Over Fifty odd years ago on November 9, a group of forty-six interested persons gathered at the Selwyn Hotel in Charlotte to establish a local section of the Instrument Society of America, a national organization that was only five years old. The ground work for this meeting and, to a large extent, the original development of the section was due to Earl Seagrave, Bob Stoveken, Frank Lawrence and Bill Simons, Jr.

The group selected Earl Seagrave as their temporary chairman and Frank Lawrence, Bob Stoveken, Ed Fiss, Gene Finch, and Frank Mendes III as the other temporary officers. The original name, "Carolinas Section", did not meet the approval of National Headquarters because it might confuse and hamper the formation of future sections in this area, a judgment which has proven to be prophetic.

On January 8, 1952, the section, now recognized as "Carolina-Piedmont Section" was chartered and formally started its growth and development. The interest and purpose of the originating group and the foresight of the National Headquarters has borne fruit over the years in the chartering of the Carolina Golden Triangle, Columbia, Cape Fear, Tar Heel Capital, Charleston and Western Carolinas sections. It was later, on October 16, 1967, that these precepts acquired legal stature when, on the advice of National Headquarters and others, the Section became incorporated under the laws of North Carolina to be "organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes".

In the fall of 1954, the Section sponsored an instrument symposium at "North Carolina State College" - now NCSU. This humble beginning was an immediate success and prompted the Savannah River Section to develop a similar regional meeting and exhibit. This filled the need of local people wanting to see the products offered by area vendors without having to travel to the distant national show. Although National Headquarters had some misgivings about the possible dilution of appeal for the Annual Conference and Exhibit, the idea persisted and became the Southeastern Conference and Exhibit (SECON). Since the beginning symposium the Section has hosted successful SECON meetings in 1961, 1967 and 1977. Although viable for many years, the interest in SECON waned in the 1980's as costs escalated and the travel required did not satisfy the needs of the increasing number of sections with blossoming membership. Could the Carolina-Piedmont Section show the way again?

In the late 1960's there developed an occasional meeting program wherein a number of the local vendors would bring in one of their new or interesting products and make a five minute presentation to the attending membership. The idea fulfilled a need for local participation and dialog. In 1976 the concept gave in to natural development and the annual "Vendor's Night" was moved into a hall large enough to accommodate booths and more formal displays. Symposia and tutorials are now being offered in conjunction with the exhibits. Emulated by the other sections in the area, the problems of conflicting schedules and exhibitor expense are being addressed by cooperation between the sections. Each section enjoys an attendance of several hundred at each exhibit. Now, even this mode of disseminating information has been abolished for lack of interest.

No narrative of the progress of this section would be complete without the mention of the many interesting plant tours and visits to local facilities. Virtually every type of industry doing business in this area has been kind enough to show us around. Since this has been almost an annual event, a listing would be unwieldy and any other acknowledgment would unfairly represent the diverse interests of the membership. Certainly the organizations representing endeavors in the fields of government, health, education, municipal and private utilities, pulp and paper, textiles, chemical fibers, tobacco, electronics, transportation, machine tools, etc. have our gratitude.

The Section has matured over the years and is now in its sixth decade of activity. In a 1990 meeting the recorded voices of some of the membership captured on tape twenty-five years earlier where played back. The subject matter were their conjectures on the future of instrumentation. The results were essentially correct in content but had been delayed in time. Many meetings offer the membership introduction to new devices and concepts by learned speakers. Both analog and digital technology is explored. The most popular meeting presentations have involved membership participation in round-table discussions of contending concepts. Note should be made that outside "experts" were not required for these programs, our own authorities have been fully qualified.

The membership can be justifiably proud of its pioneering ideas and the recognized stature of its people who have contributed their talents beyond the local area to the regional and national level. Through the hard work of all involved in the SECON, Vendor's Night exhibits and most recently Seminars that award attendees with Professional Development Hours certificates honored by the North Carolina Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, the section has succeeded financially. This now enables us to emphasize the "educational and scientific purposes" of our charter by cooperating with Central Piedmont Community College and University of North Carolina through awards, grants, student chapters and other scholastic incentives.

The purpose of the Section is as valid today as it was in 1951. Unfortunately the membership has dropped to below 200 hundred including some second and third generation family members. Like many other organizations, the sections membership has shrunk for reasons still not completely understood, although the Internet has probably had a profound impact. All other sections in the Carolinas except the Tarheel Capital in Raleigh have been lost.  The glory days of exhibits and conferences are gone and replaced by Internet seminars.

In 1999 we roasted a long standing member, John Rodgers and you can view some of the photos of the even on our Photos Page

An all out effort was made in 2006 to host an exhibit and conference in Charlotte, NC at the Lowes Motor Speedway.  The out come was luke warm with 27 vendors manning table tops and about 100 attendees for the seminars.  It turned out to be a great place to hold such an event.  There was plenty of parking, the food was very good, and the accommodations for the exhibit and presentations couldn't have been better.  Advertising was sent to over 3000  members and instrument types in both Carolinas and we had hoped for at least 200 attendees, but fell short.

on November 1st 2007 we roasted a member, Albert S. Warren, who has been with ISA for 50 years.see Photos Page for PDF file

Last Update: 9/4/2009
Web Author: Cliff Johnson