ASQ Announces New Social Responsibility Medal

Milwaukee, WI, June 8, 2009 — ASQ (American Society for Quality) announces the new Spencer Hutchens Jr. Medal for Social Responsibility. The medal recognizes the achievements of an individual who demonstrates outstanding leadership as an individual, business leader, and cause advocate for social responsibility — primarily focusing on the marketplace, environment, workplace, and community.

“The medal will showcase how the recipient’s results have led to societal change,” said Roberto Saco, ASQ president. “Medal recipients will be instrumental in making the difference within today’s — and tomorrow’s — socially responsible world.”

The addition of the Social Responsibility Medal brings the number of global medals offered by ASQ each year, to 13.

The medal is named after Spencer Hutchens Jr., Los Angeles, Calif., an ASQ past president, whose personal and business life reflects and demonstrates the desired attributes in the definition and model of social responsibility.

“I am proud and humbled to have this medal named in my honor,” said Hutchens. “The development of this medal strengthens and reflects ASQ’s commitment to social responsibility, and to providing solutions that will help organizations meet their social responsibility goals.”

The Spencer Hutchens Jr. Social Responsibility Medal will be presented annually beginning at ASQ’s World Conference for Quality and Improvement in 2010. Eligibility information and nomination forms are available at  www.asq.org/about-asq/awards/hutchens.html. All nominations are due by October 1, 2009. For more information, please contact Karen Prosser, award program administrator, at kprosser@asq.org.

The announcement of the new medal comes on the heels of a major national initiative launched by ASQ in April called The SRO (Socially Responsible Organization) to help the world understand the value of, and the business case for, social responsibility and the role of quality to achieve results. The next steps for The SRO initiative include:

• Establishing an International Social Responsibility Think Tank later this year that will bring together some of the world’s leading experts.
  
• A conference in Milwaukee in 2010 featuring executive roundtables to mark the release of the new ISO 26000 Guidance on Social Responsibility Voluntary Standard.
  
• Additional information on ASQ’s social responsibility initiatives can be found at www.TheSRO.org.
  

ASQ, www.asq.org, has been the world’s leading authority on quality for more than 60 years. With more than 90,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As a champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great®. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., ASQ is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.