As laid down in the Statutes (Constitution), main objectives of HNC are summarized as follows:

• Cooperating with other non-profit organisations of the Hungarian quality experts and conjointly with specialists working at quality institutions to represent the Hungarian national quality community in EOQ and in other international relevant quality organizations.
• Widespread dissemination of quality information obtained from EOQ and other international quality organizations in the national quality community, contributing in this way to the development of quality affairs as well as to the high quality levels of products and services.
• Implementation and running in Hungary of the EOQ Harmonized Scheme for the registration and certification of Hungarian quality experts.

Membership of HNC consists of individual and corporate members (e.g. industrial and service companies, ministries, local authorities, consulting and certifying companies, research and education institutions, hospitals as well as other non-profit organizations and testing laboratories) committed to quality. On 31^rd December, 2004 HNC had appr. 1800 individual members and almost 500 corporate members.

In 1991 HNC was transformed into non-profit organization registered by the Metropolitan Court in early 1992 and legally declared to be a non-profit public-service organization retrospectively to 1^st January 1998.

The Board, Executive and Technical Committees of the HNC organize, coordinate and promote quality activities of the members.

Operation of HNC and its Technical Committees and sections as well as the responsibility and scope of the officers are described with full particulars in the Statutes available to anybody on the homepage and in the Annual Reports of the HNC. In the followings only the most important activities and relations are reviewed.

Supreme organ of HNC is the General (Delegates’) Assembly that should be organised at least once a year. The following most important items fall exclusively within the competence of the General (Delegates’) Assembly:

The 40 members of the Board are elected by the General Assembly through secret ballot.

Main tasks of the Board:

The Board holds its meeting at least twice a year which are convened by the President with a written invitation including the agenda.

The Executive consists of 9 members: the President, the 2 Vice-Presidents, the Executive President and the Executive Secretary as well as 4 members. Chairman of the Supervision Commission is permanently invited to the meetings of the Executive in an advisory (but not voting) capacity.

The Executive is the operative and leading organ of the non-profit organization. Its most important task is to prepare Board meetings and General (Delegates’) Assembly meetings as well as to coordinate exercising the Executive members’ rights and duties. The Executive is chairing by the President who is also the employer and can hand over tasks to the Vice-Presidents, the Executive President and Secretary in written form.

Main tasks of the Executive:

• Managing the organization’s technical and economic activities;
• Supervising technical committees and regional activities;
• Preparing General (Delegates’) Assembly meetings;
• Development of the organization’s mission and vision as well as the annual objectives, tasks and programs;
• Approval of the annual budget;
• Preparing the Public Interest Report and the Annual Report;
• Elaborating proposals for the Board and the General (Delegates’) Assembly.

In general the Executive holds meetings four times a year which are convened by the President with a written invitation including the agenda.

The Supervision Commission of 5 members is the supervisory controlling organ of HNC supervising its operation and economy.

The Ethical Commission operates in line with the Ethical Rules approved by the Board.

Some years ago the European Organization for Quality (EOQ) commenced the certification of quality personnel.

The right of certification is transferred by EOQ to the national Full Member Organizations but only if they meet the accreditation requirements. HNC has this right since 1998.

The Personnel Registration Unit of the HNC was created in 1995 by the Board in order to promote the implementation of the EOQ Harmonized Scheme in Hungary. Based on the MSZ EN 45013:1990 Standard HNC elaborated in October 1995 a Quality Manual related to the registration and certification activities. Since that time the quality system has been continuously kept up-to-date.

On 26^th January, 1998 HNC initiated its accreditation by the EOQ. At its meeting held in Paris on 18^th October, 1998 the EOQ Executive accepted the proposal and delivered the certificate to the HNC for EOQ.

On 22^nd November, 2002 the EOQ General Secretariat prolonged the accreditation of HNC for further 3 years. The accredited EOQ national member organisation may recognize (accept) other institutions as subcontractors and may include them into the training of experts but its responsibility connected with the certification and registration remains unchanged.

As for the complete preservation of its independence and impartiality HNC does not qualifies experts apart from certain special courses (e.g. refreshing courses for the renewal of EOQ certificates), it revises and registrates training centres holding courses which meet the EOQ harmonized requirements. Candidates taking a successful examination under the supervision of HNC may directly ask for the EOQ certificate.

HNC makes possible for every applying person the certification if the candidate meets the requirements drawn up by the EOQ. These requirements are published by HNC in an information bulletin.

During the personnel certification procedure HNC does not raise unjustified financial and other conditions; all measures are applied without any distinction.

The accredited national organizations belonging to the EOQ Certification and Registration Scheme regularly publish the list of the certified and registered experts on the Internet, in their own periodical, and the Annual Report.

The HNC Personnel Registration Unit (HNC PRU) consists of the Certifying Body and the Secretary elected by the Board. In order to avoid partiality, prejudice and incompatibility the candidates are examined by experts recognized in the national quality community. Under the submitted provision the Certifying Body makes decision on the certification.

During its successful activities HNC has delivered more than 1000 certificates of European level to Hungarian experts who completed one of the accepted national courses and took a successful examination or who certified their skills and activities of several years in the given special field by the attachment of the required documents.

Those certified experts, who are members of HNC are also automatically members in the Education and Training Committee in order to discuss with them training topics and current tasks in this field.

The Secretariat operates under the direct supervision of the President of HNC.

Main tasks of the Secretariat:

• Keeping the membership file;
• Preparation and management of professional programs;
• Operative management of the finances;
• Arrangement, recording and administration of the ongoing/outgoing correspondence;
• Accomplishment of the administration.

With the cooperation of external contributors the Secretariat plays an important role in the operative activities of the organization.

Significant part of the technical activities of HNC is performed in its Technical Committees. At present HNC runs 18 Technical Committees which are operating openly, in cooperation with other quality-related non-profit organizations.

The Technical Committees are established on a voluntary basis by the members of HNC who want to operate together in the given professional area.

From among their own members the Technical Committees elect their Chairman, Co-chairman and Secretary for 4 years by an open majority vote. Functional rules and regulations, the main objectives as well as their membership conditions are determined by the Technical Committees themselves within the framework provided by the Statutes.

In addition to the projects listed above HNC is taking part in several other EOQ and EFQM projects as well as in the implementation of the of National Quality Development Program.