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IET Scotland still alive?

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Is the IET still alive in Scotland?


I've been a member since the late 90s.   Joining the IEE when I was at uni.   Today, I have the renewal pack through for £ 170+ and I'm wondering is it worth renewing?


Reports that the Teacher Building has closed, I walked past late 2018 but I haven't been for an event in years.   But I'm not seeing many events being advertised for Scotland either.


I've always felt that the IEE / IET have been too London centric.   When the Teacher building opened I hoped it would act as a mini-Savoy place where you could get publications sent up for you to read from the library, but that never happened.   Now, the reports I have read is that it's closing because it needed £200k of work but there was no hesitation in spending £30+ million on Savoy place.   Surely it would be better value to sell Savoy place and put the money back in to local services?


The recent re-launch of the IET's brand to me looks like a marketing exercise gone wrong.   I have to be careful that I'm not being misunderstood, but the output from the IET recently has been about teaching school children about STEM and with a bias towards the female gender.   Both valuable, although I would argue that it should be gender-neutral.   The pink "=" sign in the new logo doesn't suggest neutrality!   I think the IET is missing touch with promoting engineering excellence for all.


So is the IET still for professional engineers?   Or is it more focused upon girl-school teachers?   The output suggests the latter.


Sadly, after 30+ years of membership I think my time in the IEE / IET is coming to an end.   I've opened discussions with the IEEE and they have confirmed with me I am not alone.   They state they've heard from a good number of disillusioned IET members wishing to move to the IEEE.

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  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Sadly, I have not had a compelling reason to stay in the IET.   In fact, I'd say there's been a lack of response to my concerns upon the direction the IET is taking.


    So after about 30 (probably 33) years of membership I'm off.


    Each year it became more and more difficult to justify the membership fee.   I think what do I get?   A magazine which is increasingly becoming more irrelevant to engineer with lighter and lighters articles that you have already read about in general media.    When I joined the IEE we got a journal specific to the area you were interested in, but that stopped many years ago.


    IET events?   I haven't been to one in many years.   Just not seen any that would justify my time attending.   I've travelled to many industry organised events during that time, but none organised by the IET for engineers.


    Then there's the current output.   To put it bluntly, it seems that the IET now is focused upon encouraging young school girls in to engineering.   This isn't something that I disagree with, but it seems to be at the cost of encouraging all school children.   There's a bias towards encouraging young women engineers with special awards, but no equivalent for all young engineers.


    If I had any doubts on this biased agenda the pink equals sign in the new logo confirmed it.


    After many years of telling myself just pay the fees and see how the IET is this year, I simply can't justify my £170 membership fee.   I'm getting nothing from IET membership.

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  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Sadly, I have not had a compelling reason to stay in the IET.   In fact, I'd say there's been a lack of response to my concerns upon the direction the IET is taking.


    So after about 30 (probably 33) years of membership I'm off.


    Each year it became more and more difficult to justify the membership fee.   I think what do I get?   A magazine which is increasingly becoming more irrelevant to engineer with lighter and lighters articles that you have already read about in general media.    When I joined the IEE we got a journal specific to the area you were interested in, but that stopped many years ago.


    IET events?   I haven't been to one in many years.   Just not seen any that would justify my time attending.   I've travelled to many industry organised events during that time, but none organised by the IET for engineers.


    Then there's the current output.   To put it bluntly, it seems that the IET now is focused upon encouraging young school girls in to engineering.   This isn't something that I disagree with, but it seems to be at the cost of encouraging all school children.   There's a bias towards encouraging young women engineers with special awards, but no equivalent for all young engineers.


    If I had any doubts on this biased agenda the pink equals sign in the new logo confirmed it.


    After many years of telling myself just pay the fees and see how the IET is this year, I simply can't justify my £170 membership fee.   I'm getting nothing from IET membership.

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