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After the Rome Congress, Societies were asked to appoint Liaison Officers to act as additional two-way channels of communication between the Administration of the IPA and its member organizations, supporting the roles of the President and Secretary and easing the burden on these other Officers.
The main purpose of this first meeting was to enable the Liaison Officers to exchange views on this new role and the way in which it was perceived in the individual Societies. It emerged in discussion that Societies interpreted the position in a variety of ways. In some, the Liaison Officer had been appointed, in others, elected; some Societies opted for a Committee, others asked the President to undertake the role. Provisional Societies considered it important that the liaison function be undertaken by a member who was already involved with the Site Visit Committee.
There was a general feeling that communication between the IPA and the Societies had been enhanced by mailings to the Liaison Officers, but there was emphasis on both sides that communication should be a two-way process with Societies informing the Administration of changes occurring at local level. There was agreement that increased levels of information had stimulated interest in the IPA and encouraged more widespread participation in IPA activities.
Many of those present felt that it was important, in the interests of continuity, that Liaison Officers and Committees should overlap IPA Administrations, and be appointed for terms longer than two years. The President, Professor Sandler, suggested that Liaison Officers form an Association to facilitate inter-Society communication, and suggested that they should certainly meet again during the next Congress in Amsterdam.