Officers can be elected on either a semester/quarter basis or a annual basis. Officers should be elected at the end of the semester/quarter prior to their official term of office (i.e., annual officers should be elected toward the end of the spring semester/quarter of the preceding year). Officers will remain in their current positions until the official term of office for new officers begins.
In this manner, the new officers can learn from the current officers and effect a smooth transition, and they will be ready to effectively lead the chapter at the beginning of the new academic year or semester/quarter. Following the election of officers, the current corresponding secretary should complete the Notice of Election of Officers Form, have it signed by the president, corresponding secretary, and faculty advisor, and send it to the following:
Eta Kappa Nu
300 West Adams, Suite 1210
Chicago, IL 60606-5114
Via fax:
1-800-864-2051
Attn: Kathy Ricker, Eta Kappa Nu
Current officers must complete ALL paperwork for their term of officer BEFORE THEY LEAVE OFFICE. This paperwork includes the following:
- Induction forms (and appropriate fees) for all members inducted during that term of office
- Annual Chapter Report
- Detailed Chapter Report (if chapter wishes to be considered for Outstanding Chapter Awards)
Junior Undergraduate Students
The constitution intends that all chapters consider the top quarter of the Junior class for membership.
Senior Undergraduate Students
The constitution intends that all chapters consider the top third of the Senior class for membership. This will include additional members who were not invited as juniors, as well as those who were invited as juniors but did not accept membership at that time.
Graduate Students
All graduate students are encouraged to become members of HKN. They have the right to hold office, serve on committees, and actively participate in chapter activities.
The approval of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department head and the faculty advisor are needed to induct graduate students. It is not necessary to obtain the approval of the chapter where a graduate student did their undergraduate work. Having graduate students as members of your chapter will extend your support and improve your chapter.
Faculty
All faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department with the rank of Assistant Professor or higher should be considered for HKN membership. Their position automatically qualifies them for membership, and your chapter will be stronger if all ECE faculty are HKN members.
Professionals
Electrical and computer engineers who have a distinguished record in industry, government, education, or management may be initiated by your chapter. They need not be graduates of your school, nor is it necessary for you to inquire into their academic records. Approval of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department head and the faculty advisor are needed.
Send each invitee a Recruiting Flyer and a letter from the Department Head, Dean, Faculty Advisor, or other distinguished faculty personally encouraging them to join HKN. Sample letters from Dave Irwin, HKN President, and an Industrial Board member can be downloaded and personalized to meet your Chapter's needs.
The New Member Requisition form must be filled out completely and sent via e-mail AND via postal mail to the HKN headquarters. Be sure the version sent via postal mail is signed by the corresponding secretary and the faculty advisor and is accompanied by the appropriate fees ($40 membership fee for each new member, with checks made payable to "Eta Kappa Nu"). Send only the names and fees of those new members that will be inducted.
Be sure to complete all fields in the New Member Requisition Form, including PERMANENT HOME ADDRESS. (You may suggest that students use a parent's address rather than their college address to assure delivery of "The Bridge" magazine while they are in school and after graduation.)
The New Member Requisition Form is used to order Membership Certificates inscribed with new members' names for presentation during the Induction Ritual.
To ensure that names are correct on the certificates, we ask that you carefully TYPE and PROOFREAD every name before submitting the New Member Requisition Form via e-mail. Chapters should anticipate at least three weeks to pass between the time they submit their New Member Requisition Form and the time that they receive their inscribed certificates.
If there are new members who, in the end, do not attend a chapter's Induction Ritual, HKN will credit that chapter's account by an amount of $35 for each non-attending new member. (There is a standard charge of $5 for each certificate ordered.)
PLEASE NOTE: Members are not officially entered into the rolls of HKN until all paperwork and fees are received.
Current members can use the HKN Web site to update their membership data while in school and after graduation. Members should always include an e-mail address in their data, as communication with HKN members will be sent primarily through e-mail.
The $40 Membership Fee includes a two-year subscription to "The Bridge" magazine, as well as HKN information sent regularly via e-mail. HKN members will be invited to renew their subscriptions as those subcriptions near expiration. Back to top
Invitations for HKN membership should be issued to the candidates at the earliest possible date. View Sample Letter.
Each chapter must complete the Pledge Information Form and e-mail it to the HKN headquarters. Each invitee will receive an e-mail from the HKN Executive Director or an association officer describing the benefits of HKN membership and encouraging them to join. It is very important for all chapter officers to meet with each invitee and encourage them to join, as well.
Your chapter should hold a Pledge Party or Mixer where current members can become acquainted with invitees and answer their questions. Choose a suitable location conducive to a social event, as opposed to a classroom. Having an interesting program and making the meeting a friendly affair with refreshments will encourage camaraderie as well as acceptance of the invitation. It is important to have all active student members present at this initial event.
Also, faculty who are HKN members should be invited to attend. Each chapter might also ask its College Dean or its Electrical and Computer Engineering Department head to say a few words, as part of the event, about the advantages of joining HKN.
Tailor this power point presentation to meet your chapter's needs and present it at your next pledge meeting. Include photos from your service and social activities, details of the pledge process, and benefits your chapter has to offer, such as resume books, relationships with recruiters, and internship opportunities.
If you plan to have pledge duties for the prospective initiates to perform, you should make this clear. Duties should be highly professional, such as meeting each faculty member. Do not ask invitees such as faculty, professionals, or graduate students to perform pledge duties.
Information for Prospective Pledges
Eta Kappa Nu is a very important and distinguished organization. Many of our college chapters provide valuable services to their schools and communities. Members have many opportunities to develop their leadership and teamwork skills while learning to work with students and faculty.
The recognized scholarship and personal traits of HKN members are of considerable interest to employers, thereby giving HKN members an appreciable edge in obtaining the best professional opportunities.
After graduation, members of each HKN chapter can maintain their personal relationships, providing a valuable network in the years ahead.
Also, HKN's "The Bridge" magazine and the HKN Web site focus on significant future directions and industry trends. Featured articles are written by HKN members who are some of the most distinguished professionals in their fields.
The HKN headquarters will help pledges to understand the benefits of becoming a member and will work with each chapter to maximize the percentage of pledges accepting membership invitations.
- Obtain the names and addresses of the parents of the student invitees as soon as possible. This might be done during your one-on-one discussions with pledges or at the Pledge Party. Parents will receive a communique from the HKN headquarters congratulating them on their son/daughter's achievement and encouraging them to suggest that their son/daughter accept the membership invitation.
- Most chapters invite parents, spouses, close relatives, and friends of inductees to attend the Induction Ritual. The chapter's corresponding secretary should send a written Induction Ritual invitation. Parents invest much time, love, and money in their children and are very pleased, and often deeply touched, to see their child honored in a public manner.
- Be sure that current members, inductees, school administrators, and honored guests know the date, time, and place of the Induction Ritual.
- Order Membership Certificates at least three weeks before the Induction Ritual. Other items such as brass castings, which can be used for pledge activities, and jewelry should be ordered directly from the suppliers and will take varying lengths of time to obtain. Honor cords and stoles used at graduation can be ordered directly from the HKN headquarters.
- Check to see that materials needed for the Induction Ritual are in proper order.
- Prepare the Signature Book for signing by the new members.
- The induction team must practice the ritual at least one time before conducting the actual ritual.
View the complete Induction Ritual overview and script.
You need a color reproduction of the Eta Kappa Nu emblem. It can be a light-box, painting, set of slides, or other suitable rendering. View the PowerPoint presentation sample.
Make sure every inductee signs the Signature Book (new Signature Books can be ordered by sending an e-mail to Kathy Ricker at HKN (kathy@hkn.org). The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department head, or his/her representative, should be in attendance and can be asked to distribute Membership Certificates to the inductees.
The Induction Ritual should be followed by a banquet, party, or other social gathering. Have an interesting program---non-engineering speakers and musical programs are popular modes of entertainment. It works best when the Induction Ritual is held at the same location as the social event, thus keeping together the inductees and their guests.
- Outstanding Chapter Award
The purpose of the Outstanding Chapter Award is to recognize excellence in college chapters for their activities. The award is based on the contents and description of chapter activities that are contained in each chapter's Detailed Annual Report. - Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Award
Each fall, the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter asks university chapters to nominate an outstanding student in their ECE departments. Each nominee will be asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire, and a jury of distinguished HKN members selects the most outstanding electrical and computer engineering student in the United States from among these nominees. Several students will also receive an honorable mention. This award honors both the student and the university chapter. Chapters are strongly encouraged to select an outstanding candidate for this award. The Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Award is presented during the Annual Meeting of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association, where more than 200 department chairs and guests attend an Awards Banquet. - Outstanding Young Electrical and Computer Engineer Award
Leaders in both academia and industry are invited to nominate a candidate for this award, which is sponsored by the New Jersey Alumni Chapter. Candidates must be younger than 35 years old and have received their B.S. degree not more than 10 years ago. A distinguished jury selects the winner and honorable mentions. - Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Teacher Award
Each fall, the Philadelphia Alumni Chapter invites university chapters to nominate ECE professors for the Outstanding Teacher Award. A distinguished jury selects the winner, and the award is presented during the Annual Meeting of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association. - Outstanding Technical Achievement Award
Since 1992, this major recognition of career accomplishments has been presented annually to a practitioner of electrical or computer engineering who has distinguished himself/herself through an invention, development, or discovery in the field of electrical or computer technology. Factors considered in bestowing the award include the impact and scope of applicability, as well as the impact on the public welfare, standard of living, and/or global stability. - Eminent Member Award
This award honors the most outstanding leaders in the electrical and computer engineering profession. The award is made on the basis of technical contributions and not administration, teaching, or other non-technical accomplishments. - Distinguished Service Award (DSA)
The Distinguished Service Award was initiated in 1971 to recognize those members who have devoted years of contributions and service to HKN to improve the society, resulting in significant benefits to all HKN members. The award is based on life-time contributions to HKN and is limited to, at most, one recipient each year.
Keeping accurate chapter records and maintaining a photo archive will help in developing material that can be used for filing the short-form Annual Report, as well as the Detailed Annual Report that is used in consideration for the Outstanding Chapter Award. Winners of this award are chosen from among both large and small chapters.
The corresponding secretary of each chapter should send in notification of noteworthy chapter activities to the HKN headquarters throughout the year. This information will be published in each chapter's portion of the HKN Web site. View a sample Chapter page from the College Chapter Directory.
Both text and photographs should be used to make your chapter's news as interesting as possible. This an important way in which the various chapters can communicate with each other. (The HKN headquarters will contact each chapter's alumni via e-mail to inform them of recent chapter activities.)
Concise examples of chapter Web postings are provided below. Feel free to prepare more elaborate reports to fully describe your chapter's activities and accomplishments. Photographs, illustrations, and other graphics will also make your postings more interesting.
Samples of chapter Web postings:
EPSILON RHO Chapter, Tennessee Tech
OMICRON CHAPTER, University of Minnesota
The Omicron Chapter's annual Career Fair and Banquet was held on November 2, 2005. Twenty-three companies participates in the Career Fair, and 19 companies attended the banquet that evening at which the Chairman of the Minnesota High Technology Council spoke. Students from all engineering disciplines attended.
The members of HKN, in cooperation with EE faculty, assembled a 500-level course guide, which describes all senior-level courses and allows EE students to choose courses that will interest them.
DELTA EPSILON CHAPTER, Ohio University
During National Engineers Week, Delta Epsilon Chapter members helped organize a public presentation given by each engineering department on their current research.
A tour of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department was conducted for southeastern Ohio high-school students participating in a test competition in various engineering-related fields.
A movie was shown three times a night over the course of three nights as a fund-raising activity.
In addition to this past winter's functions, several activities are planned for the Spring Quarter. For example, a senior lab seminar will be held to provide juniors with helpful information about satisfying their senior lab project requirements. On the recreational side, Delta Epsilon Chapter members will participate in the annual ECE picnic and softball game.
For information about ordering these castings, please visit http://hkn.eng.ua.edu/bridgesales.html.