AEA American Engineering Association

Engineer Surplus– American Engineers Must Fight for Survival

Engineering can and should be one of the finest, most interesting and challenging careers to pursue. However, when one looks at the Engineer and STEM Supply/Demand Ratio and the level of work demanded of them it is easy to see a large surplus exists.

Pitfalls: One of the significant problems facing engineers is Under-Utilization.¹ If an engineer spends ten percent of his or her time doing engineering and the rest of their time doing support or non-engineering work they will, over a ten year period, accrue only one year of engineering experience. This is a big step towards career destruction. One has to recognize this early on with their first job. Doing the same work repeatedly, year after year does not qualify as years of experience. When a job makes little use of your education and skills you should be looking elsewhere. With each job, you should be increasing your experience, knowledge and worth.

Another important point: Corporations’ Human Resource people are looking for new employees with experience. They want you to have done, in the past, what they expect you to be doing in their present or future. Don’t buy into the academic “take this course and you will get a job”. Educators can guarantee nothing. They can’t even guarantee a quality education.

Due to a surplus - and there is a surplus - an engineer can be washed out at thirty five to forty years of age. At one time, many thought this to be “Age Discrimination”; in reality, it was just “Salary Discrimination”. Bean Counters give little consideration to the advantages of having senior engineers cultured by years of experience on their staff. To them, the dollar is more important.

Another path towards career destruction is the lack of professionalism and attention to the forces that are antagonistic to the Engineering career. By professionalism, I refer to the pride of being an engineer, the integrity, ethical behavior and satisfaction of solving problems and doing a good job. I am also proud to have had the satisfaction of working with so many other engineers, manufacturing, and support people. They were the people who made my life as an engineer such a pleasure and so rewarding. You should all enjoy the same pleasures. This is all very good, but job opportunity is also very important. One cannot have this with an Engineer (STEM) surplus.

Major forces that are antagonistic to the Engineering and STEM Professions are the government (NSF), the College Empire and Corporate America. These three and the pseudo-professional engineering societies driven by academia and the corporate managers have removed the engineers’ interests from the table. They strive to increase degree production and maintain a high Supply/Demand Ratio (SDR). They [IEEE as one example] supported NSF through their lies and fabrications about Engineer Shortages².

The legislative efforts of these groups have done nothing to oppose importing foreign workers, and nothing to increase U.S. manufacturing jobs and opportunities for American Engineers³. They support maintaining a high SDR. Incoming foreign Engineers will face the same hardships⁵.

Legislation has been contrary to your best interests and will not change until we can influence legislators and our Representatives by having the Engineers, numbers and finance to back our position.

NOTE: The fight starts here^4. AEA needs your support and you need AEA.

1. Utilization of Engineers: http://www.aea.org/pdf/aea_position_utilization.pdf
2. National Science Foundation: http://www.aea.org/nsf.htm
3. Benefits: http://www.aea.org/benefits1.htm
4. Membership: http://www.aea.org/membership.htm
5. Today’s Immigrant - Tomorrow’s Victim: http://www.aea.org/documents/tax/todays_immigrant.pdf

We are always in a building stage: AEA needs new members, participating members, and volunteers to fill AEA BoD positions and for financial support.

You can go to http://www.aea.org/membership.htm to qualify for membership. Your support today will continue through 2011 and you can receive an AEA email address. More about benefits are found under “About AEA”.

HELP WANTED
AEA needs volunteers to fill BOD positions. See AEA Organization under “About AEA.” A minimum of 10 years of engineering industry experience will be helpful. Previous leadership experience in other organizations will also be an asset. Engineers from all Engineering Disciplines are needed.

Chapter Officers are required for locations at major industrial areas to organize meetings. Meetings are usually held in a local Public Library. This provides an opportunity to interface with many engineers to network, build membership and support AEA goals. More about goals at: http://www.aea.org/aboutAEA.htm

ENGINEERS NEEDED
AEA needs 100,000 Members to fund an office in Washington DC and reach their Representatives. The office and staff will maintain AEA records and support lobbying efforts. Members will present our concerns to their Congressional Representatives. We need to make an impression. We also need a Spokesperson for AEA. Someone similar to what actor Charlton Heston did for the NRA.

Focus will be on Engineering employment, opportunities and a future for our members. We support the employment of American Engineers first and deplore the Engineer Shortage Propaganda disseminated by the U.S. Government, College Empire and Corporate America. http://www.aea.org/pdf/AEA_POSITION_Workforce.pdf

All can help by posting and circulating: http://www.aea.org/aeaGlancePrint.pdf

People fall into three groups,
Those who make things happen,
Those who watch things happen,
and
Those who don’t know what’s happening.

Please
Make something happen.
Direct your associates to www.aea.org

The AEA - A Voice For Engineers

The American Engineering Association Inc. (AEA) is dedicated to the enhancement of the engineering profession and U.S. Engineering Capabilities. AEA is a strong advocate for providing opportunities for US engineers and is involved in issues of utilization, skill enhancement, loss of jobs, offshore manufacturing, layoffs, and many others that affect the lives and professional welfare of our engineers. For membership information see; http://www.aea.org/membership.htm

AEA Needs Engineers

We are making a determined effort to oppose legislation that will increase the number of imported engineers, programmers, information technologists and high tech STEM workers. To do this we need your help.
Legislation, increasing the number of imported engineers and high tech workers, discriminates against all members of the American Engineering community, deprives us of job opportunities and reduces salaries for American professionals. Bringing Manufacturing back to the U.S.A. is also a major concern.
It makes no difference whether one has resided in the U.S. for 40 years or 40 minutes. One new imported professional will replace one US professional and 200,000 imported workers will replace 200,000 US workers. This legislation affects us all. Sooner of later everyone will be affected. Importing foreign workers affects us by depressing labor pay rates and deprives us of skill enhancement opportunities.
Discarding senior and mid career engineers and professionals, cultured by years of experience, and replacing them with cheap foreign workers is detrimental to the profession and U.S. Engineering capabilities.
To win this fight we need the support of members of the American Engineering Community. We invite engineers, programmers and all high tech workers to join our fight. You can help your profession and job situation by joining and supporting our efforts.
See our Position about Employing American Professionals and our Opposition to Importing Foreign Workers. http://www.aea.org/pdf/AEA_POSITION_Workforce.
Remember! Join AEA today and send our Position to your Representatives. Let them know we represent your interests.

AEA Benefits

Click here to see what you get and what you don’t get

HELP WANTED

AEA needs volunteers to fill Board positions.
Minimum 10 years of engineering industry experience will be helpful. Previous experience as Leader Members in other organizations will also be an asset.
Members from all Engineering Disciplines will be considered.
Open Positions
Chapter Officers – needed for locations at major industrial areas. Organize monthly meetings, usually held in a local Public Library. This provides an opportunity to interface with many engineers to Network, build Membership and support AEA goals

ENGINEERS NEEDED
AEA needs 100,000 Nation wide Members to be able to fund and support an office in the vicinity of Washington DC. The office and staff will maintain AEA records and support lobbying efforts to enhance the Engineering profession and U.S. Engineering capabilities.

Focus has to be on Engineering employment, opportunities and a future for our members.

Our opposition to the use of and importing foreign workers is http://www.aea.org/pdf/AEA_POSITION_Workforce.pdf

We need this to make things happen. Everyone can help.

To join and become a Member see http://www.aea.org/membership.htm.

Post and circulate the following. http://www.aea.org/aeaGlancePrint.pdf

Reply to AEA@aea.org

A New Beginning for AEA

Everyone has heard how the American Medical Association (AMA) serves the medical profession and doctors, supporting them and providing information to the public. Now, consider how we can build the American Engineering Association (AEA) into such a prestigious group for Engineers. Briefly, an AMA for Engineers. This is something we truly need to continue to ensure that American engineers are the best, most qualified and experienced engineers in the world today. To this end we plan to make some changes – thus, “A New Beginning.”

To standardize and simplify our records: AEA dues/fees will be payable based on the calendar year, and no longer as a subscription beginning with the date you join and ending a year later. The current dues payment will cover the present through Dec. 31, 2008.

Next, to build AEA into a formidable Engineering organization capable of dealing with the professional concerns of our members and those of the Engineering community, we will be improving AEA’s organizational structure. By this we mean to recruit AEA Section representatives, set up AEA Sections around the country, hold local meetings, and enlist AEA Directors to represent each of the major Engineering disciplines. These Directors should address the specific professional concerns and issues related to their discipline along with issues and concerns relating to all engineering fields. Thus uniting the entire profession.

Until now, engineers have been divided by discipline and even sex. That’s over! With AEA we find unity.^1.

Finally, my goal has always been to ”Enhance the Engineering Profession and U.S. Engineering Capabilities.” This means not only uniting engineers from all disciplines and addressing their important needs to insure a full and successful lifetime career, but also taking these needs, along with solutions, directly to our Representatives in Washington. This will require a staff and office in the Washington D.C. area, plus representation on the Hill.

All of these goals depend upon YOU, the members of the Engineering community. With your support and desire to enhance our profession I know we will succeed.^2.

Please, join us in our quest for a better profession.

Sincerely,
Richard F. Tax
President

1. A glance at AEA http://www.aea.org/aeaGlancePrint.pdf
2. This will get you started http://www.aea.org/membership.htm