Membership by the Number$

From August 2006 Membership Development Report

Around this time each year, we try and take a closer look at our membership categorized not by their geographic locale or their membership grade, but rather by the dues rate that they pay. As you probably know, IEEE has several “reduced dues” programs that are designed to assist groups of members who might otherwise find it difficult to pay the full dues rate. These include special rates for students, retirees, the unemployed, first-year graduates, and members with low incomes (i.e., less than US$12,300 for the 2007 dues year). We also include life members in this review, because in recognition of their longstanding commitment to IEEE, life members pay no dues at all.

The reason for looking at membership from this perspective is that indirectly all of these “reduced dues” discounts are financially subsidized by members who pay the full (undiscounted) dues rates. For this concept to work, an ongoing and somewhat precarious balance is required between the number of members receiving such a subsidy, versus those who are funding it. If we have an “imbalance” in the ratio of members receiving discounted dues, then overall dues rates must be raised to make up for the revenue shortfall. This can, of course, create a vicious cycle, since increasing dues risks losing even more “full dues paying” members.

Below you will find a table which charts our membership over the past five years by the various dues categories. This year, for the first time in several years, there is some good news in these numbers. As you can see, for the first time in the past five years the number of full dues paying members increased this year. Just as importantly, they not only increased in absolute terms, but they also grew as a percentage of our total membership population (despite having to offset the significant gains in student memberships).

If we move our attention to the Higher Grade reduced dues categories, we see some interesting changes occurring there as well.

Unemployed memberships, which climbed significantly between 2001 and 2003 (concurrent with the weak economic conditions of that period), have started to come back down. This year, they are nearly back to 2002 levels, although they still remain at roughly twice the levels of the late 1990’s.

Minimum Income memberships have also been declining over the past two years. At this time we are unsure exactly what to attribute this to. However, it is likely related to the concurrent decline in higher grade memberships in Region 10, where we have lost nearly 5,000 higher grade members over this same period. Not surprisingly, over the past seven years we have seen steady increases in the number of Retired members. This trend is likely to not only continue, but probably accelerate as the initial crest of “Baby Boomers” begins to reach their 60’s (62 is the minimum age to be eligible for retired dues status in IEEE). Life members peaked at nearly 31,000 in 2002. In 2003 a new policy was put in place that requires

Life members wishing to retain an “active” IEEE membership to return a renewal profile to IEEE each year. The immediate result of this policy change was a 17% decline in the number of life members in 2003. Since then the numbers have remained fairly stable; however, we project that they are likely to start to climb again around 2010 or 2011 when the first wave of the Baby Boomer generation begins reaching age 65.

Student memberships in IEEE continue to see significant growth, and, except for retirees, are the only reduced dues category to have increased in 2006. You will note in the accompanying table that there was a dip in student memberships in 2003 - the result of a fairly steep increase in student dues that year - but they have since recovered and have reached an all-time high this year. In fact, in 2006, students represent nearly one-quarter of our entire membership population.

In summary, in 2006 nearly 40% of IEEE members received some type of discount on their dues rate. These discounts ranged between 100% for life members, to 50% for most other categories. Students are receiving a discount of roughly 75% of the professional member rate, and they are also not charged with any Regional assessments, or the IEEE-USA assessment. While these programs are important, and allow IEEE to provide access to members who otherwise might not be able to afford it, we must also keep in mind who pays the bills. One way to help maintain a healthy balance is to continue to focus on insuring that student members maintain their membership once they graduate and enter professional life. In that sense, the discount offered to students might be looked at as an investment, rather than a subsidy.