The IEEE is doing a better job of raising the public’s awareness of engineering and technology, according to the 2006 Member Satisfaction Survey, which asked how satisfied members are with the IEEE and its services. Satisfaction with “promoting the public understanding of technology” grew the most, jumping 4.4 percentage points compared with 2005 to a satisfaction rating of 65.3 percent. Creating “a public understanding and appreciation of engineering in society” was up 2.9 points to 61.5 percent.

Overall satisfaction with the IEEE rose slightly. Last year, 81.7 percent of those surveyed said they were “highly satisfied” or “satisfied” with the IEEE, a slight increase from the 80.5 percent who said that during the 2005 survey. Members also gave a thumbs-up to the quality of IEEE publications and the process for renewing membership. But IEEE Travel Services and the IEEE Job Site didn’t fare as well in the annual survey.

“Statistically, overall satisfaction was basically stable,” notes Elena Gerstmann, director of IEEE’s Strategic Research and Planning, in Piscataway, N.J., the group that supervised the survey. “There were a number of individual areas in which member satisfaction grew significantly, and no areas where it dropped significantly.”

TOP SPOTS Of the 40 products and services that respondents ranked, the process of updating each member’s contact information came out on top, with 91.1 percent of members giving the process a “highly satisfied” or “satisfied” rating. The next highest rated activities were the processes for joining the IEEE and renewing one’s membership, with combined satisfaction ratings of 91 percent. The third highest category was the quality of “Transactions/Magazines/Journals/Letters,” with a combined 90.7 percent “highly satisfied” or “satisfied” rating.

Other possible ratings were “less than satisfied but not dissatisfied,” “dissatisfied,” “highly dissatisfied,” “not aware,” “aware of, but no opinion,” and “no answer.”

The lowest rated categories were IEEE Travel Services and the IEEE’s Job Site, with only 46.8 percent and 49.5 percent of respondents, respectively, indicating that they were satisfied or highly satisfied with those services.

All other categories were rated as “satisfied” or “highly satisfied” by a majority of respondents.

The annual Member Satisfaction Survey was conducted between September and November. The 16-question form was sent both by postal mail and e-mail to 2040 higher-grade members around the world (students and life members were excluded). Those surveyed were chosen to be statistically representative of the institute’s higher-grade membership. Of those recipients, 708 answered the survey—a response rate of 35 percent. More than 51 percent of those who responded work in private industry, 26 percent in academia, and 8 percent for government or public agencies. The rest are self-employed, retired, unemployed, or work for nonprofit organizations.

PLANS TO RENEW The members surveyed had an opportunity to write comments about why they do or do not plan to renew their membership. More than 93 percent said they “definitely” or “probably” would renew. Similar to the result of previous years, the top reason given was to keep technically current, either through publications or conferences.

About 1 percent of respondents indicated they “probably” or “definitely” would not renew. The most common reasons for not being likely to renew were costs and career changes. “Too expensive!” one member wrote.

“As an IEEE member, one could reach the most recent and accurate technical publications in electrical engineering, be aware of the important technical events and conferences, and participate in them,” one member wrote.