ISA increases financial support for standards

By Plant Engineering Staff October 18, 2006

ISA’s executive board voted yesterday to approve a financial commitment to support standards development activities as well as to provide a new member benefit of free, downloadable, ISA-developed standards. This financial support allows the society to continue to grow its standards programs and fund future initiatives.

“Because of this action, our current and future members will benefit professionally from our standards at no cost, and they’ll be able to bring value to their employers by introducing best practices into their business,” said Steve Huffman, ISA president-elect secretary. “This will serve both individual members and their companies, and we’re excited about its positive impact on the industry as a whole.”

ISA has traditionally invested more than $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 ensures that ISA will underwrite the annual financial deficit allowing standards development to continue unabated, independent of any other society business trends.

“ISA exists to bring knowledge into the automation marketplace,” said Leo Staples, ISA treasurer. “This financial support allows us to continue to fulfill that mission by supporting our standards development initiatives and by making standards freely available for ISA Members.”

ISA members will be able to download, in PDF form, any ISA standard for free as of Jan. 1, 2007.