Joining nations 1947-1990

TWO

THE BIRTH OF THE IIW

PRELIMINARY ACTIVITIES

THE first notion of an international welding organisation was ex– pressed at a symposium arranged by the Netherlands Welding Society in Utrecht on 5 June 1947. The idea was quickly taken up by the British Institute ofWelding whose President, Mr J L Adam, called an international conference in London on the following 11 and 1 2 September. This conference was attended by representatives of eight European countries, Australia and the USA. Unanimous support was given to the establishment of an international welding organis– ation with a membership composed of technical institutes and similar bodies. The objectives of the organisation were specified in draft form and a provisional committee was appointed to draw up a constitution with a view to the establishment of the new body at a conference to be held in Brussels in May 1948. The Belgian and British delegations were respectively invited to nominate the Chairman and Secretary of the Provisional Committee which, it was agreed, should hold its first meeting in Paris two months later. The other members of the Committee were representatives of France, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland and the USA but in the event no American member was appointed. The principal business of the Paris meeting, under the chair– manship of Mr L Isaac, the President of the Belgian Institute of Welding, was the study of a draft constitution which had been pre– pared by Mr G Parsloe, the Secretary of the Committee. The docu– ment which emerged at the end of the meeting contains many of the administrative provisions in the present Constitution, it being agreed that the formulation of a technical and scientific programme should be discussed by the Committee in Basle in February 1948. In fact the Basle meeting, under the chairmanship of Mr Paul Goldschmidt, introduced substantial changes to the draft constitution, including sections on the membership of the Executive Council, the

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