I briefly was a member back in 2000. Basically, at the time they had an extremely complex process and I didn't get what I wanted, which was blanket access to their online publications. So I cancelled. Honestly, I thought it was a bit of a scam. Here I was trying to do the right thing and basically couldn't get access to anything. Already then, Google was very helpful in tracking down pdfs.
My impression is that membership is entirely optional these days but probably recommended if you frequently attend their conferences and other events and depend on networking with people in IEEE professionally. I'm no longer in the academic world so haven't looked at them recently.
But if I would, my membership would probably be conditional on open access. I'd consider paying but not for access to their publications. A condition of my membership would be full open access to every letter of everything ever published under their name. It would be the single most beneficial thing they could do to further the community they represent. I'm pretty sure they have gone most of the way there already, But just making the point here that access to published materials should not be a reason to join.
My impression is that membership is entirely optional these days but probably recommended if you frequently attend their conferences and other events and depend on networking with people in IEEE professionally. I'm no longer in the academic world so haven't looked at them recently.
But if I would, my membership would probably be conditional on open access. I'd consider paying but not for access to their publications. A condition of my membership would be full open access to every letter of everything ever published under their name. It would be the single most beneficial thing they could do to further the community they represent. I'm pretty sure they have gone most of the way there already, But just making the point here that access to published materials should not be a reason to join.