The Society Leaders' BRIEF

Volume 1 Issue 5 - October 2006

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.

EXPO and Leader Meeting Results

As a well informed ISA leader, you will appreciate this quick reference list to exciting happenings in Houston during the Fall Leaders' Meeting and EXPO:

ISA Makes Standards Free for ISA Members - ISA Members will be able to download (in PDF form) any ISA standard for free as of 1 January 2007. Included in ISA's Executive Board approval of this new member benefit is a financial commitment to support standards development, enabling the Society to continue to grow its standards programs and fund future initiatives.

ISA has traditionally invested over $1,000,000 per year in its industry standards development programs. The Society has typically recovered only 70% of that investment through the sale of standards. This additional funding commitment assures that ISA will underwrite the annual financial deficit allowing standards development to continue unabated, independent of any other Society business trends. It also adds the new benefit for the Society to provide standards at no charge to its Members.

WINA Joins Automation Federation - The Automation Federation provides an umbrella under which associations and societies engaged in manufacturing and process automation activities can work more effectively to fulfill their missions. Current member organizations include ISA, OMAC, and WBF.

The Automation Federation joining of the Wireless Industrial Networking Alliance (WINA) was announced in Houston. WINA is a coalition of industrial end-user companies, technology suppliers, industry organizations, software developers, system integrators, and others interested in the advancement of wireless solutions for industry. The organization aims to communicate the benefits of using wireless in industrial applications, to improve confidence in wireless technology and access to solutions, and to focus on the end user.

WINA's ongoing operational activities focus on education and professional networking. This includes web seminars, participation in industry trade shows, presentations at industry conferences, and contributions to industry standards activities.

For more information about The Automation Federation, visit www.automationfederation.org. For more information about WINA, visit www.wina.org.

US Department of Commerce Selects ISA as a Business Mission Delegate to India - The Commerce Department's International Trade Administration will host a U.S. delegation to the India Business Summit 29-30 November 2006.

A delegation of leaders representing approximately 100 U.S. businesses, industries, educational institutions, and state and local governments are among those that have been selected to participate. Hosts in India are the Government of India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI). Following the summit, U.S. Commercial Service posts in India have invited select participants in the mission to participate in spin-off missions to key cities. ISA has been chosen to participate in the spin-off mission to Bangalore where an ISA Section was chartered in February 2001.

ISA President Ken Baker and Patrick Gouhin, ISA Executive Director and CEO, will serve as delegates to the mission.

New SP100 Working Group Launched - Wireless Systems for Automation, ISA's SP100 standards committee, announced the approval of a motion to merge two working groups. ISA SP100.11, which covers industrial process measurement and control, and ISA SP100.14, which focuses on optimized solutions for industrial monitoring, will be combined into ISA SP100.11a, a new working group.

The scope of the consolidated effort will define the OSI layer specifications (e.g. PHY, DLL, etc), security specifications, and management (including network and device configuration) specifications for wireless devices serving the Class 1 through 5 industrial environment with some attention to Class 0 for fixed, portable and moving devices. It is the intent of this project to work toward a level of coexistence with other wireless devices anticipated in the industrial work space, such as 802.11x, 802.16x, cell phones, and more. The group also intends to work to a level of interoperability with communication networks anticipated in the industrial work space, such as 802.3, 802.11x, 802.16x, HART, and others.

The next major meeting will be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 12-14 December 2006. For additional details on the meeting or the SP100 activities contact ISA Standards Manager Lois Ferson at (919) 990-9227 or lferson@isa.org.

ISA Control Systems Cyber Security Committee Launches Major New Effort While Nearing Completion of First Two Industry Standards - During meetings at ISA EXPO, the ISA-SP99 Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security committee focused on preparations to issue its first two standards and an updated guideline for committee voting -- while launching a new working group to develop another key standard in the ISA-99 series.

The committee decided to issue its Part 1 draft standard in November for what is expected to be a final round of committee voting. This standard, "Security for Industrial Automation and Control Systems: Concepts, Terminology and Models," will define the concepts, terminology, and models of industrial automation and control systems security, establishing the basis for the remaining standards in the ISA-99 series.

Prior reviews and voting on the Part 2 draft standard, "Establishing an Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security Program," will be ready for committee balloting in early 2007. The Part 2 standard will provide detailed guidance for developing a management system and program for the cyber security of industrial automation and control systems.

The ISA-SP99 committee made two additional major announcements at ISA EXPO:

Launch of a new working group to develop the ISA-99 Part 4 standard, "Specific Security Requirements for Industrial Automation and Control Systems," which will provide the details of how security levels can be measured and established for specific systems, hardware and software.
The impending release for committee voting of an update of ISA-TR99.00.01, Security Technologies for Industrial Automation and Control Systems, which provides an evaluation and assessment of current types of electronic security technologies and tools that may be employed by end-user companies for securing these systems against cyber attack.

For further information about ISA-SP99, visit www.isa.org/community/SP99. For information on other ISA standards committees, visit www.isa.org/standardscommittees.

Student Games Winners
Eleven competing teams gathered in Houston to tackle real industry problems provided by Honeywell and Emerson. Students came from Canada, Mexico, Russia, Italy, and the US. The winners were:
Gold - Lambton College, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Silver - California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California
Bronze - British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, BC, Canada

If you would like to know more about the Student Games, check out the Games information online - look in the left navigation bar on the Games web page.

YAPFest a Huge Success - This special event - new at EXPO - was designed to attract to ISA young professionals and students age 30 and under. It was declared a success by the happy participants. YAPFest with the 11th Hour Band drew more than 300 enthusiastic young professionals and wannabes. Winning an Alienware laptop was April Lemus from Lee College in Baytown, Texas. Plan on a repeat engagement in 2007.

Upcoming Live Web Seminars

For more information or to register, please call (919) 549-8411, or contact Matricia Smith, Web Seminar Coordinator at msmith@isa.org

Society Governance

You are in a perfect position to impact the nomination process for both Society Officers and Honors & Awards candidates, plus ISA Fellows. The deadlines are:

Society Officer Candidates - 31 January 2007
Honors and Awards Candidates - 10 February 2007
ISA Fellow Candidates - 4 May 2007

Full information and submittal forms are online for you to nominate qualified candidates for all these areas. Login at www.isa.org and select Leadership Resources under General Information in the left navigation bar. For the Society Officers, select Governance > Officer Nominations. You will find information under Honors & Awards for the Service and Technical awards as well as for Fellows.

The Interactive, Digital InTech

When you hear about lost issues of InTech, remind Members of this digital option. The digital version has all the same content - editorial, ads, everything - as the print version. The big difference is that you have it online within a few days of printing. Members can check out the October 2006 sample issue at http://www.isa-intech-digital.org.

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.