The new Circle of Excellence Award is the CPCU Society's program to recognize chapters and sections for their work to promote visibility and professionalism. Learn about the criteria for the award by going directly to this section of the Society's web page.

At this web site you can learn about the new eight-part CPCU program and all of the courses the Institutes have to offer. Sign up for one of the Focus Series online packages for state insurance license CE credits or check out the current reports from the Insurance Research Council, a division of the Institutes. You can even join an online forum for instructors and students or learn about the new "SMART" study aids.

Go online to review the 2002 National Auto Insurance Study based on 15,619 responses from auto insurance policyholders who reside in the United States.

ASQ provides information on speakers (e.g., Dr. Joseph Juran, Dr. Philip Crosby and Dr. Armand Feigenbaum), publications and the annual Quality Congress and Exposition. It includes information on Six Sigma which is "a high performance, data-driven approach to analyzing the root causes of business problems and solving them. It ties the output of a business directly to the requirements of the marketplace." Free downloads.

This is a nonprofit organization focused on best practices, benchmarking and knowledge management. International Benchmarking Clearinghouse.

This international nonprofit membership association is dedicated to improving workplaces through quality and participation practices. It provides two basic tools to initiate operational change: Information and Training.

This is a branch of the Insurance Institute of America (IIA). CPII's Guiding Stars project analyzes and documents the performance improvement initiatives of several high-functioning, customer-oriented organizations in insurance and risk management.

The Center seeks to capture experiences and ideas that may be useful to others working to create customer-driven, continuously improving organizations.

This site provides links to hundreds of other insurance web sites.

This site is maintained by graduate students for use by business professionals, worldwide. FreeQuality provides a wide variety of quality-improvement information and tools.

Insurance consumers can find information about insurance.

John C. Maxwell's free leadership e-newsletter.

This is a management consulting firm specializing in insurance, health care and banking industries and which helps "clients achieve measurable improvements in service, quality, productivity and cost."

IIAA offers this web site for research, classes, experts and more.

According to this site, it offers "Your practical and reliable source for Risk Management and Insurance information." It currently boasts over 400 risk management articles.

This international organization provides a resource for contingency planning. It also offers a certification program for business continuity and disaster recovery planners.

This is reported to be a constantly updated, vast archive of published articles (starting in 1998) on business, health, entertainment, sports, and more, gleaned from more than 300 magazines and journals. Unlike other online article collections, all of these can be read in their entirely and printed at no cost.

This site provides numerous articles on customer service and other quality related topics written by Shep Hyken. You can also sign up for his e-newsletter.

Jim Allen is a professional life coach, writer and speaker. This site provides numerous articles of interest to all insurance professionals.

Looking for a good way to prevent a gazillion results to your Web search? This tutorial from the University of South Carolina's Beaufort Library will step you through what you need to know about Web searches, from how they work to how you can accomplish meaningful results.