N4(Winter),2001                      Editor A.Bobovitsh

SPECIAL MILLENIUM DISTRICT 12 STUDENT'S ISSUE

Bob Bailliet - ISA president's Interview

New Orleans - In his interview with Inside ISA, incoming ISA President Bob Bailliet seems fairly pleased for someone who just had his term of office moved back a few months. (He will take office on 1 January.)

Then again, that might be because the change in terms indicates his Presidential theme - "Reinventing ISA for the 21st Century" - is off to a roaring start after the past President's Fall Meeting. (See the article on ISA's reinvention.) While Bailliet thinks that ISA is still in good shape, recent trends have convinced him that changes are necessary for ISA to continue improving.

"The key metric that flags up and says, 'Hey, we need to reinvent ourselves' to me is the declining membership," Bailliet tells Inside ISA.

"That's the metric, but that doesn't mean we need to generate a program that will just focus on increasing numbers. I think we need to focus on doing the things that will attract people and will let people see that ISA is a viable organization."

In order to move towards reinventing the Society and doing the things that will make ISA valuable to potential members in this century, Bailliet plans on concentrating on three key areas in the upcoming term: Section activities, Divisions, and the scope of ISA.

For the Sections, Bailliet says, "We need to get a plan in place to make the Sections comfortable with the new environment they're operating in, where people will be willing to serve as leaders in the sections even though - when they have an event - they may not get the large numbers that they were used to."

In Bailliet's experience, many Sections are reluctant to try new activities or maintain the old ones because they just aren't getting the same numbers of people that they did 10-15 years ago. However, he wants Sections to start using a different way of measuring success than the numbers.

The key is that you serve the technical needs of some of the people," Bailliet says. "If you get only fifteen people, and you're filling a need, I think that's a success."

Divisions, however, are another matter, says Bailliet. "I think we need to reinvent the whole concept of Divisions. Divisions are a very important part of ISA. They serve the technology needs of ISA members, but the old model of what a Division is, how it operates, how it meets the needs of its members, I don't think is going to work any more.

"It's still working for a few of the divisions, but for a majority of the divisions it doesn't work, for various reasons: the time availability of the leaders, the support for and the ability of the leaders and the members to travel to symposia and such."

Due to the geographic reach of Divisions that can cover the entire globe, physical meetings are no longer the best mechanism for Divisions to serve their members, Bailliet says.

"We need to make sure the divisions continue to serve their technical needs, but through other mechanisms, such as web communities and other sorts of things."

For the third area, Bailliet would like to see ISA expand its scope, bringing in other interest areas in instrumentation, systems, and automation that the Society has not successfully represented in the past.

"What I hope to accomplish next year is to at least have a plan in place of how we're going to get that done," Bailliet says. "I want to see an actual strategic plan with goals and milestones on how we're going to truly penetrate the discrete part s of manufacturing and truly integrate ourselves with the information technology area."

Where does all this change lead? For Bailliet, he would like to see the next several years for ISA bring an expanded, larger Society.

"I could see us with a membership over 100,000, fully recognized and integrated into all areas of instrumentation, systems and automation, and truly recognized throughout the world as the Society in those areas," says Bailliet.

The new name (ISA - The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society) is one of the first public indications of the Society's efforts to reinvent itself for the future, Bailliet says.

"I see the name change as a very positive thing, because now it clearly tells us and it tells the world what we're all about."

So how does it feel to be the incoming President of ISA?

"It feels great. I've been active in ISA for many years. Initially, I never aspired to be president, but as I got more and more involved and got to know some of the presidents, it feels good to be in that group. It's kind of a self-satisfaction thing, but it's also the opportunity to make a difference.

The president has the opportunity to set the direction, and I'm very pleased that I'll have the opportunity to hopefully set a reinvention direction for the society. I feel good about where the Society is today, and we have some pretty good challenges out there."