DLC 11 - A very positive meeting.

Attendance at the Dist 12 DLC in Brussels Belgium September 2011

The 2011 District Leadership Conference in Brussels: a very positive meeting

Some people sometimes question the role and the vitality of our ISA organization. The last ISA D12 leadership conference clearly demonstrated the opposite.

The conference was held in Brussels, on 17 September, and chaired by Jean-Pierre Hauet, District 12 Vice President. The meeting brought together representatives of 10 sections: Abu Dhabi, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Russia, The Netherlands and Spain with the presence of Leo Staples, ISA corporate President, of Tim Feldman, ISA Director, Products and Services and of Pieter van der Klooster, Managing Director of the ISA European Office.

New section leaders, François Javier Calmuntia and Raquel Mateos from Spain, Jose Alexandre Pereira from Portugal, Abdelmounaim Laayouni from Morocco, Mohamed Ibrahim from Abu Dhabi, John Downey from Ireland, Marc Blekkink from Belgium, were welcomed by Jean-Pierre Hauet.

In a friendly but working atmosphere, the conference addressed a fundamental issue “ISA Sections: which business model”. Each section had the opportunity to explain to the assembly how they were developing their activities and which support they were expecting from the ISA central organization.

Conversely, a report was given by Billy Walsh on the preliminary conclusions of the ISA Restructure Task Force created at the corporate level. The sections were invited to locally further discuss these conclusions in order to prepare for the vote which will occur during the next Council of Society Delegates meeting scheduled in Mobile (Alabama) on 17 October 2011.

After having referred to the role ISA has played in his career, Leo Staples shared with the participants his vision of the future of ISA as a modern non-profit society, members driven and market orientated.

Mark Blekkink with VP Jean-Pierre Hauet

In a brief ceremony, Marc Blekkink was officially presented by Jean-Pierre Hauet with the charter of the ISA Belgium section. In the coming weeks, Portugal is expected to also become a new active section.

Kevin Dignam, past Vice-President and D12 nominator, announced that he would initiate in the coming weeks the election process of the D12 DVP Elect.

Alex Bobovich's and Eoin Ó Riain’s terms were extended one year, per decision of the D12 DVP respectively as District Student Liaison Representative and as District Publications Committee Chairman. Gianfranca Sanzeni was appointed District Membership Committee Chairwoman.

Sections were invited to propose candidates for covering the responsibilities of District Standard and Practices Committee Chairman and of District Automation and technology department and Industry & Sciences Department liaison Committee chairman.

Thanks to the Irish section, namely Eoin Ó Riain, John Downey and Declan Lordan, the entire meeting was webcasted and attended by many remote participants in Europe as well as in the USA.


The following is a message of acknowledgement for our VP Jean-Pierre Hauet

Dear President, dear All,


I hope you had a good trip back to your country. I would like to thank all of you for your participation in our last DLC in Brussels. I believe we had very dense and very fruitful discussions and I hope they were especially useful to our “new comers” from Morocco, Abu Dhabi, Spain, Portugal, Belgium…


I would like to extend my thanks to our President Leo Staples and to Tim Feldman, who accepted to share with us their vision of the future of ISA.


Thanks also to Pieter van der Klooster for having joined us.


Congratulations on the Irish team which organized the Webcasting of the meeting in a very short lapse of time.


Thanks to Marc who helped in the organization and good luck to our new B-Section (B for Belgium or for Baby).


I attach the picture of all the group taken by Hieu, who accordingly is missing on the photo!


I remind you of the next step : the Mobile council of Society delegates meeting. Please confirm to me your presence as soon as possible so that we can ensure a strong presence of the District, organise the discussion within your section regarding the Governance restructure task force and forge your position on the motion before the meeting.


A last thank to Kevin, our past DVP, our current nominator and my mentor who was instrumental, with Billy, in transmitting their knowledge and their experience.

SLM in St Louis: some points from our VP

Summer Leaders' Meeting in June 26-28, in Saint Louis (USA) : a new momentum for ISA.
Representing District 12, Pino Zani, Alex Bobovich, Kevin Dignam, Jean-Pierre Hauet, Eoin Ó Rian and Billy Walsh.

Gateway Arch: St Louis's
most famous landwark

Leo Staples, 2012 ISA President: Expressed himself more than pleased - The SLM  clearly gave a new momentum to ISA.

Pat Gouhin, Executive Director, provided a status report of the society which is quite encouraging. Even if the accounts are still in the red, they are better than budgeted and the total membership has started to grow again (+0.6% since the beginning of the year).

District Board Chair Greg Lehmann reported an intense activity within all the districts and sections, with clarification of the budgetary and reporting processes. The formative ISA Belgium section has been officially chartered to the status of active section : congratulations to Marc Blekkink and his team on their effort.
Department Board Chair Ian Verhappen reported on the progress achieved in the Governance Restructure Task Force, in which Billy Walsh from our District actively participates. The principle of the concept of Society governance restructure was endorsed and the task force will now get into the details of its proposals.

Eoin Ó Riain gave a live presentation of our District 12 Web site which was recognized as a reference for the other Districts. Eoin also sits on the Executive Board for the Department VP's (He is currently Publications Dept VP).

Maurizio Zecchini, Italy Section, has been awarded the Distinguished Society Service by the Honours & Awards Committee for outstanding service and contributions to the Society and its Members. Warm congratulations to Maurizio and the Italian section!

Terrence Ives, currently Parliamentarian, has been nominated as next ISA President-elect Secretary and will succeed Robert Lindeman, who will serve as ISA President in 2012. His name will go before the Delegates for election in October at Mobile, Alabama (USA). Our District nominator on the Nominating Committee was Kevin Dignam, former District 12 VP. He also serves on the H&A Committee as does Billy Walsh.

The next leader meeting will take place in Mobile, Alabama, Saturday, 15 October 2011 through Tuesday, 18 October 2011. This will immediately precede the Automation Week.

Meanwhile we invite you to participate in the ISA D12 leadership Conference which will take place in Brussels on Saturday September 17 following the ISAEMEA Forum. President Leo Staples will attend.

Register now!.