(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- The Baldrige National Quality Program strives to continuously improve all aspects of the program to deliver greater value to its customers and stakeholders and to improve the effectiveness of our processes. To that end, the program is offering opportunities for your participation in its annual Improvement Day (I-Day) through two venues. The traditional I-Day meeting is an opportunity for interested people to gather at NIST, provide input, and discuss and refine suggested modifications to the program, and will be held on Wednesday, July 30, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Additionally, this year, NIST will be piloting a “virtual I-Day”—two focus groups with up to 15 people in each. The focus groups will be held on Thursday, August 7, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM (EDT) and on Thursday, August 14, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM (EDT). NIST’s intent is to migrate all of I-Day to a virtual environment in 2009 to enable wider participation in the improvement process.

Registration for the on-site and virtual I-Days is available here. Participants should select only one session, please—July 30, August 7, or August 14.

While comments are welcome at any time, the annual Improvement Day is an opportunity for interested people to provide input and to gather at NIST to discuss and refine suggested modifications.

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