My Nonprofit Reviews

My journey with ISA began in 1977 when I joined the ISA St. Louis Section (one of the original instrumentation societies that formed ISA in 1945) at the recommendation of a fellow coworker. The Section had more than 700 members with many of them coming from Monsanto Company World HQ and the three production plants in the area as well as the Shell Oil and Amoco refineries. I found Section meetings to be very welcoming, the user companies very engaged, and the vendor community consisting of first and second generation business owners dedicated to excellent service. Pneumatic instrumentation was still predominant with the electronic age gaining a lot of momentum. Meetings had a very upbeat vibe and I made many friends. I held most of the Section elected board positions and was nominated for District VP. Our District had 14 Sections from Salt Lake City to Paducah, KY. I won the election and was tasked, like all DVPs, to travel to all of them and speak at their meetings at least once over the two-year term. I found the Society level activity to be the same upbeat vibe and I was so very impressed with so many experts in the field I had only read about in the ISA magazine Intech (formerly Instrumentation Technology). I later went on to several other Executive Board positions including Society President in 2007. I share this journey to point out that over the 48 years since I joined, times changed, technologies changed, communications have changed, the US economy changed, and through all that, our goal to become an international society dedicated to automation as a profession has come to pass. Like all organizations, ISA fortunes have ebbed and flowed, but I find they have adapted well and met the challenges to fill the tent that is automation. The current staff has done an excellent job keeping the managing the mission, keeping the financial house in order, and improving membership despite all the competing challenges of work, family, and living in these times. I’m proud to be a Life Fellow of ISA.