Membership
Member grade is geared for those that meet the full educational and/or work experience requirements in IEEE designated fields. Otherwise, Associate grade is also available. Student grade is for full-time undergraduates.
Associate or Student grade can lead to elevation to Member grade, while Member grade can lead to elevation to Senior Member and, for some, Fellow grade. Member or Senior Member may be applied for together with required documentation, while Fellow is conferred only by invitation of the Board of Directors.
Many members of the Southern Minnesota IEEE section are qualified for senior member status, but have not applied.
It is not very difficult. A hardcopy application can be obtained by contacting Membership Development Chair. Or download the application form yourself via IEEE. The easiest method is to apply through the online application at the above link. Take a look at what is required for input. Most of it is filling in blanks, but some effort will be required to fill in your job history. Do this offline and paste into the application. If you add to your form that the nomination was recommended by the Southern Minnesota Section, our section will get an extra $10 on your success.
The requirements for senior membership are reasonable: ten years of professional practice, with significant performance shown over five years. "Significant performance" does not necessarily mean that you run the company; it means that you have significant responsibility or achievement. You do not have to have received patents or special awards. The requirements are spelled out better in the application, so get a copy and check it out.
In addition to the required experience, you need recommendations from three senior members. If you don't know three senior members, don't despair. We will arrange to have senior members sit down with you to learn about your experience. We suggest you write up a short resume, describing your five years of significant performance. It will probably take you only a half hour to fill out the application and another half hour or so to create or update a resume to guide the discussion.
