Membership Recruitment

The following guidelines are suggestions from which you can develop your own approach. Your objective is to stimulate environmental engineers, environmental scientists, and students to apply for one of the three membership categories: Board Certified (BCEE, BCEEM or BCES), Member, or Student. For BCEE and BCESs, the application process is on a one-year cycle because of the testing process. BCEEMs (Eminence) enjoy two application cycles: typically, one in February and one in August. Applications for these categories may be submitted at any time but are due by March 31 for each year's testing cycle. Member and Student applications can be submitted all year. Here are several things you can do to help the Academy:

You can spread the word in your Sponsoring Organization.
Almost every member of AAEE is also a member of an AAEE Sponsoring Organization. There are eleven Sponsoring Organizations, the largest of which are ASCE, APWA, WEF and AWWA. You can help spread the word about the Academy in your local and regional chapter meetings and through their websites and e-mail systems. The Academy can provide you with handouts for local/regional meetings you attend and provide you a short Power Point presentation for making a brief announcement about the Academy. Please email jcavarretta@aaees.org with any e-mail lists you are able to secure and to request the presentation and handouts.

You can encourage colleagues individually.
Take 5 minutes a week to place a call to a colleague between January and early March. Set a time on your calendar as a reminder. Emphasize that there are membership categories designed to serve environmental engineers and environmental scientists at all stages of their careers. Point them to http://www.aaees.org and use the Become Board Certified brochure announcement (located here) and About the Academy (located here) to give them information about what the Academy does and membership categories. Urge them to also invite their colleagues. Over the years personal contact has been found to be the most effective recruiting approach.

You can encourage groups of people by using e-mail.
Construct an e-mail that has your own touch and distribute it to people in your workplace and your professional organization who you think would be good candidates. Attach some of the recruiting materials attached to this e-mail. Offer to help them understand the membership categories and how to apply. For example, if you are e-mailing potential BCEEs, BCEEMs or BCESs, attach the Member Benefits for Board Certification (located here) available from the AAEES website. Try to do several of these types of e-mails between January and March. A sample e-mail (located here) is available for you to personalize.

You can request your CEO or high level manager to send a letter to staff.
A sample letter (located here) is available on the AAEE website for you to personalize.