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Vernon G. Price
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Membership growth in the IEEE continues but it is taking place largely outside of the United States. In the numbers released by Headquarters for the period ending 31 Mar 2000, member- ship in IEEE for the United States stood at 205,208 a value 1.2% higher than that for the same period in 1999. That growth rate has remained relatively flat for some time. The non-US membership, however, stood at 134,339, a value 13.2% higher than the year before. About 1/3 of the "growth" members for the year were people in the Student grade, about half of whom live in the Asia-Pacific area encompassing Region 10. It is interesting to note that about 73% of the growth in the US IEEE membership took place in Region 6.
About 1/3 of IEEE members do not belong to any of the 36 Societies. The rest belong to one, two, three or more Societies. Of our total 339,547 IEEE members, there are a total of 375,851 Society memberships for an average of 1.1 Societies per member. Overall, IEEE Society growth for the year was 1.4%. Our own NPS Society did not contribute to that growth. Our membership at the end of March was 2799 members including 215 students, 125 retirees and 63 affiliate members. Our present NPS membership is virtually unchanged from that of the year before.
Although our membership level has been relatively constant over several years, we do add new members each year, overcoming the losses that occur. We experience about a 10% turnover each year in membership. Some of this occurs with our student members, who upon graduation, may move to different areas and contact with IEEE Headquarters may be broken. In other cases, some may drop out inadvertently while others may simply be no longer interested in NPSS. It is far easier to speak to a lapsed member, encouraging them to renew than it is to recruit a non-member to join IEEE. With that in mind, we hope to set up a plan to contact a dozen or so arrears members each spring to try to persuade them to renew their memberships in our organization.
It is now quite convenient to renew one's membership in IEEE/NPSS over the WEB using a credit card. To renew on-line, visit http://www.ieee.org/membership/renewal
It is fast; it is easy and it is secure. For a list of other useful IEEE URLs, go to http://www.ieee.org/membership/keyurls.html
Vernon Price can be contacted at 22151 Berkeley Ct. Los Altos, CA 94024-7452; Phone (408) 737-0778; Fax: (408) 737-1922; E-mail: v.price@ieee.org