“2009 Academic Year Total Quality Management Seminar” will be held at March 26 at the two venues in Tamsui campus--Ching-sheng International Conference Hall and the Chueh-sheng International Conference Hall. Members of the Lanyang campus will also be able to join the seminar via a teleconference. The main topic of the seminar is “Sharpening Quality Management Skills and Enhancing Cross-Unit Cooperation.” The organizers have invited Lin Li-hua, a quality management engineer of the Taichung Veterans General Hospital to give a speech to share her experience in quality control. Lin will also give away awards to top three winners of an in-campus quality circle contest.

The seminar is divided into two batches, one in the morning another in the afternoon. TKU President Dr. Flora C. I. Chang, two vice presidents and all heads and deputy heads of level one and two units of the university, as well as secretaries and administration staffs, will all be joining the seminar. The session in the morning will be opened by President Chang’s remark and an opening ceremony. During the ceremony, top three winners of the quality circle contest will be awarded and these awardees will give their addresses.

Lin, who represents the Taichung Veterans General Hospital that has won many awards from the Ministry of Economics, will then give her speech following the award-giving ceremony. Members of a “Kangaroo Circle” of the hospital will also share their experience in quality management. This year is the first time that TKU holds such a quality management circle contest, with a total of 16 groups participating in the contest. A presentation and evaluation conference of quality management circle was held at March 17, allowing all units to learn from each other in QM and in improving their competitiveness.

All the participating circles have done amazing jobs in presenting projects to improve their competitiveness. For instance, the Personnel Office has formed the “Hula Circle” and is offering ways to speed up the registration process to facilitate the TKU year-end party; the Office of Academic Affairs’ “Boiled Egg Circle” has proposed to improve the school’s competitiveness in recruitment while the Office of General Affairs’ “Fireball Circle” made the proposals to decrease the use of electricity for money-saving and environmental reasons. All these circles have done their best during presentations. Some even wear a uniform and even designed their own slogans.

Pai Di-ching, chief of the educational evaluation development section under the Center for Learning and Teaching, said that he can tell each of the team has done a tremendous effort in preparation for the presentation. He also said he is pleased to note that a total of 16 teams have joined the contest at the event’s debut year, while hoping more to join next year. “The most important thing is the continuing of the quality management work, not the contest itself,” noted Pai. ( ~Yeh Yun-kai )