Tuesday, November 1, 2011

How useless is ISA? Almost a year between posts!

Saturday, September 10, 2011 - From - UOP:

When you attend the local ISA meetings you get swamped by sales people. Very little in the way of actual Instrumentation or Control information being passed. My time in the ISA was spent trying to dodge all the sales people. I finally just quit attending, then just quit the ISA.

Friday, November 19, 2010 - Joseph Kaulfersch [jkaulfersch@us.pepperl-fuchs.com]:

I came across this article forwarded through a friend today:

So You Want to Be a Coal-fired Power Plant Engineer?

Roger Zawodniak has written a great article in Power Engineering. He really hits the nail on the head about the problems we are seeing in our industry and in our society: ISA. It got me thinking: So You Want To Be An Engineer In The Process Industry?

First let me tell you I have been a dedicated ISA Senior member for 28 years and I know I come across some times as a curmudgeon ("Nay Sayer"). Okay, guilty! That's because I have great concerns for our profession and the ISA. I see the organization aging very quickly. Look at the demographics. The average ISA member is 57 years old. That means in about ten years most of us are not going to be in the work force. The membership has been dropping for the last ten years. Forget about the last two years. I worry about the next generation of engineers/technicians and how they are going to get the experience to run chemical plants, power plants, paper mills, pharma plants, etc. without getting killed on the job. In the last few years we have lost hundreds of our fellow professionals. They were just doing their jobs making a living. Our children see this news on TV. They don't want to do these jobs any more. In addition, in the future who is going to fix your toilet, repair your refrigerator, build that cabinet in your kitchen? Who will be able to commission that refinery and calibrate that d/P cell on that distillation column?

In that same vein, how are we going to get young engineers and technicians to join and stay with ISA? We have to come up with a value and mission statement that will attract the generation X and Y professionals group. Today it's not cool to work in manufacturing. Personally I love to walk into a power plant, steel mill. or refinery. Large rotating noisy equipment that is controlled by instrumentation is amazing to me. Trying to train a young engineer on a thirty year old DCS that is obsolete (75%-80% of them are) is a hard thing to do. The youngster says, "I spent five years in college working on surface mounted technology to work on this old piece of junk?" I quit! I have seen it and I have heard it.

I don't have the answers, but ISA has to make itself more attractive to the next generation of technical people. Management of the companies we work for are going to have to pay and treat people like they are important. It's up to us individually to sell ourselves as professionals and that we are important to the bottom line of the enterprise. Not just a neccesary evil. I've heard management use those exact terms. It irks me. Somewhere in those words we have a responsibility to invest in our selves and ISA can be an integral part to that solution. I really believe that! We are better together.

Let's be frank. I know we have a small band of dedicated volunteer leaders in ISA who have ISA's and the profession's best interest in mind. They do 90% of the work. They are all good people. Without a doubt. I consider all of you my friends, if that's ok with you. However, there are not enough of them and some of our volunteers need to get out of the way of those trying to help.

Stop! I don't want to insult anyone or hurt anyone's feelings. In other words, know where your talents are and help in an area you have knowledge in and volunteer in an area that you love to do. Some in higher positions do not belong there. You all know who you are. Every man has to know his limitations. (Dirty Harry) Please take this as constructive criticism. Don't be a #5 Engineer.

Please read Rodger's Article in the link I have provided (above) to see who that #5 engineer is.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - from Chris Alexander PE CSE [c.alexanderpe@yahoo.com]:

I recently let my membership expire with ISA because I could not see the $100 value of the membership fee. I initially joined to have access to the ISA materials for the PE exam and got my moneys worth that year. While I appreciate the ISA as a source of technical material, I can often go to Amazon or other on-line book stores for the same content. As for current technical automation publications, there are several availabel on-line and in-print for free.

My Question comes down to what do I get for $100 and I asked this same question of ISA when they e-mailed me to ask why I have not renewed my Membership. This question must have fallen on deaf ears, or touched a nerve, because I never recieved a reply back.

I have also considered the CAP program. But, as I talk to other automation professionals I am not finding many that have heard of it and those that have don't fully appreciate what it represents. I agree that a free or reduced fee of @$25 a year may be more in line and with a broader base of members if the certifications would actually mean something.

Just my 2 cents.

Friday, October 29, 2010 - from Eoin Ó Riain [readout@iol.ie]:

I don't agree with everything that has been said here by Jim. I do not think that the Automation Week was an outright failure or flop. But then neither do I believe it was anything like an outstanding success.

In my opinion there were many things wrong with it: The venue itself was not suitable, the fact that the exhibition was not "open", no easy Internet access, poor press facilities, the build-up publicity was alarmingly slow , etc. However I do believe that these, and other flaws are understood by the powers that be. Like many, I was afraid that this event would be a total failure, a flop; but in my opinion it was not that.

But I do believe that unless something is done to address the problems encountered by ISA itself, and the "customer" at Automation Week in 2011, it would be better not to hold the event at all. From what I have seen, those who were not there, (like you, Jim Pinto) have produced totally negative reports. Those who were, and who wrote about it, with the possible exception of ProfiBlog, Ian Verhappen, Greg McMillan one or two contributors to the ISA LinkedIn and myself, while not euphoric were not entirely dismissive. Indeed the much maligned post-event wrap-up release from ISA does admit that, "There are quite a few areas where we can improve our format and our execution," and promises, "We will."

It must be clearly defined who is responsible for what, when and how and then the whole society must hold those to book if there are shortcomings.

The problems of ISA itself are, of course, more deep and more costly to address both in money terms and in terms of changes of attitude and functions. This has been highlighted by the economic woes of the past three years which have impacted on us all. But in fact, I believe they are not caused by this economic downturn rather they may be said to be caused by the advancement of the use of the Internet which has created a revolutionary new paradigm the like of which we have really never seen in generations, perhaps centuries.

I know that some of the ISA leaders and staff are reading or have read, "The Competition Within - How Members Will Reinvent Associations", a slim volume published last year (look it up on Amazon). Here there are examples of successes and failures and descriptions of scenarios some of which are not 100 miles from what many critics of ISA describe. It also addresses the issue of American organisation and how the relationship with members and potential members outside of the US are or are not handled. This has been a pet hobbyhorse of mine for the past thirty years.

The real trouble is that these things seem to take so much time, and unless the leaders are fully behind this, the staff cannot be expected to run with it. Sometimes it appears that they appear to be like rabbits caught in the headlights, frozen with fear. That is very understandable. The task ahead IS daunting. As Glenn Harvey (Hello Glenn!) points out, there are reserves there which enable ISA "to let this debacle continue for several years." Am I naive to think in another way? "There are reserves which enable ISA to climb out into this brave new world!"

The ISA is not unlike a country and the way it is governed. The great strength of ISA, its democratic way of doing things, is also its greatest weakness. Things move at a snail's pace while, the members and potential members move at 299,792,458 m/s. What is the result? A need for change the like of which it is hard to imagine. Yes! ISA has to embrace this "new thing," this "new way."

This has fearful consequences. If ISA embraces this approach, and I believe they must, they don’t have to just change the website — they are going to have to change everything about the organisation: Its mission, its structure, its decision making!

Terrifying yet neccessary.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

From Glenn Harvey [glennharvey@charter.net], former ISA Executive Director (20 years) now retired:

Jim:

I just read your Oct 21 comment on ISA. The Houston results, which I saw for the first time, were worse than I expected.

With much regret, I believe that you are right on target both on your prediction of ISA's future and the root cause. Unfortunately, I cannot see any resolution to the two-headed problem you cited. The leaders and the management are mutually supportive of each other. Changing one without changing the other won't solve the problem and there is no way to make a clean sweep of the volunteer eadership. Some of those folks have been standing in line and kissing frogs for 20+ years to get into a leadership role and they won't give it up for any reason short of death (their death, not ISA's).

ISA's financial reserves are sufficient to let this debacle continue for several years. The leadership is not going to close the doors and give the reserves to a deserving 501(c)(3) organization (the only way assets can be distributed); they will continue to flush it down the drain until the last dollar has been wasted.

Glenn

Extract from: JimPinto.com eNews 21 October, 2010

Automation Week was the culmination of futile fumbling by a host of well-meaning volunteers, and clear confirmation that volunteer leadership is not competent to proceed. They must either change their thinking, or membership will simply wither away. The large sections (Will-Dupage IL, Cleveland, Houston, Boston, Northern California) are becoming increasingly independent because of the neglect from ISA HQ and will almost certainly look at re-organizing to become independent.

A change in leadership must be achieved within a legal framework which is rigid, tedious, and time consuming. The executive director must take on the role of actively attempting to force new leadership infrastructures, to face up to the immediate responsibility to place ISA on life support, and plan for the emergency surgery needed for a decent long-term chance at continued existence - perhaps as part of a similar engineering society.

If something major does not happen, decline will not be a steady reduction in membership numbers and operating revenue. Once a critical threshold is passed, that decline will come suddenly. Sad to say, that threshold is very, very close....

Soon, there will not be other local sections or collective groups of individuals making more pleas for change. Only indifference will remain. Nothing survives indifference. Nothing.

(Click)JimPinto.com eNews - 21 Oct. 2010