The IFRF has introduced a new membership category to enable independent professionals, retirees and students to benefit from individual IFRF Membership.  Direct IFRF membership for individuals is one of the key elements of the new membership structure which was ratified by the IFRF Joint Committee at their annual meeting in June.  The roll out, which is currently underway at the IFRF’s Livorno office, also includes a global membership option for organisations. 

Individual IFRF Membership
Enabling combustion professionals, retirees and others to access membership benefits directly is a fundamental shift from the organisational umbrella arrangement which the IFRF has traditionally followed.  Previously, individuals working outside of an organisational structure were effectively blocked from association with the IFRF.  The new membership category, which  is available from January 2013, ensures that any individual working in industrial combustion has the option to become a part of the IFRF network and enjoy a large range of special benefits.

Individual IFRF membership will be of particular interest to combustion professionals working independently or in small consulting firms.  The IFRF also expects to attract retirees and students to individual membership.

The most obvious advantage of IFRF membership for the individual is that it offers entry into a worldwide network of international combustion experts.  The network is facilitated online by the IFRF Expertise Exchange, a private and secure virtual community in which IFRF Members can locate and contact each other for mutual benefit.

The menu of specific benefits currently offered to IFRF Members through their organisation’s annual umbrella membership fee includes:

• Preferential rates at all IFRF technical events, conferences, and courses organized worldwide;
• Access to an electronic archive of over 5000 technical and other reports which may be ordered from IFRF headquarters;
• Direct download of reports on current research and of the proceedings of IFRF conferences, TOTeMs and workshops
• The IFRF Handbook, a library of 200 combustion files on a variety of topics;
• Participation in online technical forums – one on CFD and one on Solid Fuels
• Access to the IFRF’s online solid fuel database

Most of these benefits will be available to individuals who choose to take up independent IFRF membership.  See the member benefits schedule on the IFRF website for details.

IFRF Membership for Organisations
The IFRF’s new membership structure offers one enhancement to the traditional offering to industrial and institutional members.  Now, in addition to the benefits listed above, and to:

• Direct download of current research reports;
• Information about research funding opportunities; and
• Preferential rates for research projects or specialized probe manufacture

organisational members, both current and potential, may, at no extra cost to their annual membership fee, offer IFRF affiliation to employees in offices outside the borders of their National Committee of origin.  More on this option in the next issue of MNM.

The individual membership scheme will be administered centrally at IFRF headquarters.  Applications for individual membership are now invited and may be made online at http://www.ifrf.net/network/member.html