What professional societies are you a member of? ... and why?

Are you a member of any professional societies (e.g. ASCE, IEEE, NSBE, SWE, etc)?

Which ones? Why are you a member? How much do you participate? What benefits do you get from your membership and participation?

I feel like I should join a professional society. I haven't been a member of any since I've been in college. My work will pay for it, but I can't decide which to join. I'm trying to figure out which one and if it's worth it.

I wish there was an FEA and computer simulation focused professional organization. I know NAFEMS exists, but (1) they don't offer individual memberships only company/organization membership and (2) they definitely have a European focus. I'm not sure how active they are in the US.

I'm in ASHRAE because 1. my employer pays for the membership and 2. I actually use their handbooks (plus they look fancy on my bookshelf).

For the kind of work I'm involved in, ASME wasn't 100% relevant to my work and my local ASHRAE chapter is much more active. Maybe ASME might be a better fit for you?

Apparently being in a "professional association" counts for 1 hour of continuing education... up to 3 per two-year renewal.

jean15paul_PE said:

Apparently being in a "professional association" count for 1 hour of continuing education... up to 3 per two-year renewal.

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CEU for...your license? I'm spoiled, CA doesn't require that. :rotflmao:

I'm a member of IEEE and have been since 2008 ish? 

I started in college since the student chapter paid half of the fee - so I only had to pay 16$ lol.

And having student members be actual card carrying members of IEEE was the only way the department would give us money.

[Though come to find out, we should have been requesting money from the Green Mountain section and getting support that way. BUT I DIGRESS].

I held leadership positions in the student chapter and almost every year as a professional as well. 

I've been secretary, treasurer, PACE, member-at-large for either the section as a whole, an affinity group, or a technical society. 

I've stepped back from being involved with the overall section and I'm focusing on my technical society.

My company pays for my membership and they're a lot more likely to send me to conferences as I'm in leadership roles. Plus it's networking with folks in my industry. 

NSPE mostly for the 15 "free" PDHs that come with membership.  I'm not active and don't particularly care for networking.

NAFI - National Association of Fire Investigators.

Because they are responsible for the CFEI (Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator) credential that is pretty important to my job.

American Welding Society, I am on a couple of technical committees and am vice chair of one.  It allows me to stay engaged in a lot of formal inquiries and writing of new code rules, which benefits my current job/employer and gives the opportunity to genuinely fix stuff that is screwed up for future editions.  Lots of industry contacts in a very niche field, too.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I genuinely appreciate the info and perspectives.

@Supe is my industry contact via EB

Ramnares P.E. said:

NSPE mostly for the 15 "free" PDHs that come with membership.  I'm not active and don't particularly care for networking.

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Can you elaborate? NSPE give 15 free PDHs?

jean15paul_PE said:

Can you elaborate? NSPE give 15 free PDHs?

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Is it 15 specific seminars, or you get to pick 15 from a full catalog? I wouldn't want to take something irrelevant to my work (e.g. building codes or something)

jean15paul_PE said:

Is it 15 specific seminars, or you get to pick 15 from a full catalog? I wouldn't want to take something irrelevant to my work (e.g. building codes or something)

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go to the website and click that light blue link - it lists some of the available courses (some of which surprisingly are accepted by NYS)

@jean15paul_PE Specific seminars unfortunately.

jean15paul_PE said:

Are you a member of any professional societies (e.g. ASCE, IEEE, NSBE, SWE, etc)?

Which ones? Why are you a member? How much do you participate? What benefits do you get from your membership and participation?

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SWE and ASCE, although I just let my ASCE membership lapse, because it happens over the holidays.  I was very active in SWE until this year, I have been on the board pretty much my entire engineering career, and really, even before.  I have held all positions in out local section.  ASCE asked me this year if I would consider being on the board since i had completed my SWE obligation, but I had to take break this year.  

I am a co-chair for a conference that our local ASCE/SAME sections put on every year, so that is some involvement I suppose.  

My company will pay for one technical, one civic and one professional society membership.  So I do ASCE as my professional and SWE as my civic (it's a stretch, but they don't question it. I have not picked a technical, as a lot of them the company is a member of.

Note:  My company pays of all my annual fees, chapter meetings costs, annual conference fees.

NSPE - I go to the lunch meetings for CEU's that are five minutes from the office.

PMI (Project Management Institute)  - I am kind of a Project Management geek and the restaurant where they hold their lunch meetings is good and fairly close by.  I enjoyed the local Symposium that I attended for the first time last year.

USGBC (US Green Building Council) - Corporate membership.  I am not involved locally, but I can get my LEED specific CEU's for free and have been to Greenbuild a couple of times (can get too political at times though).

ULI (Urban Land Institute) - have been to a couple local meetings and national conventions, but not recently.

MBI (Modular Building Institute).  My old boss asked me to join, but have not been involved in anything yet.

PMI (Project Management Institute) - I'm a PMP and I like the resources (e.g. webinars, books)

AAAE (American Association of Airport Executives) - I do executive stuff at airports.

CMAA (Construction Management Association of America) - I have a CCM. This org also helps me to maintain my credential and to stay on top of cool innovations in construction.

WTS (Women's Transportation Seminar) - I love the community work we do to introduce young women to transportation engineering.

American Nuclear Society. It's scary to think that I've been a member for more than half of my life. I was active in undergrad. But it waned after that for quite a while. I even considered letting my membership lapse for a few years, basically only renewing at the last minute. But I've been pretty active in the last year and I've been doing some work with one of their committees. I'll probably bite the bullet next August and get the lifetime membership.

I was in NSPE for a couple years, but I wasn't very active. I like how much they offer, how active they are, and what they do for the profession. But the membership dues were may more than I wanted to spend. The "free" NSPE PDH's were tempting, but they weren't too applicable to my work or needs; and by themselves didn't justify the cost of the membership.