See July Meeting Highlights Below!

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Daniel Sloan's Book

A couple of months ago we had a wonderful presentation on Six Sigma by Daniel Sloan. He now has his book, "Executive Six Sigma - How to Use The Profit Strategy and Tools", available on line for FREE. This book compliments the talk that Daniel gave to the EMA membership. We hope you enjoy this EMA perk!
Click HERE for our link to Daniel's book.

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President's Message

by John Spadafora

      Welcome to the EMA site! The EMA hopes that you find this site to be helpful in getting information regarding upcoming meetings, speaker profiles, links or member contact information. We try to keep the website up-to-date and to add as much useful information as possible. If there is any information that you think will enhance our site please let us know.

      I also want to take this opportunity to thank the EMA board members for their vote of confidence in electing me as President for a second year. I look forward to a year of growth for the association. This year we will focus on your feedback regarding topics for upcoming meetings. At the January meeting we will be distributing an interest sheet to get your ideas and interests.

      A second, more personal, focus for this year is on networking. Last year ended with a lot of our members finding themselves without work. I truly believe that the EMA can support those members by providing a forum to exchange information and potential job opportunities. Several members have already expressed an interest in using our website to help enhance the networking opportunities.

      Once again, I look forward to the upcoming year and wish all the best to all of our members and non-members who support our organization and share similar interests.

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WEB Site Banners

Do you or your company have a web site? How about placing an EMA banner on it to show support for the organization. You can download the HTML for one of our banners at www.ema-wa.org/banners.htm. Just paste it into your HTML document and you'll proudly show that you support the Electronics Manufacturers Association.
Thank You!

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Another Sponsorship Opportunity

EMA is now accepting Meeting Refreshments Sponsors! The calendar for 2002 is already filling up. If your company is interested in sponsoring the pizza and sodas for one of our meetings, please give us a call and we will give you the details. It's first come, first served, so don't wait! You can reach us at 425-557-2481 or ema@ema-wa.org.

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Marketing Opportunities

EMA is now offering marketing opportunities on our web site! As a sponsor, we will place your company's message on our most highly visible web pages. It's an affordable way to advertise and support EMA.

Call our offices at 425-557-2481 or email ema@ema-wa.org.

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July Meeting Review

by Ken Bloomquist
General Dynamics

      Suppose you were going to have an electronics meeting on a beautiful summer Tuesday night in Canyon Park, discussing some Six Sigma quality stuff. Do you think anyone would show up? Okay, let's say the meeting was going to be at SonoSite with Daniel Sloan as the guest speaker? Would you believe over100 people thought it was a good idea? Well they did!
      The July EMA meeting was held SonoSite's very nice facility. We saw a lot of new faces as well as many regulars. The meeting started promptly at 6:00 after some great Teriyaki chicken and beef.
      Paul Jantzen, EMA Treasurer, gave a brief presentation on the upcoming Northcon Convention. It will be held this year in Bellevue at the Meydenbauer Convention Center. The dates are October 23 and 24 for the trade show and convention and October 22, 23 and 24 for the technical papers. If you haven't sent in your registration, please do so. Just go to www.northcon.org and fill out the online registration. Be sure to check that you were referred by EMA.
      Ken Bloomquist, EMA Secretary, pointed out some of the features of the EMA web site, such as the want ads for equipment and job line. He also discussed the advantages of signing up for the EMA list server. If you haven't done so, now would be a great time. Just click HERE and fill out the little application.
      John Spadafora, EMA President, introduced Daniel Sloan, the guest speaker for the evening. Dan gave a rousing talk entitled "Executive Six Sigma - How to Use The Six Sigma Profit Strategy and Tools". This presentation was a reinforcement of the talk he gave at an EMA meeting three years ago. He stated that what was true then is still true today, only with more history to prove the science of six sigma. He put a lot of emphasis on getting the financial people of your company on board the six sigma train.
      It's been true for many years that if you do not have the support of top management, then the efforts will not yield maximum results. He also reminded us that these techniques have been around since the early 1900's. One quote that he used was that with these tools ,we should have "rapid, overnight improvement" (1931).
      Daniel has a terrific web site with lots of resources. Be sure to check it out at www.danielsloan.com. If you would like to view his Power Point presentation, you can down load it HERE.
      After a hearty round of applause, Richard Gaevert of SonoSite was introduced. He gave us a brief overview of their history and product line, which was very interesting. You can read all about their history, products and career opportunities at www.sonosite.com/career.html.
      Richard's talk was followed by a tour of their very clean and nicely laid out manufacturing facility. Keeping in line with many of the manufacturing companies in the area, they are farming out their chores and keeping their cores (competency).
      Be sure to make plans for the next EMA meeting scheduled for September 10th at Medtronic, Physio Control.

Remember that the EMA is always looking for companies to host our meetings. If your company would like the prestige and recognition that comes with hosting our membership meeting, please contact us at ema@ema-wa.org.

Previous Meeting Summaries

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