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ISA Automation Week Rises from the Grave! #pauto #isaautoweek @ISA

Submitted by waltboyes on Mon, 02/04/2013 - 17:46.

After two years that could best be called "lackluster" it was said that ISA Automation Week was dead. Apparently, not dead enough. The money-losing event has risen from its grave, with Paul Galeski of Maverick Technologies as the program Chair, joining Greg McMillan and Peter Martin as notables who couldn't make the conference work and pay for itself.

Color me surprised. I thought that the new ISA leadership had put a stake in it.

Ya gotta ask yourself, what is the purpose of the conference? What does it do that other meetings, including vendor-sponsored user groups, don't already do?

ISA does a great job of putting on smaller, focused conferences. What would happen if they applied the significant amount of money they spend on Automation Week to beefing up those instead?

Automation Week is one of the two great bleeding sores (The Automation Federation is the other) that keeps ISA mired in its past. The amount of money ISA spends on both activities is not published, so I can't tell you how much they are wasting and not putting toward service to their members in ways the membership obviously wants to be served, but it is not small.

If ISA were ever to enter the 21st Century, what would it be? 

ISA Automation Week

Submitted by Paul Galeski on Sat, 02/09/2013 - 15:04.


Walt, I can’t speak for either Greg or Peter,
but from my perspective I am quite surprised at and disappointed in your
comments. First I don’t understand why you feel there is an advantage in destroying
the credibility of ISA, our industry standard bearer that among other
priorities, is working to gain recognition for the automation profession at
unprecedented levels. Our world needs a thriving ISA, period. And that’s
exactly what we are going to continue to make happen, regardless of naysayers
and doubters, but the negative energy certainly slows the progress we can make
and you can play an important role in being a positive influence and flag
bearer. The professionals at ISA are in the front of the automation boat rowing
their hearts out. In my view, there is no place for people sitting in the back
drilling holes in the very boat they themselves are riding in, while at the
same time getting in the way of those trying to do the right thing for the Society.

For reference, allow me to provide one of my
favorite quotes:


"It is
not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of
deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no
effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the
great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best,
knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if
he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never
be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”   Teddy Roosevelt


My request of you is simple Walt, either provide
constructive input and fresh ideas to help make ISA the best it can be, or
leave those of us alone who are working hard to make for a better and thriving
society. Regardless of which of those paths you choose, we all will be better
off.  In summary, I suggest that you
follow the advice of Thomas Payne to “Either lead, follow or get out of the
way” and not hinder the dedicated professionals who are strive daily to do the
right thing by our industry.


For the sake of completeness, I have taken the
liberty to provide a few of your own comments about ISA Automation Week below. As
you yourself clearly state in your post, ISA is heading in the right direction.

#isautowk ISA Automation Week Rebounds from Last Year's Disaster
#pauto #isa

Submitted by waltboyes on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 16:25.

Under the guidance and leadership of Process Automation
Hall of Fame inductee and Control
columnist Greg McMillan, the volunteers put together eight tracks of very high
level papers and presentations.


Way
better job, ISA.


Next
year's chair will be Peter Martin of Invensys, who will have a really hard act
to follow. Greg McMillan and his team put together an excellent symposium.


In closing Walt, I look forward to seeing you and many
hundreds of other automation professionals in Nashville at ISA Automation Week the first
week of November. We are planning a break through event, I would hate for you
to miss out on the “Future of Automation: Today”.


Paul J. Galeski, P.E.,CAP

With all due respect, Paul...

Submitted by waltboyes on Sat, 02/09/2013 - 16:32.

I frankly am getting tired of ISA and ISA supporters somehow believing that no one should be allowed to criticize ISA. 

I have been providing constructive criticism since I was on the Executive Board over a decade ago.

And what I get is people saying that the folks that run ISA are the only ones who know what we should do to further the cause of automation.

Frankly, the people who are drilling holes in the boat are the ones who blindly keep trying to push the same old ISA rock up hill another time.

ISA could be the spokesorganization for the automation profession. But they aren't and they haven't been for a long time.

The facts speak for themselves.

ISA has fewer than 0.05% of automation workers globally as members.

ISA has been flailing around trying to find a value proposition since the mid-1990s.

ISA has a median age of members that is fast approaching retirement.

Most asset-owner companies do not think ISA is worth reimbursing their employees for. Your company is a sterling example of those few who do. Thank you. And the Saint Louis Section is one of the few that is still effective. Again, thank you for your support.

ISA training is disrespected and outmoded, and a little company from Australia provides the global automation training that ISA appears not to  be able to. Steve MacKay by himself is more important to the continuation of the automation profession than ISA is. 

ISA does one thing and only one thing well. They have a history, a long and storied history, of producing niche, targeted symposia like the Analysis Division Symposium, or the Marketing and Sales Summit (which I have co-chaired since its inception after more than 10 years of fighting to get ISA to allow us to do it at all).

They have a very poor history over the past 20 years of running major events like Expo with an associated show.

ISA Brazil had a bigger show/symposium last year than Automation Week. So did the Edmonton Section.

Greg did put on a fine program, and nearly ruined his health doing it.

Peter put on a fine program, and lost a bunchaton of money at it.

The old guard leadership, and the new guard that thinks just like the old guard just cannot face reality.

So we get people who are unhappy when somebody points to the Emperor's jockey shorts and snickers a little.

I have been trying to get ISA to come into the 21st century for so long I have rope burns from pulling.

Do not, please, suggest that I have not been working on behalf of ISA.

I continue to co-chair a successful symposium. Because what we are doing is working. Yet every year we face a fight because we, after ISA extracts its completely unaudited charged overhead, lose money.

I continue to work at the local section level. The Will-DuPage Section, where I have been on the program committee for the past eight years, is thriving, just like the Saint Louis Section, into which I have just moved.

I cannot work at the national ISA level or at the global (what there is of it) level because ISA threatened to sue me when I went to work at Control. ISA leadership says they don't have any record of it, but I do, and I don't propose to do anything that will get me sued.

I even worked with the Automation Federation for a couple of years, even though I question the complete idea of having ISA, which is supposedly the International Society of Automation, needing to own another organization (and completely fund it) to be the voice of Automation.

It is sad that ISA seems unable, totally, to take any criticism. You all ask for constructive criticism but after you get it you ignore it and demonize the critic. 

That's not a viable growth strategy.

 

I, too, was surprised. Paul

Submitted by Gary Mintchell on Tue, 02/05/2013 - 01:09.

I, too, was surprised. Paul is a system integrator who just spent a lot of money with ISA. I don't know what he stands to gain. Will anyone be there?

Yes, I long for the good old days of a vibrant ISA. But member interest just doesn't seem to be there. By the way, check the date for the big Brazil ISA event. 

Rises from the Grave

Submitted by CarlHenning on Mon, 02/04/2013 - 17:53.

Rises from the grave as zombie, not savior.

Please, ISA, let the dead stay dead.