May 2006

The Value of Membership: It's About Access

By Ralph W. Wyndrum Jr., IEEE-USA President

I'm not a medical doctor but I like to take the pulse of my fellow IEEE members wherever I go — figuratively speaking, of course. As IEEE-USA president, it behooves me to find out all I can about my colleagues' concerns and aspirations.

Several common threads run through the feedback I get that are symptomatic of the American engineering profession today. Among the reported comments are the feeling of being sidelined on the job due to rusty skills, the desire for more connection to one's peers, concerns about keeping one's innovative edge, and even the simple desire to save money with better insurance policies and credit card arrangements. I am dedicated to solving these issues.

But an overriding theme to these conversations, whether it is spoken or implied, is that Engineers are asking about the value — both monetary and otherwise — of being an IEEE member.

Value is a subjective and amorphous issue — one of those "one's man fish is another man's poisson" discussions. But it is legitimate and germane in these times when the ground under our feet is not what it used to be. That's why I relish the opportunity to talk about the return on investment of IEEE membership. In terms of continuing education programs, benefits, fast and useful online tools, professional literature, public awareness and advocacy, the value is considerable.

But another measurement ties all the others together, especially in these information-laden times. It's not mentioned in so many words on the assessment breakdown, but it's there. I'll call it Access.

Certainly membership dollars fuel the creation of vital products. But access is the switch that makes all this "wiring" come to life for you. It's the difference between your taking valuable time to track down courses on your own (and paying top fees for them), or taking advantage of such focused, affordable, mid-career training and other vital educational aids as Expert Now IEEE, the Education Partners Program, and Leadership for Results, to mention a mere few. If you're not familiar with Expert Now IEEE, it's a new and innovative tool that delivers the best IEEE educational offerings directly to your desktop. In a unique offering, U.S. members can try it now for free for a limited time, while earning CEUs. All you need is an Internet connection and an IEEE Web account to try it out. (Learn more at www.ieee.org/web/education/secure/Expert_Now_IEEE/trials.html.)

Instead of grappling with the vast number of job listings scattered among hundreds of employers' sites, you can instantly plug into Career Navigator, Employment Navigator and the IEEE Job Site. Want to reach out to your peers? Access the Employment and Career strategies Forum. Want to know where you stand, and what the outlook is, in your area of expertise? Check out the surveys on salary and employment. These products are just a handful of "instant gratification" tools for furthering your career prospects.

On another time horizon, IEEE-USA provides a different kind of access: access to policy-makers through its government relations efforts and its Legislative Action Center, as well as opportunities for you to participate directly on one or more of eleven policy-related committees, with issues from the specific (medical technology) to the broad (intellectual property). Such participation is when the value of belonging to the IEEE comes from what you bring to it.

Let no one forget that we are a frontier-making profession. IEEE-USA is now pursuing the establishment of an Innovation Institute, where the concept of access takes on blood-stirring dimensions. We plan to recruit the most incisive, creative minds in electrotechnology to teach workshops to top students on the principles and processes of innovation, with the ultimate goal of keeping this fresh thinking on U.S. soil, in U.S. jobs. (Read more about this on our Web site at http://innovation.ieeeusa.org.)

We will continue to find dynamic new ways to power-up the careers and reputation of American electrotechnology engineers, and to make IEEE membership a real asset for you.