In the face of 30% declining revenues The International Society of Automation
(ISA) announced several major cutbacks during the recent Houston Expo in the
first week of October:
- The annual Expo (long been forecasted to decline) has now been canceled.
Next year there will be Automation Week, which is primarily a Conference, and an
adjunct table-top show (equivalent to a local Houston-section regional show).
Entry-fee will be $950; I predict it will be a flop (less than 100 paying
attendees).
- The staff of about 75 at ISA HQ in N. Carolina has been cut by 30% - several
valuable long-term employees were let go.
- The flagship InTech monthly magazine is reduced to 6 issues a year. It
remains unclear how the content will be generated and where it will be produced
and published.
- The thrice-weekly InTech eNews, a good money-maker, is now outsourced to
Automation.com, based in Minnesota; they got the valuable ISA email list of
75,000 names.
I refer you to articles I've been writing over the past
several years - tolling the ISA bell (web links below).
After the layoffs and cutbacks were announced, Jerry Cockrell, current
Society President, an academic from Indiana State University, wrote a long
letter to all volunteer leaders praising their efforts. It starts, "Today is the
first day of the rest of our lives." Huh? I read and re-read the letter.
Frankly, beyond stroking everyone, all he said was mush - purely political
praise and panegyric from an outgoing, symbolic figurehead.
ISA needs a revolution. The problem is: Any radical change would need the
approval by all-volunteer voting board members. They simply engage in endless
discussions and eventually, too late, come up with a compromise extension of
past ineffectiveness.
During the past several days, I've has too-long discussions with many ISA
members, office-holders, past-presidents - all colleagues and long-time friends
- which left me conflicted. I also received an email from Glen Harvey, former
ISA Executive Director for more than 20 years. I've published his comments as
eFeedback (below).
I never criticize without offering solutions. I have offered several
solutions in the past (see web links below) but they were criticized as
adversarial and analyzed into oblivion.
My column in the November 2009 issue of Automation World represents my
latest, friendly suggestions and recommendations. After it has been published
(mid-November) I'll provide a summary and a web-link in the next eNews.
As an ISA member for 40 years, and a Fellow since 1992, I have done my best
for the Society to succeed, and wish it well.
