A survey was conducted of ASQ Section 1502 members during July 2005 to request ideas on how to improve attendance at our monthly dinner meetings. A total of 172 members responded to the online survey at the ASQ Atlanta Section 1502 web site, a response rate of 20%. 

The following is an analysis of the results...

2. The most important factor in deciding whether or not I attend a monthly dinner meeting is its:   

3. Our dinner currently starts at 6:30 PM and the program at 7:30 PM. I would prefer these times to be:   

4. The monthly dinner meetings are currently held on the third Thursday of each month. I would prefer the day to be:

5. The monthly dinner meetings are currently held on the third Thursday of each month. I would prefer the week to be:   

6. The dinner currently costs $25 for members and $30 for non-members. I would go to more dinner meetings if the price was:   

7. Our current dinner meetings are held at the Holiday Inn near Exit 30 on I-285 in the Northeast part of Metro Atlanta. I would prefer our meetings be held at a more convenient location:

8. I might attend more monthly meetings if the programs were on (check all that apply):   

9. I would like to suggest the following topics and/or speakers for a future dinner meeting:

• "Roving" meetings that include plant tours.    
• Mini-Demos with hands on participation.
• More Management type speakers.    

• Related to job seekers.    
• Career Enhancement.    
• New members meeting to explain all the benefits.    
• Certification Programs.
• A Day in the Life of a Quality Engineer.    
• Future trends or "mega" trends for the profession.
• Future Trends.

• ISO 9001 future plans.    
• How ISO 9001, 14001, & 18001 are coming together.    
• Speakers that have successful implementations of ISO 9000, 14000, 18000.    

• Outsourcing.    
• Second Party Auditing.    
• Supplier Qualification/Certification; International Sourcing Quality.
• Global Quality.    

• Continuous improvement.    
• Corrective Action Plans.    
• Risk Management.
• Quality Documentation.    
• Inspection Sampling Methodologies.
• Conducting a Meaningful Management Review Process.   

• Six Sigma and Applications in Service or Transactional Quality.
• Lean Six Sigma in Financial.
• Six Sigma.    
• How to make Six Sigma work in today?s manufacturing.    

• Design of Experiments.   
• Application of DOE.    
• Poka Yoke.    

• Financial / Retail.
• Quality in healthcare.    

• ISO/TS 16949.    
• PPAP.
• Ford Motor Company Hapeville - Quality practices.    

• Pharmaceutical Quality Systems based on QSR/ISO 13485.    
• Biomedical/ Pharmaceutical.    
• GXP, GMP, GLP.    
• Clinical Quality Assurance.    

• Quality aspects in Software development and maintenance.    
• More topics related to Software Quality Assurance.    

• Sample type and selection.    
• MBNQA-related.    
• Manufacturing quality programs.    
• Cultural influence on effective quality management systems implementation.
• Research.    
• Impact of Presidential Management Agenda Initiatives.
• Color communication advances.    

10. If I could change one thing about our dinner meetings for increased attendance, it would be:

• Location.    
• LOCATION! ROTATE LOCATIONS! DO SOMETHING.    
• Closer to home; I-85 and I-285 is a 15 miles commute to me and it is OK.
• Location.    
• More central location.       
• Traffic from most locations in ATL.    
• Location.    
• Mix up the meeting location so that they are not all on the north side.
• The location. Southside works better for me.    
• Location.
• Location. I live on the Southside making attendance a 2-hour round trip drive.    
• Make meeting place different places in different areas to make access easier. 

• Do more on site visits with tours.    
• Content of program.    
• To have more true experts and less consultants who are promoting their services.    
• Programs.    
• Content - more technical.    
• Need more humor.    
• Mini-Workshops on BOK.   
• More case studies or project results, such as, Six Sigma projects    
• Programs that interest me.    
• More hard-copy handouts.    

• Door prize.    
• Glass of wine included with dinner.    
• They are fine as they.
• Better networking. A method to introduce everyone BEFORE the meeting.    
• Greater effort of older members to get around to visit and/or sit with new faces.
• Less formal, more related to our current struggles.    
• More publicity in local newspapers about ASQ.    
• An opportunity for the new comers to introduce themselves to the group.    
• Maybe, eliminate dinner, and just have an informational meeting.
• A Section 1502 membership directory would be helpful for networking.
• Better publicity and presentations.    
• Larger place.    
• Diversity.    

• Earlier Time.
• The day of the week. I am obligated on Wed /Thurs.    
• Cost.   
• When they are on Thursdays; I have a scheduling conflict most of the time.
• Vary the day of the week. I attend school which prohibits my attendance.
• My current work schedule.    

• Lower price.
• Encourage members to bring guest(s) at a reduced fee ($10.00).    
• Lower dinner meeting price, particularly for student members.    

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