Message from Dianna L. Noyes, ISA Administrator, Section and District Services

Date: 12-14 June 2010
Location: Summerlin, Nevada (Las Vegas).
Meeting Registration, Meeting Schedule, and Hotel Information: Click here. Please note that 21 May 2010 is the deadline to register.

The SLM will provide you with many tools you need to be a successful leader. Here are a few highlights of what to expect:

The ISA and the Web session, which includes information on using social media, has been expanded to three hours because of its popularity. Presenters Jon DiPietro and Shari Worthington will be back this year with more information to keep you up-to-date on how to use the web and other electronic media. These media can help you keep in contact with your Members, recruit new Members and leaders, and find new ways to grow your ISA Section.

The Section Leaders Roundtable, with Brad Rupert as facilitator, will surely have some lively discussions as participants share their successes and lessons they’ve learned. Programs, presentations, and promotions are just some of the topics to be shared in this pool of knowledge and experience.

Learn about ISA—the Society, the different technical Divisions, the benefits of membership, etc.—and your role and responsibilities as a leader. Presenters Peggie Koon, William Stange, and Joe Provenzano will lead the discussions about some of the key challenges and opportunities you might face as a leader. In addition, they and other presenters will share their personal experiences within the Society.

Come, join your fellow leaders for an enjoyable and interesting Spring Leaders Meeting. A great program has been prepared for you. Bring your questions, share your experiences, and get re-charged for the year. I look forward to seeing you!

What if ISA had someone like (just to pick a name) Maggie Walker, Dow’s  VP for Manufacturing and engineering work processes, consider running for president because the time commitment was manageable, i.e. more like two years. Could this have some positive benefits or would there be too much risk with not be familiar enough with ISA operations and culture?  Since ISA already has a CEO (Pat Gouhin) to run “the business”, could the presidential role could be more of chief promoter and visionary? 

Failing that – or maybe in addition – there could be a plus to have a higher level industry appointee on the Executive Committee or Executive Board –maybe for a two year term. Think about some people like John Berra (Emerson Process Management), Norm Gilsdorf (Honeywell), or Uma Chowdry (DuPont).  They would provide a good, outside perspective and perhaps challenge some of the status quo.  

Another possible piece is that the Strategic Planning Department needs more continuity, with terms in the 3 – 5 years range to provide guidance to both the ISA CEO and President. That committee might include Past Presidents & officers as well as a healthy dose of other perspectives to ensure zero groupthink.

Page 39 of the Exceutive Board MOP details the duties of the society President  (http://preview.tinyurl.com/yfgwb96)

Comments or other ideas?

Times have obviously changed.  Are there any comments or recommendations if the CSD is still the best model?

Council of Society Delegates

• Highest ISA governing body.
• Controls policies of the Society through its powers to nominate and elect Officers, to amend the Bylaws, and to review the annual reports of Officers
• Representation is one delegate from each active ISA Section.

Society Delegates

• Serves as the Sections official representative to the Council.
• Elected or appointed, according to the Section’s Bylaws.
• Term is typically one year and Delegates may serve consecutive terms.

Council of Society Delegates Meeting

• Held annually in conjunction with the Society Annual Meeting.
• Comprised of two sessions
  • First Session — Individual meetings of District Councils to receive and review District Vice President’s Annual Report, elect District officers, and verifiy Delegates for Council of Society Delegates meeting.
  • Second Session — Council of Society Delegates Meeting to receive report of Society Nominating Committee, elect officers, amend Bylaws.

Additional details are available in the ISA Manual of Organization and Procedures

ISA Strategic Plan

Automation is the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production of goods and services.

The ISA Vision is to work in partnership with members, customers, and subject matter experts to disseminate the highest quality, unbiased automation information worldwide.

The ISA Mission is to become the standard for automation globally by certifying industry professionals; providing education and training; publishing books and technical articles; hosting conferences and exhibitions for automation professionals; and developing standards for industry.

The ISA Strategic Goals are to:

• Attract and retain as members and customers, professionals in the field of automation worldwide.
• Develop globally recognized standards for the automation community.
• Serve students, professionals, and industry via career awareness, continuing education, scholarships, certifications, and other programs.
• Deliver valued information resources via publications, conferences, and exhibits.
• Provide the financial resources to assure long-term financial stability.

There is one other page called Values which is also included in the Strategic Plan section of the website. This lists ten basic values for our Society, the values which guide our Executive Board, and our many committees in their deliberations and by which the “ordinary” members and the Automation community may judge us.

Here they are:

Values

1. Member/customer focused
   • Meet all requirements.
   • Exceed expectations where possible.
   • Provide maximum value to ISA members and all other customers.
2. Flexible
   • Do what works.
   • Be adaptable and open to change.
   • Be proactive in responding to changing market conditions.
3. Responsive
   • Meet all schedule commitments.
   • Do what the customer asks; meet his/her needs.
   • Be decisive; take action quickly.
   • Be alert to changing needs.
4. Ethical
   • Conduct all business consistent with the ISA Code of Ethics.
   • Conduct all communications in an open and honest manner.
5. Innovative
   • Be creative and clever; value the new and different.
   • Accomplish all things in a superior way.
   • Take calculated risks.
   • Continuously seek better ways to achieve goals and objectives.
6. Technical leadership
   • Assure that the Society and its members are at the forefront of new technology developments and their application.
   • Utilize the full range of available communications technologies in Society operations.
   • Be the technical resource of choice for instrumentation, systems, and automation. professionals.
7. Inclusive
   • Value diversity (gender, culture, technical, industry, job function).
   • Serve the full range of technical and business interests on a global basis.
   • Seek and value collaboration and partnerships.
8. Collaborative
   • Utilize collaboration and partnership as the fundamental way for staff and volunteers to work together, and for ISA to work with other organizations.
   • Recognize the contributions of individuals, but value the quality of the collective decisions and end results.
9. Mutuality of benefit
   • Assure a win/win in all relationships: parties should benefit fairly and proportionately from decisions, actions, and agreements.
   • Strive for mutual respect (members, staff, customers, partners).
10. Fiscally responsible
    • Provide the resources needed to accomplish the society’s goals and objectives.
    • Assure the financial health of the society.
    • Seek opportunities to increase financial strength of Society.

The most striking is the paucity of comments from our elected leaders out in front.

I suspect there are as many definitions of leadership as there are leaders. Here’s one “Leadership is about setting and not just reacting to agendas, identifying problems, and initiating change that makes for substantive improvement rather than managing change.” (Ann Marie E. McSwain:Lincoln University MO US.)

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) The following leader!

A great leader in Imperial Britain, Benjamin Disraeli is said to have remarked once: “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?”

Who?
The senior governing body of ISA is the Executive Board, which is composed of the Society President, President-elect Secretary, Past-President, Treasurer, and twelve Vice Presidents chosen by two subordinate boards to represent all interest areas of the Society. The Board of District Vice Presidents selects six Members of its members, and the Board of Department Vice Presidents selects six members to serve on the ISA Executive Board. These are the people with responsibility the continuance of our society, entrusted by us constitutionally with this task. They are without exception truly representative of our profession.

Here is the incoming Executive Board:
Nelson Ninin
Leo Staples
Jerry Cockrell, CAP
Terry Ives
Stu Affleck
Rick Albrecht
Michael Bovenkamp, P.Eng.,CAP
Marcus Coester
Kevin Dignam
Jose Mattiazzo
Nick Sands, CAP
Bill Stange
Jim Tatera, CSAT
Ian Verhappen, CSAT, CAP
Jim Keaveney (Parliamentarian) and Pat Gouhin (Executive Director) who although they sit on the board do not have voting rights.

How many of these have you seen responding or participating in any of the discussions here? Or on LinkedIn conversations or discussions? Or any other of the blogs discussing where our Society is going? One or two? More? I see some of them are following this on the Facebook page let’s hear more from you guys! I believe you are missing a golden opportunity to participate in the conversation and have your messages heard? We are listening too!

My experience
My own experience has been that where I have made an error of fact, somebody has written to me privately to correct it. Or to point out some action that I did not know about. That is fine in so far as it goes but only in so far as it goes. It ought be handled and faced down, right there where it is stated. If I say (as I did in the Direction article).

“Many others in private like Cleveland, and in public on various blogs and internet-groups, have commented, suggested, cajoled but still the impression given is of a brick wall or worse a soaked sponge!  “I accept what you say, within reason,” but …..”

I expect somebody to reply to the blog, not to me or to the administrator privately, with details of what actions if any were taken. But in fact both I and the admin were contacted privately and the blog “Building and Preserving Association Relevancy” written by Jon DiPietro resulted. However it would have had much more effect to my mind if one of our leaders had posted that with links on where to find the relevant paper on the website. (I still haven’t found it though, thankfully,  Jon, with his inestimably and infinitely more intimate knowledge of the mysteries of the virtual world has been able to upload it as part of this blog entry!). The fact that I and a large number of members did not know of the existance of this paper is, to use an Americanism, a whole new ball game, which will possibly be addressed elsewhere.

Open participation
Now Walt Boyes, has written a response to Direction which starts “This is the reply that I sent to a broadcast email from Doug Rothenberg…” Now unless you were “in” the broadcast group that Doug Rothenberg mailed you really have no idea what that reference is about.

This makes another point for me. These conversations must take place in the clear light of day with full input from everyone who has something to say about it.  Otherwise, I believe there is little or no chance of getting changes through governance and no shot of preserving the Society we love.

Reply
Comments are being made on other blogs too. For instance Keith Campbell asked on Wednesday (16th Dec ’09), “Will ISA take the wrong path again?” He’s asking important questions on the focus of ISA. Has anybody responded? Privately? Maybe, but to all intents and purposes the questions remain unanswered. Unanswered questions or presumptions may tend to become facts.

The right people?
Finally another point which perhaps is overlooked. People are looking to staff to “solve” the problem. That to my mind is not the job of staff. They sometimes recommend but they actually do what we, the members, through our elected leaders, tell them. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to our staff who have seen us through over sixty years. They have suffered more than many of us this last year but we must realise that our Executive Director and our staff cannot solve this problem, only we can.

So to the members I say: Speak constructively!

To the leaders one short sentence: Follow the members, you, are their leaders!

ISA has consistently had good people in management positions. But, as Glenn Harvey stated, there is no innovative thinking. Your other management article said, don’t play for the future by using today as a starting point, because you are only extrapolating; determine what the future should look like, and find the best way to get there.

Unfortunately, the ISA membership is probably the worst group to ask ‘what is the ISA of the future?’ because the bulk of those who are left are ‘status quo’ people. The innovative and progressive have left long ago to find more fitting forums where they can bounce around their ideas.

The paradigm of learning, advertising, marketing has changed in the past 30 years. ISA has not. Why go to the ISA website to find something when a Google search is much quicker?

When was the last time ISA was marketed to the managements of manufacturing or engineering companies? They all know UL, IEEE, AICHE, ASME; but when you mention ISA they get a blank look. This makes discussing S100, S84, and any other standards much more difficult; getting money to attend shows is impossible; training dollars, don’t go there either.

Great strides have been made in recognizing ISA as a standards-writing organization. Unfortunately, the political forces (marketing lobbyists) have cause substantial disruption of the processes. When standards are written by those who support their own interests, the process gets corrupted to the point of irrelevance.

Relevancy Summit E-Book

The member asks!

On the right track?

By Eoin Ó Riain

Over all of this, however, is a very striking thing. A real affection for our society and genuine care and anxiety that we come out of this crisis as a stronger society both for ourselves as members and for the automation profession and discipline as a whole.

First the blame game!

By this I mean the negative comment. “ISA has always been in this business for its own gain, screw the punter and collect the money.” “The books, the courses etc are too expensive and anyway who would buy them etc etc.” “It’s no wonder it is in the situation its in when it treats the member the way it does.” Every effort made by those charged to bring the society forward is attacked and quickly a “them and us” mentality is fostered.

Now the defensive game!

This is seen in many organisations. We can see it in virtually every government in the world. Even in Churches! It is seen for instance in a report I read recently that the current administration in the US is reportadly excluding a television news service from access to the sources of information because they perceive their reporting as inimical to their aims. That may or may not be true but this overt attempt to control the media is no longer possible.

Another one is one that appears to be used on people like Jim Pinto. Now Jim is an articulate, thinking automation person. He is a fellow of the society, he is a published author and a proven entrepreneur. He has published many commentaries and ideas, with some of which I agree, with others I do not. His commentaries are by no means limited to ISA and the reactions of some of the commercial entities who do not like what he says are even more drastic and twentieth and even ninteenth century than ISA’s. Though people hear this kind of criticism it appears they are not listened to. Sometimes the reaction is to deflect criticism and/or suggestions by telling them to “get into the game” and “be a leader.” The implication being “If you feel your idea is good then come in and implement it! – otherwise we will proceed as we are no matter what you say!” I think that that sort of response is disrespectful and worse is stultifying to progress. And we are assured that “…ISA is on the right track.”

Reactions from some of the commercial entities include an instruction not to engage with him at all.

The vibrant Cleveland (OH) section made a wonderful and perceptive presentation to the ISA Executive Board in pre-crash 2006. Were any actions taken? The Cleveland guys think not. It was an interesting meeting, they were thanked and things proceeded on their merry way while membership continued to stagnate. “…ISA is on the right track.”

Many others in private like Cleveland, and in public on various blogs and internet-groups, have commented, suggested, cajoled but still the impression given is of a brick wall or worse a soaked sponge!  “I accept what you say, within reason,” but “…ISA is on the right track!”

The old school is ended!

Up to the last few years it was possible to manipulate, in one way or another, public opinion through control of the means of mass-communication. Many countries still operate “state” radio and television stations for instance. That was true of the old “eastern-bloc” countries in Europe and it worked for about eighty years but it was bound to fail as access to other resources became more and more possible, radio and television stations accross the frontiers. And so it did, spectacularly in 1998 with the downing of the Berlin Wall or the fall of Ceauşescu.

The new school

Remember Tiananmen Square? The orange revolution in Kiev? Indeed I remember myself in the early years of “the troubles”, being in Belfast – this was the early seventies. The two communities of the Shankill and the Falls taken over by elements who set up rival raidio stations. There was a slight problem on a small street (Percy Street) between them and a call went out on the Raidio Stations looking for people to go to the site. Within about 15 minutes two large and hostile crowds had assembled with a bewildered British army presence between them.

More recently the election of the current US president used the “social medis”, really for the first time. But it wasn’t always favourable to the man who won the election but one thing that was noticeable that dissent was not quashed on his campaign cyber-presence platforms. People were engaged and responded where they were!

Nowadays news is instant. Whether it is an earthquake in China, a corrupt election in Iraq, the death of a popstar, or the nomination of a new president-elect secretary, we know about it instantly.

The world has changed!

So how does this effect ISA in its current difficulties?

On occasion I have made comments or responded to comments on various blogs and forums. I have been approached in private to suggest that some of these comments be made “through the established channels!”

But what are these channels? Section meetings? The ideal place is of course the leaders’ meetings. But these are at best three a year. One district Meeting and two “society” meetings, usually in far-away places. I have attended these in Houston, Anaheim, New Orleans, Vancouver, Phiadelphia, Orlando as well as in many Europen venues. Yes, one can learn a lot at these but it requires your presence there!

What are these channels? Lift up a telephone? send an e-mail? To whom? Not everybody has that information. And in any case the reply may answer MY query but what about the other thousand members who may have the same query?

I remember once in the early days of the internet when, at a conference, the speaker asked how many had a website? A few hands went up. Then he asked, “How many of you have your prices on your site?” Nobody had. Why? Mostly because the site owners feared their rivals would get the prices. In fact they forgot that if these people really wanted their prices they would get them whether or not theu were on the website. For me that was one of those great moments of clarity, when I realised that this media was different. Another was when I showed the web to a printer. I could actually feel his fear as he realised the power of this medium and how it might effect his business.

I have been told that the value for discussions such as this on groups such as LinkedIn is limited because the misinformation can quickly generate a negative herd mentality and take on a life of its own. This may be very true but there is a remedy staring us in the face. PARTICIPATE!

When a comment is made on a LinkedIn group which is false, correct it! Not by a private e-mail to person who made the comment but there, in public, where the original comment was made.

How many comments have been made in public that have not been answered? Participate in the debate.

That is not happening to any large extent now. There are a number of places for this to happen and this site is just one more. We have had some excellent talks and debates about the ISA’s web presence for instance. Suggestions have been made that ISA have Ning-like functionality “baked in” for its departments, committees, sections, etc… There are free open source frameworks that would make it easy to provide this functionality. In other words there is little or no cost element.

Some effort has been made to do this but only by the volunteers and not in an integrated way. Image and Membership Department have used it and the Publication Department are also trying to see how they can use systems like this. But really no input from staff (that I can see) other than criticism “as far-from-perfect resource typical of these free systems” or the not invalid “we are too busy.” And of course they are busy, but what with? (As I write this I learn, but through the grapevine, that some attention is being paid to this at RTP, but it is only a rumour but “through usually reliable sources!” A response to this blog would be a usefulw to confirm this?)

Recently they (Senior Officers/Staff) attended the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives leadership forum in Florida.  I never knew there was such a body but then I suppose I don’t need to!  Based on data quoted there from Tecker Consultants and conversations with the other attendees we are assured that “…ISA is on the right track!”. One comment I saw on this said caustically “The ‘Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives Leadership’ forum was attended by people who are all in the same sinking ship.” I suspect that comments with the same general meaning have been voiced by others though maybe less colourfully!

I have emphasised the “web presence” of ISA. Why? Because that is the most visible way of showing, that ISA, as a body, IS up for, and to, the challenge. It is also the least expensive. But I see nothing happening there. Do a Google search for “Automation.” Where is ISA? Down near the bottom of page three (as Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society, a year after the name change!) Search “Instrumentation” and it’s on page two. Am I wrong to expect it not only on page one but at the top of page one?

Incidentally it is very useful to see what other entities (not only other societies) are doing. We have good examples in the leading automation companies. For instance National Instruments have a Community and Social Media Manager (actually they say Geek! She is Deirdre Walsh). Why? Emerson have done a survey on the big (and paradoxical) changes occurring in the automation world and are acting accordingly. (See my own blog last month on conquering-complexity!). I came across an interesting book on the extraordinary changes that are occurring in our world today. Seth Godin in his book “Meatball sundae” talks about the tinkering that many entities are doing. They are missing the big picture. When the penny drops the realisation is truly revolutionary, a paradigm shift:

“So, if we embrace this approach, we don’t have to just change our website – we are going to have to change everything about our organisation. our mission, our structure, our decision making…”

ISA is on the right track? Tell the members how? Show the members how membership benefits them more than non-membership!

Leaders, please engage! Please respond where the members are! Come out from the ivory tower! Lead!

Members, participate! Participate where the leaders can lead!