I am a paying member of APEGGA. The Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta. That's a mouthful, eh? This is the regulatory body that governs the conduct of engineering and geophysical professionals in Alberta. A common criticism, which I share, is that aside from deigning to acknowledge us as professionals, laying out an annual curriculum to maintain professional status and bringing the ruler down on those who stray from the Code, what exactly does APEGGA do to benefit members such that we pay annual dues?
One of the things APEGGA does is publish a monthly newspaper of current goings-on in the engineering world in Alberta (the geophysical aspects of APEGGA are frequently glossed over), which has recently been offered in Email form. I received my second E-issue today. It included the annual salary survey of Alberta engineers, ranked on varying levels of responsibility. I'm hovering somewhere between a C and a D and I still think I'm underpaid, but that's not the topic of this post.
I actually made it to the bottom of the Email where it thanked me for subscribing. At least I think it did. What I read was: Thank you! M65586. This is my membership number. This is not my name. I have never referred to myself by this number. While I am well aware that it is very convenient to sort people by whichever number is assigned them on acceptance into Organisation X, I am somewhat saddened by the chronic de-personalisation that is caused by the increasing use of technology.
I think that's one of the reasons I decided to publish this on-line journal. To put something personal into an unfeeling medium. An acquaintance of mine one said, or quoted someone else as having said, that the recent trend in 'blogging' is the electronic equivalent of dogs barking on street corners.
bow wow
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