My name is Juan Carlos Montero, and I am the new vice president of Membership and Image, which gives me the privilege to share, with my current and new colleagues, the benefits of being a member of the IEEE PES.

I became a member over 16 years ago, when I was a student, looking for more information on technology trends, and focusing my IEEE membership on the technical area that I was more passionate about: power systems.

From the start, a PES member receives valuable information from Power & Energy Magazine, bimonthly, on both digital and printed versions, which I take along on trips when time is well spent. The magazine has the correct technical level to keep us up to date on the most transcendental topics of modern society, during all stages of our professional career. Recently, we have the benefit of digital access to IEEE Electrification Magazine, so remember to keep an eye on your mailbox for their web address for the most recent issue.

A PES student member, no doubt shows to be eager to become a better professional, and that’s why our society empowers that spirit through benefits such as the creation and support of Student Chapters on IEEE Student Branches, conference subscription discounts, and the creation of financial support programs to attend major PES events all over the world. Two great value programs for students are IEEE PES Scholarship and IEEE PES Careers. The first one promotes work force growth, and the second one is a free service to quickly connect with employers, reason why I invite you to check them out, as we are working on expanding its coverage worldwide.

If you are a student or you have a friend who is considering IEEE PES, membership´s first year is available for free!

Benefits increase as we start our professional life. Just by getting the IEEE member grade, IEEE YP PES membership, under Aaron Leger´s leadership, it provides a large number of activities to ease transition to the corporate life. Aaron has accomplished an extraordinary work, and has implemented a group of work with volunteers of all IEEE regions, covering worldwide activities.

During all stages of my membership, participating on local Chapter’s activities has been another key aspect. Chapters continuously include technical activities to strength, not only our knowledge, but also our relationship with other professionals, providing a better understanding of the challenges our society faces. Professional network that arises from these chapters, lead to strong connections, often important for the rest of our lives. Today, IEEE PES has over 230 chapters worldwide, reason why we encourage you to connect with your local organization through our Chapter Locator tool.

Our PES experience would not be complete without knowing and taking advantage of the PES Resource Center, led in a great way by Luis (Nando) Ochoa. This platform allows us to access the great IEEE PES information from any part of the world, independently. From any device with web connection, we found over 800 products for FREE, including tutorials, videos and PES events presentations. PES remote access is also competes with the large variety of webinars offered during the year.

Another great initiative is the PES Women in Power, led successfully by Shay Bahramirad, which targets a more diverse leadership through professional promotion support, focusing on women energetic industry network and education. Men and women from all over the world are part of this initiative, as volunteers, so we hope we will count on you too.

Another great benefit for PES members is the possibility to be part of our Technical Committees. ?  It is not just a matter of learning new skills and technologies to gain information and insight from others through committee participation, it also helps your company to drive and understand key technical issues. Your participation protects and enhances your company’s current and future investments in key technologies. Do you know 40%+ IEEE Standards are from PES?

PES recognizes important technical, educational and service contributions through the conferral of numerous awards. Don Morrow successfully coordinates this great work that gives us the satisfaction to celebrating with our colleagues. If you know someone you consider deserves recognition for years of service and accomplishments, visit our rewards website, and send the nomination. We are certain that there are great people worldwide that had accomplished incredible goals and have contributed for a better world.

PES membership also allows us to strength our leadership skills and activities execution. If you have a technical activity in mind, that consider will have a positive impact to our society, apply to our Member-Driven Initiatives program. PES created this program with a $100,000 fund, for our members as a great benefit.

IEEE PES is the second largest IEEE society, and we closed 2015 with over 35,000 members worldwide. I invite you to discover or review the benefits of being part of the IEEE PES family. Visit our website and see our new video gallery with testimonies and data of great value. Talk to a member or contact me to discuss how you can be a part of us or how we add more value to our PES.