGB Past Chairperson & State/National Examiner.

June 21, 2008

Performance Excellence Users Group Meeting Announcement

You are invited to join the Performance Excellence Users Group on July 10 at the University of Maryland for "Getting Started with the Baldrige Criteria and Writing the Application" presented by Jan Carson of Villa Maria Continuum and Mike Perich of Montgomery County Public Schools, both recipients of the Senate Productivity Award in the Maryland Performance Excellence Awards program.

The presenters will discuss 1) getting leadership and staff on board, 2) resources used to learn and implement the criteria, 3) approaches to writing the application, 4) core values-what are they and how are they used in the Baldrige Criteria, 5) results-how to select, measure and benchmark, 6) how they are sustaining progress made using the Baldrige management framework, 7) using consultants or not, 8) lessons learned, and 9) Q & A.

The meeting will be held from 1 PM to 3 PM on Thursday, July 10 in the Kim Engineering Building at the University of Maryland in College Park. Visit www.mpea.umd.edu for more information and directions. There is no charge to participate, but you must pre-register by contacting Marty Stephens at or call 301-405-7173.

The Maryland Performance Excellence Awards program helps Maryland organizations become high-performing, high-integrity, ethical organizations that excel in their market using the nationally-recognized Baldrige management framework. The annual awards program is based at the University of Maryland and is sponsored by U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin. For more information, visit www.mpea.emd.edu.