ISA NorCal President's Message
by Brad Rupert

I have some unfortunate news to report about our incoming president Bob Hammaker. Bob was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form prostate cancer.  Bob formally stepped down as president this year in order to best handle is upcoming treatments.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Bob and his family while they go through the difficult time.  Bob has promised to keep us updated on his progress.  Anyone interested in sending a letter of support to Bob can do so by sending a letter or e-mail to the ISA board and we will forward it on.

With Bob stepping down, I have volunteered to remain as president for 2005-2006.  I hope I can count on the boards continued support and help to make this a great year for technical training, professional networking events.

Bob and the board have put a tentative schedule together for next monthly events.  We have one more planning meeting to finalize next year’s events and by next month we will have a complete list of events for next year.  Anyone who has a new program, training class or event they would like to see realized, is asked to send a quick e-mail to someone on the board outlining your idea.  Better still we would invite you to come to our next meeting and present the idea yourself.

Our local Nor Cal Board is need of new volunteers.  ISA was built with local volunteers and we need your help and ideas in order to make it work.  I invite and challenge all of you reading this to come to at least one board meeting this year. If a once a month board meeting is too much of a commitment right now, just serving on one committee would be a great help.  Our Board meetings are held one the first Thursday of the month at 5:30pm: ACS Office, 3065 Richmond Parkway, Suite 106, Richmond, CA 94806.  

We are one month away from the ISA Golf Tournament at Boundary Oaks in Walnut Creek. Many teams have already confirmed: Advanced Control Solutions, Bay Tech Engineering, PSI Engineering, RM Controls, Clipper Controls, Oratech, Swan, and CMES.  Any individuals or teams that are interested in coming out this year should contact me ASAP to confirm a spot in the tournament.  I need to have the final number in to the golf course and restaurant by September 5th in order to make sure we have a NY Steak, a couple of beverages and tee time waiting for you on Thursday September 15th!!  An entry form is included in this issue of the transmitter and you can also go online at http://www.isanorcal.org to register.

The Transmitter needs more technical content!! The editor has asked me to forward a request to all members in the section: Anyone interested in writing a technical article, or technical glossary of information should contact the board in writing/e-mail with your idea.  Also if you come across a good article that the rest of the section would be interested in please e-mail us a copy and we will see what we can do about having it included in the next transmitter.  The more interesting and cutting edge the idea, the more interested and excited the members will be to read it.  

I will be attending the National ISA Show in Chicago last week in October and hope to see some of you there.  If you are planning to attend this year, I would be very interested in hearing your observations and feedback.  Contact me at the conference or afterwards via e-mail.  

Finally, I will leave you with another quote.

“Just when you think you out they pull you back in!”

Tony Montana- Scarface 1982

Best regards,
Brad Rupert

rev: 10/2/05 GJG