06-7289. Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

AGENCY:

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce.

ACTION:

Notice of closed meeting.

SUMMARY:

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will meet Thursday, September 14, 2006. The Judges Panel is composed of ten members prominent in the field of quality management and appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. The purpose of this meeting is to review the consensus process, select applicants for site visits, determine possible conflict of interest for site visited organizations, begin stage 3 judging process, discuss Judges' survey revisions, review feedback to first stage applicants, a debriefing on the State and Local Workshop and a program update. The applications under review contain trade secrets and proprietary commercial information submitted to the Government in confidence.

DATES:

The meeting will convene September 14, 2006 at 8:15 a.m. and adjourn at 3 p.m. on September 14, 2006. The entire meeting will be closed.

ADDRESSES:

The meeting will be held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Administration Building, Lecture Room D, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Dr. Harry Hertz, Director, National Quality Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, telephone number [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Assistant Secretary for Administration, with the concurrence of the General Counsel, formally determined on December 27, 2005, that the meeting of the Judges Panel will be closed pursuant to Section 10(d) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, as amended by Section 5(c) of the Government in the Sunshine Act, Public Law 94-409. The meeting, which involves examination of Award applicant data from U.S. companies and a discussion of this data as compared to the Award criteria in order to recommend Award recipients, may be closed to the public in accordance with Section 552b(c)(4) of Title 5, United States Code, because the meetings are likely to disclose trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person which is privileged or confidential.

Dated: August 24, 2006.

William Jeffrey,

Director.