1. The annual Expo (long been forecasted to decline) has now been canceled. Next year there will be Automation Week, which is primarily a Conference, and an adjunct table-top show (equivalent to a local Houston-section regional show). Entry-fee will be $950; I predict it will be a flop (less than 100 paying attendees).
2. The staff of about 75 at ISA HQ in N. Carolina has been cut by 30% - several valuable long-term employees were let go.
3. The flagship InTech monthly magazine is reduced to 6 issues a year. It remains unclear how the content will be generated and where it will be produced and published.
4. The thrice-weekly InTech eNews, a good money-maker, is now outsourced to Automation.com, based in Minnesota; they got the valuable ISA email list of 75,000 names.

After the layoffs and cutbacks were announced, Jerry Cockrell, current Society President, an academic from Indiana State University, wrote a long letter to all volunteer leaders praising their efforts. It starts, "Today is the first day of the rest of our lives." Huh? I read and re-read the letter. Frankly, beyond stroking everyone, all he said was mush - purely political praise and panegyric from an outgoing, symbolic figurehead.

ISA needs a revolution. The problem is: Any radical change would need the approval by all-volunteer voting board members. They simply engage in endless discussions and eventually, too late, come up with a compromise extension of past ineffectiveness.

During the past several days, I've has too-long discussions with many ISA members, office-holders, past-presidents - all colleagues and long-time friends - which left me conflicted. I also received an email from Glen Harvey, former ISA Executive Director for more than 20 years. I've published his comments as eFeedback (below).

I never criticize without offering solutions. I have offered several solutions in the past (see web links below) but they were criticized as adversarial and analyzed into oblivion.

My column in the November 2009 issue of Automation World represents my latest, friendly suggestions and recommendations. After it has been published (mid-November) I'll provide a summary and a web-link in the next eNews.

As an ISA member for 40 years, and a Fellow since 1992, I have done my best for the Society to succeed, and wish it well.

•  Gary Mintchell blog - ISA Expo Run Ends
•  ISA - Melting Iceberg continues to melt (July 2006)
•  ISA - only incremental progress (June 2006)
•  Antique governance plagues cash-fat ISA (Sept. 2005)
•  ISA at the crossroads (Aug. 2005)