IEEE member since 1995; joined because my company paid for it (also joined the IEEE Computer Society, ACM and even APS, American Physical Society, at that time for the same reason.) Continued my IEEE membership at my own expense after retiring because I didn't want to lose my @ieee.org alias that I had used for many years, also wanted to continue to have access to publications and articles of interest. With that said, I would not recommend starting an IEEE membership at your own expense unless you can afford it and want to establish yourself in that community. I think they still require a sponsor for membership.