Walt:
I'm afraid I must apologize again for letting my paycheck get in the way of ISA activities. I have to head for BaldwinsvilleNYon Monday the 9th of April and will have to miss the wireless shootout. I was looking forward to it for several reasons, not the least of which was to pay back for your visit to our St. Louis Section last month. Also, I was looking forward to seeing Dr. Gutierrez again, an avid ISA hand willing to help. I checked out your blog this morning"¦yes, I do read it and you do a good job with it, and I just wanted to give you a preview on CAP Associates and beyond. At this time, I only want to say that the circumstances and logic which created that action back in October at the Fall Leaders Meeting have given rise to a much larger initiative dedicated to advancing the automation profession. I see CAP as a great product which defines the automation profession in ISA's terms, a real accomplishment for the individual, a spec advantage for the engineering company or integrator he/she works for, a tool for verification of ability for the end user company which hires the company or individual with the certification, etc, etc"¦but we cannot leave it here. Right now, those perspectives are not tied together into a comprehensive albeit long-term plan, but they will be soon. With no automation engineering curriculum generally offered in most universities, CAP-A is a first step toward making that change. We expect this will be eagerly pursued in Canadawhere they do have such programs, also since it was their proposal which made the case for CAP-A. Looking beyond that though, we have not effectively created the market driver needed for industry to demand this certification. Our plan will be to tie education, career, and industry into a continuum as the change agent"¦.the most noble purpose for ISA. I realize this is really vague, but governance does cause a deliberate path which we must follow. Speaking of that, we were able to take this as an idea in October and create an entire CAP-A exam by March. Nimble does work!
As far as the Automation Standards Compliance Institute is concerned, I had very little trouble getting that started due to previous market research, energetic staff and volunteer leaders, and the work done by those before us including you and Ian. Again, that push started with a dinner in Mexico Citylast June with the Safety Division Director and me, combined with your lead in bringing us in with Wurldtech the month before. The ASCI was established and funded in October. Nimble does work! Last month, we did hire a managing director for it, and we expect to make good progress in the future.
I hope to have much more to say in the near future.
From the Department of "we gotta keep movin',"
Best regards,
Steve
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