Each year the Ames Chamber of Commerce presents awards to citizens who are dedicated to improving the city, and two Iowa State faculty members have been honored.

“We give it out every year to a person or team who embodies the mission of ‘Quality Ames,'” said Julie Schlarmann, communications and membership manager for the Ames Chamber of Commerce, 213 Duff Ave.

This year’s recipients are Don Bjelland, who recently retired from ISU’s Facilities Planning and Management department, and Chris Ahoy, associate vice president for Facilities Planning and Management.

They were chosen because of their commitment to seek quality and to discover and perfect different methods to constantly improve it, Schlarmann said.

The winners of the contest are judged in four categories: commitment to continuous quality improvements efforts, demonstration of a formal process improvement model and tools, achievements of significant results that benefit internal and external customers and use of quality principles in the Ames community.

Although Bjelland has retired from ISU, he has not stopped working to improve the city’s quality.

“Don has been active in quality efforts when he worked there and continues to be active in quality efforts in the Ames community and around the country,” Schlarmann said.

Some of Bjelland’s major accomplishments include organizing “Quality Circle” programs and establishing self-directed work teams with ISU custodians.

“They don’t necessarily have a supervisor checking on them,” Bjelland said of the work teams. The custodians decide what needs to be done in certain buildings and then proceed to make sure it gets done, he said.

The second recipient of the award, Ahoy, joined the ISU faculty in March 1997, Schlarmann said.

“He is working to get Facilities Planning and Management more organized,” she said. “He challenges the group to know customers and to create a more diverse and efficient organization.”

Ahoy was nominated for the award by two members of his staff: Mike Hamilton, system analyst for Facilities Planning and Management, and Darla Degroot, secretary for Facilities Planning and Management.

“His style of leading, rather than managing people, has made it possible for all of us at Facilities Planning and Management to become empowered, knowledge-based workers,” Degroot said.

She said this approach allows workers to collect and disseminate information quickly.

“What I have been trying to do is to create knowledge-based workers, people who understand what they need to do without bosses telling them,” Ahoy said.

He said employees also need to understand what roles everyone plays within the whole system. This has been especially tough because people don’t want to do co-worker’s jobs, yet learn by doing other people’s processes, Ahoy said.

“We have been doing things right for a long time, but are we really doing the right thing?” he asked.

The awards were given at Ames Quality Fair on Nov. 3. at the Scheman Building, organized by the Ames Chamber of Commerce Quality Council.