Six Months Later:
The State of CSIA
October 23, 2009 - It's been six months since the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) has been under new leadership (the official transition occurred at the CSIA Executive Conference in May), and the organization is taking this opportunity to reintroduce the members of the management team. It is extremely important that CSIA and other interested parties fully understand the various roles and responsibilities of CSIA's leaders, along with the strong commitment each one makes to the continued health and well-being of CSIA.
After 10 years of exceptional service to CSIA, Norm O'Leary retired from his position as executive director. The new leadership team consists of Bob Lowe as executive director, Lynda Patterson, CAE, as president, and Ed Diehl as chairman of the executive council. Patterson's association management firm, Association Acumen in Madison, Wisconsin, serves as the organization's official headquarters.
As executive director, Lowe's primary roles include "statesman" for CSIA at association and Partner member events, enhancing relationships with both System Integrator and Partner members, and working with the Executive Council on pertinent initiatives. Patterson and her Association Acumen staff are responsible for strategic, marketing and financial planning, organization of the annual executive conference, collaboration with the executive council, and all administrative responsibilities. The Executive Council is the official governing body of CSIA.
CSIA continues to be committed to the core value of improving the business skills of control system integration companies through implementation of best practices. Improvements are always being made to the Best Practices manual to continuously "raise the bar" for CSIA members and to keep the manual relevant as plant automation factors continue to evolve.
A natural extension of the Best Practices manual is CSIA Certified Member status, a cornerstone of CSIA. The path to Certification requires an integrator to prepare for and pass an audit based on CSIA's Best Practices. The preparation process always results in improvements to the integrators' business operations, and the status of CSIA Certification provides a significant marketing advantage for them. A major goal of CSIA is to help end-user companies understand the benefit of using CSIA Certified companies so that Certification will be required to do control systems integration work in their plants.
© 2010 Control System Integrators Association
22 N. Carroll St., Ste 300, Madison, WI 53703, USA, Phone: 800.661.4914, Fax: 888.581.3666,
Email: bmarsala@controlsys.org
