Gemserv manages the worldwide membership service for the IMechE and provides the interface between the Institution and existing and prospective members of all grades.

The IMechE is a professional body established by Royal Charter and is the United Kingdom's qualifying body for mechanical engineers. It was established in 1847 and over 75,000 engineers worldwide are now members. The IMechE is licensed by the Engineering Council UK (ECUK) to award the Incorporated and Chartered Engineer professional qualifications and accredits university degrees associated with the mechanical engineering discipline and graduate professional development programmes that lead to employees achieving professional status.

Gemserv handles membership applications and enquiries from applicants worldwide, amounting to over 8,000 applications per annum. The range of membership grades and their attendant qualifications requirements gives rise to significant complexity and variation in the cases being handled. In addition to the day-to-day management of the membership activity, Gemserv has worked with the IMechE's staff to improve and streamline the membership processes.

Gemserv has the delegated authority to approve Affiliates and Associate Members in line with ECUK standards. For more experienced grades of membership, we manage and monitor the processes that support the various levels of membership committees. This includes management of the worldwide external assessor database, assignment of assessors to individual cases and organisation of the necessary interviews with applicants these taking place in locations across the world so as to be local to the applicant.

We achieved the rapid set up of the service, using the Institution's application processing and knowledge management systems. The service is receiving excellent reviews for speed, reliability and effectiveness. The service has been subject to a number of audits, most recently by the ECUK, with resoundingly positive conclusions.