AEA was designed to be a mass organization comprised of individual Engineers (no company memberships). It welcomes all Engineers, from young Engineers and Engineering students to partners and owners of Engineering firms. There are approximately 3 million Engineers in the United States. AEA's goal is to represent all of them. The rationale for this is that all individuals in technical fields have common interests and share similar concerns such as low pay and lack of recognition. Bringing Engineers under the banner of AEA makes a lot of sense since there is strength in numbers. The classic example of this is AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). Because AARP has over 35 million members, it has tremendous political clout. In fact, Congress will not touch many government programs, such as social security and Medicare, which affects senior citizens.

The typical member of AEA will be a graduate from an ABET recognized Engineering program. In addition, AEA offers non-voting Associate Membership to those in allied technical fields such as scientists, technologists, and technicians (e.g., NICET grades), and others interested in promoting our objectives. AEA also offers student and international memberships. Both of these classes of membership are non-voting. AEA is governed by a Board of Directors made up of 6 volunteer members. The Board is empowered by the By-laws to hire a President to execute the policies of the Board. The President is a full time paid officer of AEA. He/she serves at the pleasure of the Board. His/her longevity as President will depend on how effectively he/she achieves the objectives of AEA and carry out the mandates of the Board. The President is fully accountable to the Board and will be dismissed if he/she does not produce results. The Board is also authorized to hire an Executive Director who will carry out the day-today operations of AEA. This is a full-time paid position. The Executive Director will have a staff to assist him/her. Presently the position of President and Executive Director are vacant. As soon as AEA membership grows sufficiently (approximately 40,000 members) we will be able to fill these positions.