A new name for ISA keeps tradition, initially

International Society of Automation debuts at ISA Expo in Houston

By Plant Engineering Staff October 16, 2008

The initials “ISA” remain the same, but what they stand for has changed. ISA’s Council of Society Delegates voted in their annual meeting in Houstonrebates.

The council voted to rename the Society from the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society to the International Society of Automation. The Council of Society Delegates controls the policies of the society, and members are represented by one delegate for each geographic ISA Section.

“We are no longer just instruments and systems. Yes, these are an important part of any automation scheme and to the operation of plants, but we are more,” said Kim Miller Dunn, ISA President. “Each member had an important decision to make and a responsibility to consider our future as an organization. The new name ensures that when science and technology advance beyond our wildest imaginations, we’ll still have an identity that encompasses and embraces all of the current and future members that make up our society.
“The International Society of Automation is clear, concise, all encompassing, and easy to comprehend by our Membership as well as lay people outside the industry,” Dunn added. “ISA leaders have reinvented the Society. We are global. We are engaged with government in areas such as workforce development and cybersecurity. We have successfully established the Automation Federation as “The Voice of Automation,” creating a home for the many special interest groups that exist in the automation space without taking away their identities.”
More details can be found at www.isa.org .