MINUTES 

Meeting of the Board of Overseers for the Malcolm Baldrige 

National Quality Award 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Tuesday, December 9, 2021, Via videoconference 

Attendees 

Overseers: Gerry Agnes (Chair), Ray Floyd, John Jasinski, Brian Lassiter, Theresa Meadows, Janet Souter 

Judges: Patricia Skriba (Chair), Cary Hill, Kevin Johnson 

NIST: Jamie Ambrosi, Mojdeh Bahar, Dawn Bailey, Rebecca Bayless, Jacqueline Deschamps, Robert 

Fangmeyer, Robert Hunt, Elif Karakas, Darren Lowe, LouAnn Scott, Christine Schaefer, Robyn Verner, 

Kelly Welsh 

Guests: Al Faber, President and CEO, Baldrige Foundation; Stephanie Norling, CEO, Communities of 

Excellence 2026 

Welcome and Introductions 

Robert Fangmeyer and Gerry Agnes welcomed and thanked the overseers for their participation and 

support of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (BPEP). Fangmeyer encouraged them to share 

their insights, concerns, and thoughts throughout the meeting. 

Fangmeyer gave an update on the 2021 award process notification delay: 

The Department of Commerce and NIST are still engaged and working together to evaluate the 

Judges Panel recommendations and identify the winners of the Baldrige Award; we look forward 

to notifying the w inners as soon as the process is complete. We understand participants are 

eager for results and appreciate their patience. 

Approval of the June Minutes 

Unanimous approval. 

Report from the Judges Panel 

Pattie Skriba gave a synopsis of the judging process. It begins in August by deciding which organizations 

should receive site visits. They chose seven organizations for site visits. Organization names of those 

seven were then revealed to enable a determination of any real or perceived conflicts of interest 

between each judge and any of the applicants selected for site visits. Any judge who has a conflict with 

an applicant does not receive any i nformation about that organization and is not a participant in the 

discussions about or voting on that applicant during the N ovember meeting. Site visits occurred starting 

the last week of September, and teams produced scorebooks that captured the teams’ findings, 

evidence, commentary, and scoring. This documentation becomes the primary focus for the judges who 

each spend about 40 hours independently reviewing and preparing for their November meeting. Each 

applicant was assigned a lead judge who facilitates the conversation among the j udges and with the site 

visit team leader during the m eeting. The conversations focus on (1) obtaining clarification and (2) 

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understanding the applicant’s best practices and role-model characteristics. Judges vote anonymously, 

and a recommendation for the award requires a majority plus one. 

Baldrige Program Update 

Fangmeyer reported on recent BPEP activities, starting with the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan. He said 

everything shared today is aligned to sustain the program, increase reach and impact, and strengthen 

the Baldrige Enterprise. 

2021 HIGHLIGHTS 

2021/2022 Award Process and Examiner Training 

Due to COVID, the entire award process, including examiner training, was virtual this year. Examiner 

training sessions were one hour in length, once a week, from March 29 to May 14 (a total of six 

sessions). In addition, master examiners were paired with new and Baldrige Examiner Training 

Experience (BETE) examiners for individual coaching and feedback, and the learning management 

system Rise was used to deliver online content. Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to the 

virtual approach by examiners (and the lack of conference room availability at NIST), this model will be 

largely repeated in 2022. 

The seven 2021 site visits were conducted virtually, with the continuation of best practices from the 

virtual site visits in 2020. The site visit plan for 2022 is a hybrid approach that includes document review 

and virtual interviews, followed by a short on-site visit to test deployment and conduct follow-up 

interviews with demonstrations, as appropriate. 

Baldrige Executive Fellows 

Dawn Bailey gave an overview of the Fellows Program—a professional development program for 

executives from all sectors to explore and address the challenges of leadership using the Baldrige 

Excellence Framework as a foundation. There are typically five on-site meetings; three of these at 

Baldrige Award recipient locations to witness best practices in action. The other component of the 

program is a capstone project, for which Fellows are encouraged to choose something of strategic 

significance at their own organizations or work that they have always wanted to improve or innovate. 

Fellows use the year-long program to gather peer and coach feedback and gather best practices to 

support their efforts. 

Job Quality Framework 

Kelly Welsh shared that the new administration tasked BPEP with leading the development of a job 

quality framework, which would also increase the reach and impact of Baldrige and expand Baldrigebased offerings. 

A video was shared of Secretary Gina Raimondo discussing the importance of a job quality framework 

during the kickoff meeting: https://youtu.be/XQy277A2hRE. 

Kelly said that, through multiple meetings with key stakeholder groups, job quality experts, and job 

quality advocates, BPEP has developed a draft of the framework. Additional focus groups are planned to 

obtain specific input from business and industry representatives as well as experts in diversity, equity, 

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and inclusion. The goal is for the framework to help managers and leaders understand the importance of 

improving the quality of the jobs they offer; establish a widely accepted definition of a high-quality job; 

and provide practical, adaptable, non-prescriptive guidance around how to improve the quality of the 

jobs in organizations of all kinds, especially small and mid-size businesses. 

Engagement with Manufacturing 

BPEP, in collaboration with Florida Makes (a Manufacturing Extension Partnership [MEP] program), the 

(Baldrige-based) Florida Sterling Award program, and the Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center (which 

houses the Illinois Performance Excellence program), has developed an assessment process and tools to 

enable MEP center staff to provide feedback to manufacturers on their preparedness for and adoption 

of advanced manufacturing technology solutions. 

The assessment tool is being piloted now. The goal is for a minimum of 100 organizations to be 

assessed, and then the tool will be revised as needed and made available to other MEP centers. From a 

Baldrige Enterprise perspective, success for this initiative is an ongoing assessment program that 

introduces businesses and other organizations to Baldrige principles and draws them into the Baldrige 

community. 

2022 LOOKING AHEAD 

33rd Quest for Excellence Conference 

BPEP is planning to be back in person at its next Quest conference (April 3–6, 2022). Planning is being 

done in close coordination with the Foundation, ASQ, and others. Registration is now open. Contingency 

planning is part of the discussion. 

2023–2024 Baldrige Excellence Framework 

Work begins in early 2022 on the next revision of the framework to ensure it remains on the leading 

edge of validated leadership and management practice. Feedback, inputs, and recommendations will be 

gathered/solicited, from literature review, industry experts, social media and other methods, partner 

organizations, examiner training, the Quest for Excellence conference, and topic-based virtual focus 

groups. Draft copies of the Criteria by appropriate sector (business/nonprofit, education, or health care) 

will be sent for review to Baldrige overseers and sector experts (typically over the summer). 

Redesign of Baldrige Award Process to Roll Out in 2022 

The award process redesign has been delayed for two years due to the COVID pandemic, but it will be 

rolled out in 2022. BPEP is currently developing training, resource materials, and a new online 

examination tool. 

The 2022 redesign has four objectives: (1) reduce the cycle time between application submission and 

receipt of feedback; (2) lean out the evaluation process to better utilize examiner resources and 

enhance value added to examiners and applicants; (3) provide more accurate, easier-to-produce, and 

easier-to-read feedback reports; and (4) improve the timeliness, clarity, transparency, and overall 

quality of feedback to applicants. 

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Report from the Alliance for Performance Excellence 

Brian Lassiter gave an overview of the Alliance. Mission: “Enhancing Our Members’ Ability to Grow 

Baldrige-based Performance Excellence.” Vision: To be the premier resource for a thriving Baldrige 

community. To find your local Baldrige-based program, visit http://baldrigealliance.org/programs. 

Lassiter shared that Baldrige is the common thread that ties all Alliance programs together, and the 

scale of the Alliance is quite large with an estimated $9 million combined budget. Lassiter also reminded 

the overseers that the Alliance is the feeder system for BPEP. He shared updates, including the dates 

and location for the 2022 Fall conference: October 19-20, in San Diego. 

Report from the Baldrige Foundation 

Al Faber said it has been a busy six months in terms of the Foundation’s four strategic imperatives: 

advocacy, fundraising, board development, and operations. The Foundation had a successful award 

cycle for its individual leadership awards, which included the E. David Spong Lifetime Achievement 

Award, Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award, Foundation Awards for Leadership Excellence, and Dr. Curt 

Reimann Baldrige Scholarships. Recipients will be announced in a few weeks, and they will be honored 

at a Quest conference luncheon. 

Faber shared the following updates: 

• The Foundation fundraising goal was exceeded last year by 162% through pledges and 

donations. Foundation has raised close to $500,00 in first half of fiscal year. 

• Upcoming webinar will feature About Healthcare, which is active in 982 hospitals across county. 

• Podcasts, future webinars, and two virtual CEO roundtables are scheduled. An in-person 

roundtable will be held in Atlanta in March. 

• The University of Charleston, WV, is a new partner, especially in the cyber space. It is offering 

deep discounts in training and education to members of the Baldrige community online. 

• Internationally, the Foundation continues to strengthen relationships with the Confederation of 

Indian Industry (CII), Tata, and Adani Group. 

• The Foundation is planning a webinar specifically on the Alliance; it may be called “State-Based 

Programs: Your Gateway to Performance Excellence.” It will feature state director vignettes and 

success stories. The webinar will be recorded and shared with Alliance programs who can use it 

for marketing. 

Strategic Initiatives 

Proposal to Re-Engage Large, Internationally Competitive Businesses 

Fangmeyer discussed some of the background and discussion that has already occurred in terms of reengaging with big business to apply for the Baldrige Award. BPEP has been attempting to re-engage 

businesses of all kinds for many years through various product offerings, process changes, and strategic 

initiatives. In 2017, BPEP had a very similar conversation with the overseers that ultimately resulted in 

the current award process redesign changes, which are being implemented in 2022 after a two-year 

delay due to COVID. 

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Barriers to participation appear to be largely the same across sectors and industries and center on the 

time, effort, and complexity of the award criteria and award process, as well as the loss of Presidential 

participation in the award ceremony. 

Following in-depth discussion, the Overseers recommended forming a small task group to reconsider the 

proposed changes to the application and evaluation process to address the barriers to participation. 

Proposed changes would need to be socialized (input would need to be gathering from previous award 

recipients, current applicants, Criteria stakeholders, consultants, etc.) and thoughtfully rolled out in 

2023 or beyond. 

Communities of Excellence (COE) 2026 

Stephanie gave an overview of COE 2026. She said the vision, mission, and envisioned future drives the 

work. In 2017, she said the overseers asked for evidence of COE and an expansion plan that showed how 

COE work was integrated with components of the enterprise, as well as an evaluation that integrated 

with the Alliance. COE came back in 2018 with evidence, and COE has returned every year with a plan to 

show progress. 

This new discussion is intended to look at the scale of opportunities for COE; the COE Board agreed that 

it was the right time to do that. COE has begun the effort to create a new five-year plan that includes 

significant increased investment in COE and partnership with the Baldrige enterprise. 

Stephanie said COE has a refined purpose and big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG): 

• Purpose: Every person in America is living their best life in communities that are thriving. 

• BHAG: Communities and the organizations within them that adopt Baldrige-based tools and 

practices, including the COE framework are the top-performing in the nation. 

She presented five-year operating plans for organizational health, financial health, sustainable 

community impact, and knowledge management. She also discussed a learning collaborative franchising 

project where the Alliance can take on assessments. There will be more exploration regarding regional 

learning teaching collaboratives and the Alliance. COE is also exploring how to capture promising 

practices and pursue how to adapt the framework. 

Report and Recommendations to NIST Director and Secretary of Commerce 

Fangmeyer said this is an opportunity for the overseers to convey what they want to say to the NIST 

Director and Secretary of Commerce. The overseers presented the following recommendations to NIST. 

Recommendations 

• Encourage White House involvement and Presidential recognition of Baldrige Award recipients. 

(This is urgent. Baldrige is the premier award program for the United States.) 

• Help us determine the overall “why” of Baldrige that would enhance Presidential and 

Congressional support of the program. 

• Seek increased financial Congressional support. 

• Continue to support COE and “Community” as the seventh award category. 

• Expand the impact of Baldrige by leveraging new and existing offerings such as the Baldrige 

Cybersecurity Excellence Builder. 

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• Support Baldrige efforts to refine the Framework, Criteria, and Award process to evolve in a 

changing environment. (This is part of the discussion of why large businesses are not 

participating.) 

New Business 

• Confirm dates of future meetings: June 16, December TBD (BPEP will propose a date). 

• Confirm preference for virtual or in-person meetings: Overseers preferred being in-person in 

June when judges may join them, but being virtual in December when the weather may impact 

travel. 

The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m. 

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete. 

for Gerry Agnes 

Chair 

Board of Overseers 

01/28/2022 

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