[A MODEL SET OF]

                      QUALITY COUNCIL OPERATING RULES


The following Council Operating Rules are agreed by all Council
members:

     1. We will meet the first [second, third] Thursday [or some
other day of the week] of each month in the [name the conference
room or office].

     2. No substitutes or alternates will attend in the place of
members.

     3. A quorum exists when more than half [two thirds, three
quarters] of our members are present.

     4. Our meeting agenda will always be quality. Non-quality
issues will not be discussed.

     5. Our decision method is consensus. If one of us is opposed
to a proposal, we will continue to talk until we arrive at a
proposal acceptable to all. The meeting chairperson will ask for
consensus on decisions. Thumb up means  yes;  thumb down means
 no;  thumb sideways means  Well, OK. I can live with that.   The
meeting cannot proceed until all have indicated their preferenc-
es.

     6. Our membership:

     [Fill in the names or position titles of members; include
     the assignment of an executive secretary who may or may not
     be a participating member.]

     7. Our meetings, like all else we do as quality leaders,
will be open in the sense that our minutes will be disseminated
throughout the organization. We may at times invite non-members
to attend and observe our meetings and even participate in them.

     8. At the conclusion of each meeting, we will critique
ourselves.

     9. The chair of the council will (a) be our chief; or (b)
rotate every [month, six months, year] through all the members,
with the exception of the executive secretary. The agenda for
each meeting will be prepared by the incoming or incumbent
chairperson in consultation with all members and will be sent in
writing to all members one week in advance of the meeting. The
chair will provide support services (e.g., typing) from his or
her own support staff.

     10. The executive secretary will keep minutes and publish
them throughout the organization after approval by all members.
Minutes should be published as soon as possible after the meet-
ing, after five working days at the most.

     11. All meetings will be facilitated by [name a professional
non-member facilitator or rotate the responsibility among the
members trained as professional facilitators. Facilitators must
remain neutral and cannot participate in decisions, although they
may facilitate the process.]

     12. We will establish a repository of records for our
minutes, the records of quality improvement teams, and other
quality work. The repository will be maintained by [name a
responsible office].

     13. Most important, both within our meetings and in our
daily work, we will become quality models, living out the princi-
ples we are asking everyone in the organization to practice.

     14. Our Quality Staff [or Quality Coordinator] will be
responsible for helping us with expertise on Total Quality
Management matters and handling administrative matters connected
with our quality work. This staff [or coordinator] will cease to
function when we no longer need their help.


     In addition to these rules of order, we will adhere to the
following principles:

     1. Quality is our first priority. All members will be
expected to attend the meetings and to make all other priorities
secondary except in case of an emergency.

     2. Our meetings will not be interrupted. Phone messages and
drop-in visitors will have to wait. We will adhere to the  100
Mile Rule : No one will be called from our meeting unless the
reason is so important that the disruption would occur even if
the meeting were 100 miles away from the workplace.

     3. We will be one-hatted that is, we will not appear at
meeting to represent our individual constituencies but to work
together as a quality improvement team responsible for the whole
organization. In other words, turf defense has no place in our
meetings.

     4. We will treat each other with respect. We will be prompt,
we will attend all meetings, we will observe common courtesies of
conversation with one another (e.g., no name calling, no inter-
rupting), and we will listen to one another.

     5. As members of the Quality Council, we recognize our
responsibility to act as quality models, both in our individual
behavior and in our group behavior, for everyone in the organiza-
tion to emulate.

[This set of rules should be published once it is agreed upon by
all.]


                                        --Tom Glenn
                                        The TQM BBS
                                        301-585-1164