Ok, I do appreciate that this is a very very late post given that the conference is this Tuesday! But anyway...
I'm a full time consulting engineer. I have been volunteering for the IET/IEE for a very long time now, but of course the day job has to come first. I do enjoy going to conferences, but they have to fit into everything else.
I have a real concern that by, for example, scheduling conferences on a weekday the IET is dissuading working engineers and engineering managers from being involved. Yes, I do appreciate that a large proportion of volunteers are retired, but I feel that scheduling events like this forces a bias towards volunteers being retired, rather than encouraging a mix of retired and the employed.
I have always felt passionately that if the IET (and other PEIs) are to appeal to engineers and the engineering industry then we need to be clearly a peer group for them. And to be that we need more busy people involved. The engineer or manager who hasn't got time to get involved has, almost by definition, precisely the insight that the engineering community is looking for. (And again, because I know this can be a "light the blue touch paper" subject, this is not to say retired members don't, just that I would hope everyone would agree that we need that mix.)
Now I appreciate that there's a couple of points here. Just as the busy engineer can have trouble taking time off in the week, so it can also often be difficult for them to take time off at the weekend. (If they're under, say, their mid-50s they may be looking after their children and if over may be looking after their parents!) And also some companies will give time off to attend IET events - although in my experience not many do.
But I'd just like to be reassured that this potential issue is being constantly and seriously considered?
Anyway, I do hope all goes well at the virtual conference, I cannot be there as I will be in a client meeting all day.
Thanks,
Andy
