Welcome to the Wilmington Section! |
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April President's MessageFrom WISA President Matt Murphy of DuPont |
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For our school aged children, with the end of the school year approaching, young students are excited about the possibilities of summer fun, sun, and free time. For the rest of us summer can be a most hectic time as we not only have our workload, but also have to back up a vacationing colleague from time to time. In most years this is also the time when freshly minted college graduates are getting their initial experience in the “real world”, and hopefully, this year will see this tradition continue.
Even as the process automation community proceeds with renewing the work force, those who are already skilled workers in the field must continuously find opportunities to maintain, develop, and expand their skill sets. With the economic slow down and capital project reduction, new and emerging technologies are not being rolled out as quickly, and business managers expect to increase the value captured from mature and even legacy technologies. This is expected to increase the relative value of the most experienced workers.
The Wilmington ISA will continue to support training, including ISA sponsored training, to help the membership grow and develop. In addition, we seek to have dynamic section meetings that stimulate the sharing of key lessons and do’s and don’ts learned from work recently completed by the membership. As the summer hiatus approaches, I would like to thank all of the presenters that were able to share their knowledge with the membership in 2008-2009 and it is my hope that they were able to take back knowledge from the questions and comments from the section meetings. If you were not able to participate in the 2008-2009 activities, then please join us in September.
As my term as president concludes, I would like to thank the past presidents, executive committee, and staff that have made the meetings and other section activities possible. Finally, I would like to thank the pensioners that continue to come out and share not only their knowledge, but also their history and their perspective. They help ensure that the current practitioners know that upgrading to new technology and making progress are not necessarily the same thing. Spring District Vice President's MessageFrom ISA District 2 Vice President Steve Prettyman of Dow Chemical Many of you know me, but for those that don’t, I am Steve Prettyman, International Society of Automation (ISA) District 2 Vice-President 2009-2010, and I officially welcome you to the ISA leadership journey. I just returned from an energizing and enlightening Joint District Leadership Conference (JDLC) with Districts 2, 3, & 7 at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Grady Andrews, ISA District 3 Vice-President, was the gracious host of the event while Mary Cannon, ISA District 7 Vice-President, and I enjoyed participating as co-hosts. If you have not yet attended a JDLC, I highly encourage you to register for the 2010 JDLC tentatively scheduled for April in Williamsburg, Virginia. I discovered that by locating the 2009 JDLC in Pine Mountain, Georgia, we were able to attract leaders from the Southern portion of District 2 who would ordinarily not attend when the DLC is held in the Northern portion of the District. The current economic conditions had some impact on the ability of our members to travel; however, we were successful in attracting almost 60 members, including three student members. The audience enjoyed presentations from Terry Ives, Skip Wells, Catherine Andrews, Dianna Noyes, Gerald Wilbanks, and me covering Society Finances, Society Strategic Direction, Workforce Development, Student Activity, ISA Administration, Leadership, and "IT" respectively. Doug Zimmerman, ISA District 7 Vice-President Elect, led a lively roundtable discussion focusing on the approaches, activities, and events that have made or will make a positive impact upon sections, districts, and the society. The daylong session wrapped up with a fun teambuilding event involving problem solving in groups. The group enjoyed a lovely dinner meal with Keynote Speaker Charles Morris, and Awards Presentation by Grady Andrews, after which the group adjourned to the beach at Callaway Gardens to attend a wonderful sunset concert celebrating our Armed Forces provided by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Capping off the evening was a spectacular fireworks show over the water. Rounding out the weekend event were the many not to be missed social interactions, networking opportunities, hallway conversations, and informal leadership discussions. Finally, I have some questions for you to which I would appreciate a response. Is your Section incorporated? Are you aware that this is a requirement? Have you developed a Section budget and business plan for 2009-2010? Are you aware that this is a requirement? For more information and some interesting discussion, please contact me. I encourage you all to attend the May 13, 2009 meeting of ISA Philadelphia Section at the headquarters of Ives Equipment Corporation in King of Prussia, PA. For more details http://www.isa-philly.org/calendar_of_events.htm I also encourage you all to attend the May 26, 2009 meeting of the ISA Wilmington Section at the headquarters of Applied Control Engineering in Newark, DE. For more details http://www.isa.org/MSTemplate.cfm?MicrositeID=525< /SPAN> GE Colorado is looking for skilled Process Controls Field Technicians with tools who can perform loop checks, point to point checks, etc. in the Carolina’s on weekends. For more information, contact Paul Abernathy at paul.abernathy@ge.com |
Tuesday, August 11th 7:05 pmWISA Nite @ the Blue RocksIn the Sky Box @Frawley Stadium$10 a ticket Contact Matt Murphy for tickets: matthew.f.murphy@usa.dupont.com Tuesday, August 11th 7:05 pmNew ISA Member Benefit!ISA Partners with ARC Advisory Group to Offer Industrial Automation and Enterprise Solutions Insight Articles ISA and ARC Advisory Group announced the availability on the ISA website, of ARC Insights articles featuring timely information on industrial automation and enterprise solutions. The new repository offers a wide range of ARC Insights articles that present an analyst perspective on market trends, technology, and strategies for success. "ARC Insights provide useful information and guidance for end users and owner/operators," said John Kuenzler, director of strategic services, ARC Advisory Group. "They also help suppliers stay abreast of the issues and solutions of interest to their customers. Making these articles available on ISA's website is a perfect fit, given their leadership position in the automation community." The articles, which can be found at www.isa.org/ARCInsights, cover automation in discrete, continuous, hybrid, and general automation applications, as well as enterprise solutions. "ARC Advisory Group is well-respected for their market analysis in the manufacturing and utilities segments," said T.S. Lee, director of standards, publishing, and technology services, ISA. "Offering this resource to our Members and customers helps fulfill ISA's mission of providing these professionals with the technical information they need to overcome the automation and control challenges they face every day." |
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Shawn Coughlan |
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