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by PaulHoule 2378 days ago
I did stay a member of the IEEE Computer Society because my feeling is that the IEEE is more responsive to the working engineer.

For instance I like the position of the IEEE on H-1B visas because it is nuanced, and it represents the position of working engineers (U.S. born or not) and not that of their employers. The ACM has been "all-in" on "H-1B is great!"

Unfortunately the ACM shows little concern for the practitioner, even though it was founded to be a bridge between computer science academia and industry. The problem that is carped about in CACM the most over time is the roller-coaster enrollment of CS undergraduate programs.

Part of that roller-coastering is that many people enter the field because they think it is in demand, but after a few years their careers hit a kind of "glass ceiling". If the ACM was more attentive to the problems people have after they graduate, they might solve their own problems, but that would involve breaking with the large employers, which they won't do.