| By Christine Schaefer Thank You, Baldrige Examiners! As teams of Baldrige examiners are busy this summer assessing the performance of ten organizations that applied to receive non-award-related feedback based on the 2021-2022 Criteria for Performance Excellence, I think it's a fitting time to highlight the significant contributions of the annually selected, all-volunteer corps known as the Board of Examiners. It's clear to anyone familiar with the Baldrige Program that we cannot thank these volunteers enough for their generous service within the annual Baldrige Award process since its inception in 1988 through 2021. During that period, each of the thousands of Baldrige examiners (at least 300 per year) who have completed an evaluation of an organization applying for the Baldrige Award have donated an average of at least 100 hours per applicant! That estimate does not include the days they've spent in (annual) Baldrige examiner training, on site visits (the last phase of the award process evaluation for finalists), and/or participating in the award judging process (given that some examiners later become judges). They've given all that time and talent to the fundamentally patriotic cause of helping American enterprises in every sector improve their performance. Selected for their sector expertise and trained by the Baldrige Program every spring, examiners conduct their evaluations in teams led by seasoned peers. Individually and then together with their teams, they analyze the processes and results of U.S.-based organizations against the requirements of the Criteria for Performance Excellence (part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework). In recent years, this work has taken place primarily in summer months, when examiners on each team have worked together virtually to combine their individual analyses in draft scorebooks and then refine their findings online and during video meetings (and in past years, via conference calls). Eventually, their insights are conveyed in a feedback report for each award applicant detailing the organization's strengths and opportunities for improvement.
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