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2016 Key Dates
Eligibility Certification Package
February 22
(submission must be received by this date with or without a nomination to the Board of Examiners)
Submit the eligibility certification package to certify your organization's eligibility in one of six award categories: manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care, or nonprofit.
Award Application Package
April 26 (CD only)
May 3 (25 paper copies plus CD)
(submission must be received by this date)
Submit (Choose One Option Below)
- 25 copies of the application and a CD containing a PDF file of the application
- CD only, with an additional processing fee of $1,250
PLEASE NOTE: Key dates are the final dates each package must be received at ASQ—not the postmark dates.
To be sure that your materials are not late, BPEP suggests applicants use overnight mail to send materials with a postmark of no later than Thursday, February 18, for the eligibility certification package and no later than Tuesday, April 19, for the CD-only award application package or Tuesday, April 26, for the paper-copies-plus-CD award application package.
2016 Changes and Reminders
Award Process Change in 2016: Team Leader-to-Applicant Call Early in Award Process
After a successful pilot in 2015, the Baldrige Program is offering the highest-ranking officer or designated representative from each 2016 award applicant organization the opportunity to describe their organization's business model and other unique key factors during a half-hour phone call with the team leader of the examiner team assigned to evaluate their organization in early June during the Independent Review phase of the award process. During this call, the team leader can ask questions for clarification about information in the Organizational Profile, but the applicant and team leader will avoid describing or asking for more information about specific processes and results (which should be addressed in the 50-page application).
Key Eligibility Changes (in 2015) Retained
- Organizations that can show a high level of maturity and superior performance metrics now have an additional means to gain eligibility for the Baldrige Award: they can submit additional materials (a completed Organizational Profile and 2 results measures for each of the 5 Criteria results items) with their eligibility certification package so that the Baldrige Program can determine their eligibility in early 2016.
- Prior Baldrige Award recipients are automatically eligible to reapply for the award after five years, even if new or revised eligibility requirements (e.g., those for subunits) would otherwise screen them out.
- Organizational subunits (such as an individual business unit within a larger manufacturing company) are no longer restricted from award eligibility based on their workforce size relative to their parent organizations or the percentage of external customers served; however, such subunits must still be able to respond to all seven categories of the Criteria.
For more information about the 2016 eligibility changes, read the Frequently Asked Questions and Is Your Organization Eligible?
Reminder: Submit a CD and 25 Paper Copies of Your Award Application Package
If you submit your award application package on paper, submit
- 25 paper copies of the application as well as
- a PDF file of the application on a CD (see Application Content and Format PDF).
If your organization receives a site visit, ASQ will use the CD to print additional copies of your organization's application. The additional printing charge will be part of your site visit fee. This change may reduce your organization's cost to print and ship applications, in addition to eliminating paper waste from unused applications.
If you submit your award application package on CD only, this change does not affect your organization.
Reminder: Include Only Terms and Abbreviations in the Glossary
In the glossary, include only terms and abbreviations used in the application, with very brief definitions (see Application Content and Format). Do not include descriptions of processes, tools, methods, or techniques in the glossary, or your application will be returned to you to remove extra glossary content.
Award Process Hotline
1-877-237-9064, option 3
Resources
Baldrige Excellence Framework
Baldrige Process Calendar
Application Content and Format
Baldrige Process Integrity
Related Links
Baldrige Award Recipients
Baldrige Impacts
Self-Assessing Your Organization
Improvement Tools
Testimonials
FAQs: Baldrige Award Recipients
You need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the PDF file. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, download the program at http://get.adobe.com/reader(link is external). People with visual disabilities can download tools and information at http://www.adobe.com/accessibility(link is external) to help make Adobe PDF files accessible.