IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2020 - 12

leader's corner

T

T H E I E E E P OW E R & E N E RGY
Society (PES) provides many oppor-
tunities and benefits to its members
worldwide and continuously seeks ways
to expand its support for them. PES
membership is truly global, with 261
PES Chapters worldwide and most of
the Society's 38,000 members residing
outside the United States. The growth
of membership in Latin America, Eu-
rope, and Asia has been very impor-
tant in recent years. I am from Costa
Rica, Central America, and my per-
sonal and professional development
have benefited greatly from my volun-
teerism with PES.
PES is the oldest and second larg-
est of the IEEE's 39 Societies. We are
proud of our overall numbers and the
widespread volunteerism evident in
our membership as well as our abil-
ity to attract young engineers and stu-
dents, who have revitalized our activi-
ties and initiatives.
PES also benefits from the strength
of our diversity and the wide variety
of technical and nontechnical back-
grounds, including utilities, munici-
palities, regional transmission organi-
zations/independent system operators,
academics, researchers, e qu ipment
manufacturers, system suppliers, gov-
ernment officials, regulators, test labs,
consultants, and many others. Our
strength is in attracting different audi-
ences that share new technical ideas
and best practices developed by mem-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2019.2959050
Date of current version: 19 February 2020

12	

ieee power & energy magazine	

Juan Carlos Montero Quirós

benefits of membership
how we support our members

bers who actively participate in PES
activities as well as initiatives that
support our remarkable achievements.
Did you know that more than 40%
of IEEE standards are developed by
PES members?

Support for PES Students
PES has long recognized the impor-
tance and value of student participa-
tion in its initiatives. Students not only
revitalize membership but also con-
tribute to and energize our activities
worldwide. At the end of 2019, PES
had more than 6,000 student members,
which is one of the highest of all IEEE
Societies. PES awards funds to student
Chapters based on their local perfor-
mance. A PES Chapters Student Activ-
ities Committee also provides student
Chapters with resources and guidance
for their activities.
In the recent years, PES held three
PES international student congress-
es focused on student leaders. These
congresses provided opportunities for
student leaders to share their local
experiences and best practices while
learning about other cultures and es-
tablishing bonds with leaders from
other countries. This will prove valu-
able to their careers and facilitate syn-
ergies among regions.
We have already observed sever-
al success stories of these congress-
es as shown by the identification of
volunteers who are now integral parts
of the PES organization and active--
ly support global initiatives, such as
the 2019 IEEE PES Day celebrations

(22 April), with more than 300 co-
ordinated activities worldwide. This
anniversary commemorates our name
change from the IEEE Power Engi-
neering Society to the Power & En-
ergy Society.
The Society also supports several
scholarships, such as the IEEE PES
Scholarship Plus Initiative, IEEE PES
Erich Gunther Future Power Innovator,
IEEE PES G. Ray Ekenstam Memo-
rial Scholarship, and the recent IEEE
Power & Energy Society Outstand-
i ng St udent Scholarship. Addition-
ally, students wishing to attend major
conferences held worldwide can re-
ceive support from PES, which recog-
nizes the international composition of
our membership.

Social Media
PES now communicates more dynami-
cally with our members using so-
cial media. Social networks promote
Chapter activities, share information
generated by technical committees,
notify the availability of high-impact
technical reports, and recognize all of
our volunteers. The live streaming of
international events using social media
enables our membership to sample var-
ious technical topics and grow profes-
sionally. For example, live broadcasts
have been made available from con-
ferences held in Slovenia, the United
States, Ecuador, Bosnia and Herze-
govina, and Thailand. I recommend
following PES channels on Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and IEEE
Collabratec and checking for new
march/april 2020
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2020

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