The Society Leaders’ BRIEF
Volume 2 Issue 1 – February 2007
Just the Facts
ISA is fortunate to have over 1,200 volunteers working in the various leadership roles available via society units – Sections, Districts, Divisions, Standards – and the society itself. Although dedicated to a particular activity, we are one organization in pursuit of a common objective: serving the membership and industries we represent. To be most effective as a leader, a broad range of information about society happenings is needed. The Society Leaders’ BRIEF, a bi-monthly resource, is intended to draw your attention to the facts that can enable and empower your volunteer service.
What’s Happening….
ISA is busy, which is to be expected when you are vigorously setting the standard for automation. With five core competencies - standards, certification, education and training, publishing, and conferences and exhibits – ISA always has something happening someplace in the world. Your awareness of these key activity areas and how to access general information about them online assures your comfort when ISA questions come up. Even when the topic is not within your primary area of expertise, you can usually find enough at www.isa.org to lead someone in the right direction. If you need assistance, call (919) 549-8411 or email info@isa.org.
As an ISA ambassador, your effectiveness and personal satisfaction with your volunteer work are enhanced by two key characteristics: desire and willingness. Because you have committed to an ISA leadership position, indications are that you have an honest desire to mentor locally so professionals and industry know what ISA has to offer. And because you want to help others by providing good direction, you must have a willingness to learn more about ISA happenings. To feed your desire and willingness, review the information below and tuck it in your information bank for future reference.
Mark Your Calendar
Summer Leaders’ Meeting (SLM) – Coming a bit later this year is the SLM in Scottsdale, Arizona, 23-27 June. Check the schedule at http://www.isa.org/Content/NavigationMenu/General_Information/Leadership_Resources/Society1/Governance1/Presidents_Meeting/Spring_Meeting1/Spring_Meeting.htm and plan now to be there. ISA President Steve Huffman is challenging Committee Chairs to conduct business by email or conference call prior to the SLM in order make the onsite meeting time more efficient. In light of this, the following changes have been made to the traditional Leader Meeting schedule:
* Meeting time slots will be 50 minutes with a 10 minute break between each time slot.
* An "ad hoc" meeting room will be available onsite to be used for meetings that require less than the 50-minute time slot. Scheduling of the ad hoc meeting room will be coordinated in the registration area.
* The lunch time has been expanded from 45 minutes to 70 minutes.
* The Leader Training Seminar will be held on Sunday.
* The Board of Department and Board of District Vice Presidents will meet on Monday.
* A free afternoon has been provided for team-building. A golf outing is being planned for the free afternoon.
Hotel and meeting registration information is available on the website, along with details about the special group event. As you make your plans, please note the 2007 SLM group event will be held on Saturday, 23 June.
Section and District Leaders – District Leadership Conferences (DLC)
Dates and locations are listed online at http://www.isa.org/Content/ContentGroups/MultiUse/2007DLCScheduleOnline.doc
All ISA Members are invited to the DLCs. Although focused toward Section leaders, remember that an Executive Board representative attends as well as a staff contact. It is an excellent time to learn about society programs and interact with fellow ISA leaders – your professional peers.
Certification Update
ISA offers three certification programs: Certified Automation Professional® (CAP®), the Certified Control Systems Technician® (CCST®), and the Certified Industrial Maintenance Mechanic® (CIMM®). All of these exams are available electronically through testing centers worldwide. To view testing details visit www.isa.org/examschedule .
Additionally, ISA offers the CST in Training exam for students; plus, available in spring 2007 will be the CAP Associate exam for students. Both of the student exams are paper and pencil. Students who take and pass the CST in Training or the CAP Associate exam will earn a year toward the experience requirement, allowing them to take the CCST® or CAP® certification exam a year early. Because the CAP Associate program is so new, full details have not been posted online; however, you can read about the other programs at www.isa.org/certify - and check back regularly for CAP Associate details. Questions should be directed to ISA Customer Service at info@isa.org or (919) 549-8411.
Training
ISA Inside – New at ABB’s Automation World 2007 – ISA is partnering with ABB to offer full-day courses on site at Automation World. Important!: You must register directly with ISA for these courses. Additional fees will apply.
Click here to register for the ISA courses
Click here to view the abstracts
Technical Information
Division Symposia are a key information resource for automation professionals. Upcoming events include:
52nd ISA Analysis Division Symposium – 15-19 April 2007
53rd International Instrumentation Symposium (IIS) – 30 April thru 3 May 2007
ISA 4th Annual Safety Symposium – 22-23 May 2007
You can access more information about these three events and additional activities on the society calendar.
New Technical Benefits
Just a reminder that all ISA Members have free access to these benefits:
Free Standards – Members can access more than 150 ISA standards, recommended practices, and technical reports accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ISA must pay a royalty on some standards, resulting in a nominal fee to Members who download these standards. NOTE: Please emphasize to Members that ISA Standards are copyrighted and are provided for Members’ personal use only and not for distribution or sharing with others.
Free Web Seminars –All Members have free access to over 40 online pre-recorded web seminars. Each seminar is 90 minutes long. They cover topics like safety instrumented systems, Ethernet, control systems security, and more.
Free Technical Papers – Over 2,500 technical papers from past ISA conferences and symposia are available at no cost to ISA Members. New papers are added each year. A search system allows retrieval of the papers by keyword, event, date, or author.
Members can access all three benefits (and more) from the same page online. Instruct Members to go to www.isa.org and login. Then, select "My ISA" and "Online Files" from the left navigation bar under General Information. (If not already logged in, a prompt to log in with member ID and password will appear. Once logged in, select "Return to online files." If already logged in, the Member will be taken directly to their “Online Files” page.) The first box on the page contains access to free standards, technical papers, and Web Seminars.
JETS (Junior Engineering Technical Society) - ISA has become a JETS Society Affiliate. JETS provides a critical link between pre-college students, teachers, parents and school counselors, and the engineering community. JETS serves more than 40,000 high school students each year. Being a JETS Affiliate is a promising way for ISA to expand awareness of automation careers. JETS programming information is available online at www.jets.org .
Is Your ISA Web Site Missing the Branding Boat?
By Paul Gruhn, PE, CFSE
You all probably know what “branding” is. (Tattooing a cow, right?) Organizations spend a lot of time and money establishing their brands and fight like the dickens when anyone else violates it. How many instances can you recall of seeing an imitator use a label or image just to try and emulate a well known brand? How many Japanese motorcycles try and look like a Harley? How many acoustic guitars try and look like a Martin, some even going so far as to use a name and logo font that’s almost identical? Imitation has often been called the highest form of flattery. It’s also the cause of many law suits.
A brand brings up expectations in your mind. Simply seeing or hearing a name will conjure up thoughts of “expensive,” “cheap,” “conservative,” “dull,” or a hundred other superlatives. McDonald’s is the number one restaurant in the world, yet they still advertise daily to enforce their brand. You know what to expect when you walk into a McDonald’s. They all look alike and serve the same food. What would you think if you saw a restaurant that called itself McDonald’s, yet the artwork logo wasn’t the same, it didn’t have the golden arches, and it only served fried chicken and pizza? You’d naturally think, “Wait a minute! That’s not a McDonald’s!” And you’d be right. What if a sales person called on you from a major organization such as IBM or Siemens, yet the company logo (name, font and color) on their business card wasn’t even close to what you knew it should be. You’d naturally question the person’s credentials and intentions, and rightly so.
So how does this relate to ISA? Simple, what does your ISA web site look like? Does it match the national site? Many are not even close. Animated graphics, poor layouts, poor font and color choices have little place on what should be a professional looking site. Our sites should look like they were done by business professionals, not teenagers. ISA has a good looking web site (whether you like its navigation structure or not), and we should all take advantage of it. Please use a similar layout, colors, fonts, etc. You don’t have to be exact, just close enough for it all to be recognized as ISA. Take advantage of the brand that’s already been established for us. And don’t say, “But I don’t like the main ISA site.” If a McDonald’s franchise won’t play by the rules, they won’t remain McDonald’s. Granted, we haven’t established this as a requirement for ISA Sections and Divisions, but it’s in all of our best interest to follow the lead that’s been established.
Opportunity to Contribute
If you would like to suggest or submit for consideration content for the Society Leaders’ BRIEF, Laura Crumpler will be happy to hear from you: (919) 990-9232 or lcrumpler@isa.org.
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