Membership

Join IEEE Benelux

If you are an IEEE member and live in Belgium, the Netherlands, or Luxembourg, you are automatically a member of the Benelux Section. Full details of how to become an IEEE member are on the Join IEEE website.

If you are applying for Student Membership, you can only apply on-line. If you are applying for Full Membership, you are encouraged to apply on-line; however you can alternatively print out and complete a paper membership application form.

IEEE membership grades

IEEE has several grades for its membership:

• student member
• graduate student member
  • student member with a previous degree
• associate member
  • members that do not qualify for normal membership
• member
• senior member
• fellow
• honorary member

Furthermore, there are the additional special categories of Life Member, GOLD member and affiliate. More information on the membership grades can be found on the IEEE webpage: http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/qualifications.html.

Membership elevations

Becoming an IEEE fellow

The IEEE fellow grade recognizes an unusual distinction in the profession, and is conferred only by invitation of the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of IEEE’s designated fields of interest. If you know of a person, or maybe  yourself, who might be nominated for the grade of IEEE fellow, you should first have a look at the following webpage: http://www.ieee.org/fellows. You are also advised to contact the section, as we might be able to help you in the process.

Upgrade to senior member

If you can answer yes to these three questions, you are eligible to upgrade your status to the grade of Senior Member:

• Are you an engineer, scientist, educator, technical executive or originator in an IEEE field?
• Have you been in professional practice for at least ten years (can include 3 years for degree study in an IEEE-designated field, 4 years for degree plus masters, or 5 years for a PhD)?
• Have you shown significant performance over a period of at least five of those years? This can be in roles such as team leader, task supervisor, researcher with some measure of success (papers), or faculty developing and teaching courses with research and publications.

In short, if you are a senior engineer in your company, or you have extensive experience in academia or government, you most likely qualify for senior membership. In the Benelux section, we have too few senior members! For further information, please check the Guide to Applying for Senior Member Grade or contact the section benelux@ieee.org.

Senior membership nomination by the Benelux section

The Benelux Section (through its Membership development officer) will be happy to nominate you! Therefore, email us so we can provide you with the necessary information to fill in your application form:

The section is always happy to nominate respected members of our section, and we can also help you look for suitable references.

Affiliate and associate member grade elevation

If you are an Affiliate, you are member of a society, but not of the IEEE itself. Consider also joining the IEEE and benefiting also from those benefits.

In case you are an Associate Member, you do not qualify for IEEE member grade (e.g. you do not have an engineering or science (bachelors) degree). This might be because the data that IEEE has on your experience might be wrong or outdated. You may consider to request an elevation to IEEE Member grade. For further information, please check the Member Grade Elevation website.

The Benelux section is one of the most succesfull sections within Region 8. The membership in the Benelux section keeps growing. With nearly 4000 members, we the fifth largest section in Region 8 (after UK and republic of Ireland, Germany, Italy and Spain).

Membership counts

Only student members:

Note that student member grade has been split in 2007 in graduate student member (those students with a degree) and student members. Graduate student members have all rights that a normal member has (can vote and can hold office), but pay the dues of a student member. The decline in the total number of student members is caused by a change in IEEE policy, where students are given member grade upon graduation (August) and not in the beginning of the next year.

Honerary members, fellows and senior members:
 

Associate member to normal member

Associate Member grade is designed for technical and non-technical applicants who do not meet the qualifications for Member grade, but who would benefit through membership and participation in the IEEE, and for those who are progressing, through continuing education and work experience, towards the qualifications for Member grade.

This means that associate members did not comply to IEEE member requirements when first registering.

The requirements for being a member are the following:

Member grade is limited to those who have satisfied IEEE-specified educational requirements and/or who have demonstrated professional competence in IEEE-designated fields of interest. For admission or transfer to the grade of Member, a candidate shall be either:

• An individual who shall have received a three-to-five year university-level or higher degree (i) from an accredited institution or program and (ii) in an IEEE-designated field
• An individual who shall have received a three-to-five year university-level or higher degree from an accredited institution or program and who has at least three years of professional work experience engaged in teaching, creating, developing, practicing or managing in IEEE-designated fields; or
• An individual who, through at least six years of professional work experience, has demonstrated competence in teaching, creating, developing, practicing or managing within IEEE-designated fields.

  This means every professional with a bachelor degree (graduaat or HBO) or a master (university or university college) or 6 years of experience in anything related to IEEE (Power engineering, computer science, plasma sciences, photonics,...) can be a full member.

  If you are a student, you should apply for student membership which is much cheaper (27 $/year instead of 147 $).

  Many of the Benelux associate members do qualify for full member but they are not because: problems during registration (e.g. when joined using handwritten forms), incomplete (old) data in IEEE records, unknown school systems outside of US (a "hogeschool" should be translated as college and not as "High school", which is our secondary school...),...

  In 2009, we did an action to upgrade the number of associate members, and subsequently, the number of associate members reduced from 256 to 108. These associate members are now full member of IEEE.

  In order to become a member (with the same costs, but more benefits), you should fill in this following webform. Not all the items are needed, you just need to clarify that you fulfill the requirements stated above.