This guest post comes from Dan Burrows, an engineer with expertise in quality and reliability. Dan has been an advocate for restoring the American Society for Quality (ASQ). His efforts have gotten him blacklisted and banned, of course. The article was originally published on LinkedIn, here, and is reposted with permission.
As ASQ’s World Conference on Quality & Improvement kicks off this week, amongst all the glitz, ASQ Members should be shocked at how much ASQ has declined since a self-serving ASQ HQ and ASQ Board forced ASQ Transformation on the society. ASQ has declined from its peak of over 150,000 members to now less than 30,000 dues-paying members. And ASQ’s finances have been in a steady freefall, losing millions of dollars a year with this year expected to lose $8M. ASQ will likely be insolvent in a few short years.
You will see glitzy displays and hear speeches about how great ASQ is doing, and all praise to ASQ’s dear leaders. What you will not see or hear is the truth about ASQ. Since ASQ first changed its certificate of incorporation in 1997, allowing Board members and other insiders to make money off ASQ, the society transformed from being a professional society for the betterment of the practice of quality to being a vehicle for insiders to stuff money in their pockets. Added to this was ASQ Transformation in 2018 when the ASQ Board consolidated power and funds to ASQ HQ. And then ASQ did not even try to hide the fact that it is now simply a vehicle for profiteering with the creation of ASQConnEx whereby ASQ steers consulting gigs to insiders for a cut of the action. Recently, to cover ASQ’s losses, the ASQ Board has suspended dues payments to Sections and Divisions, and it appears that they are preparing to consolidate millions of dollars in Section and Division reserve funds into ASQ HQ accounts to essentially rob from Sections and Divisions to continue to enable ASQ HQ overspending.
As the ASQ Board and ASQ HQ executives parade around in Orlando this week and crow about ASQ’s success, what they won’t tell you is that ASQ is bleeding members and money at an alarming rate. They won’t tell you that they have been stuffing money in their pocket (Sid Bhatnager makes over $500K per year as CEO and 15 other executives at ASQ HQ make over $100K each) and not reporting excess benefits to current and past board members in ASQ’s IRS Form 990 filings (2026 WCQI will feature Grace Duffy and Jochen Amelsberg who have both served in ASQ leadership and both pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars off ASQ while ASQ continues to check “No” on IRS Form 990 Part IV questions 25a and 25b where ASQ is required to disclose paying excess benefit transactions for the current or prior years to anyone who has served in a leadership position). They will tell you that 2025 was a great year for ASQ (losing $4M and 5,000 members?) and that 2026 will be even better (for their pockets).
What they won’t tell you is that their greed has put ASQ in a freefall, and it is the Sections, Divisions, and Members of ASQ who will have to pay for their greed.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
