I innocently wrote a reply to one of the Ask the Expert questions this morning. I said, "One of the last remaining tangible benefits of ISA membership is the ability to view and download standards, including ISA5 and ISA20 (for personal use only)." Another person on our Ask the Experts discussion list corrected me. "Not true any more, since January 1."
Jon DiPietro, ISA leader and known maverick, confirmed, "Yup, You can view but not download."
Folks, I continue to be absolutely mesmerized by the depths of the [pick a term denoting lack of thought or intelligence] of the ISA leadership and staff.
Aside from the obvious assets in buildings and bank accounts, ISA has very few intrinsic professional assets that can be used as member benefits.
Face it, book discounts and training discounts don't cut it anymore. ISA has even damaged and given away the InTech brand. (Oh, sure, you say--Boyes competes with InTech. NO I DON'T. InTech is so far behind the other magazines in the automation sector that its ability to compete with my magazine or Gary Mintchell's or David Greenfields...is not a subject that comes up often, let us say...)
The only intrinsic asset ISA has, that cannot be replicated by, say, Automation.com, or Control.com, or any of the potential competitors for members that are out there is that ISA is an ANSI-approved standards making body.
That asset, and the value of the resulting standards is the only reason that at least a dozen people I know personally have kept their ISA memberships current.
I have worked twice now to get free, or reduced price standards as a member benefit.
Open question to ISA leadership: what the heck other assets do you really think you have???
How the heck else are you going to provide some value to members???
What value do you think you DO provide??
Somebody tell me, because I can't see any. And I've served ISA for many years as a volunteer leader--given time and even lost a job over my involvement in ISA. I've 'made my bones' so to speak...and I don't think you all seem to know which end is up.
Somebody from ISA-- talk to me and set me straight.
