gold - embs goes for the gold!
TRANSCRIPT
92
EMBS goes for the GOLD!
Lisa Lazareck andGerald Anleitner
IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2006
GOLD
If you are an IEEE member who grad-uated with your first professionaldegree within the last ten years, youare automatically part of IEEE
GOLD! “Graduates of the Last Decade”is an IEEE entity working at providingbenefits for young IEEE members aftertheir student member status has expired.Around the world, there are over 47,000GOLD members and 100 GOLDAffinity Groups. Typical GOLD activi-ties include networking, educationalactivities, skill development workshops,and leadership seminars—events dedi-cated to making the transition from stu-dent to professional a smooth one.
Fostering professional development isone of the key areas of interest for theIEEE and Engineering in Medicine andBiology Society (EMBS). (The missionstatement is available at http://www.embs.org.) Of equal importance are theattraction of new members, retention ofexisting members, and facilitation ofmembership transition. Ten years ago,IEEE’s Regional Activities Board (RAB)created the GOLD program to do justthat—focus volunteer efforts on the diffi-cult transition period. The continuing goalof GOLD is to find out what studentsneed from their Society at this particularstage of their careers and how theirSociety can, in turn, offer additional valueof membership. One of the newest GOLDinitiatives is the 2005 GOLD/SocietyInteraction Project, where the quality andquantity of interaction between GOLDand several selected pilot Societies isimproved and augmented by increasedcommunication and collaboration. Theproject’s overall goal is to increase attrac-tiveness of Society membership and satis-faction with Society membership
As one of the selected pilot Societies,EMBS is pleased to report that LisaLazareck (2004–2005 Student Repre-sentative) is volunteering as the 2006EMB Society GOLD coordinator. Lisa
will dedicate her time to establish whatexactly transitioning student membersneed, want, and must have from EMBS.Initial projects include advertisingGOLD-related activities, leadershipopportunities, etc. in IEEE Engineeringin Medicine and Biology Magazine (seethis column in the upcomingSeptember/October 2006 issue of thismagazine), on the student Web site(http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/embs/student/), and through the EMBS-GOLD mailing list; reporting to theEMBS Administrative and ExecutiveCommittees (AdCom, ExCom) and theIEEE GOLD Committee; and running aGOLD get-together at the EMBS annu-al conference (the first installment forthe 28th Annual InternationalConference in New York).
Get the most out of your developingcareer, find your place in the world oftechnology, and connect with col-leagues across the globe through theGOLD-EMBS Interaction. “GOLDen”ideas, questions, concerns, opinions,desired activities, announcements, andoffers to help are needed and most wel-come by your new coordinator. Pleaseemail [email protected]—shewould love to hear from you!
Discount forGraduating Student Members IEEE student members who graduate andare elevated to full IEEE membership willautomatically receive a one-year discountof 50% off of the full higher grade IEEEand Society membership dues rates uponrenewal (see http://www.ieee.org/ organiza-tions/rab/gold/). The offer is available onceto IEEE student members upon their gradu-ation and elevation to full higher IEEEmembership. The discount is available to allIEEE student members graduating with anundergraduate or graduate degree.
IEEE student members who previous-ly graduated with a bachelor’s degreeand received a discount upon their eleva-tion to full IEEE member grade wouldnot be eligible to receive another 50%discount if they returned to school andcompleted an advanced degree program.
Lisa Lazareck is studying for a doctor-ate of philosophy in electrical engineer-ing in the Engineering ScienceDepartment at the University of Oxford.
Gerald Anleitner is currently workingin the logistics area of a German car man-ufacturing company. He holds a degreein computer science and linguistics.
Lisa LazareckGerald Anleitner