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Short history of EURO
Back in the sixties, the main activity of IFORS
was the organization of triennial international conferences addressing
the world community of operational researchers.
At that time, there was in Europe an increasing awareness of numerous
ongoing OR activities on one side and, on the other, rather weak
means for promoting communication and cooperation among European
operational researchers. Some national societies did (and do still)
cooperate on an ad hoc basis but not to an extent to satisfy
the general need for 'something' between IFORS
and the national societies.
In conjunction with the 6th IFORS-Conference (Dublin, 1972), the
participating presidents of European OR societies discussed the
situation and agreed to seek it improved. Invited by H.-J. Zimmermann,
President of the German OR Society, representatives of eleven
European OR societies met in Düsseldorf on 3 September 1973
and decided to institutionalize better ways of cooperation within
the framework of IFORS.
In a more extensive meeting of representatives of European OR
societies, held in Amsterdam on 3-4 May 1974, two major decisions
were made:
- The representatives agreed that it would be advisable to formalize
and institutionalize increased European cooperation. To this end
a possible agreement between the European OR societies was drafted
and it was the general consensus that such an agreement could
be signed by the societies in the near future.
- It was furthermore agreed to assemble operational researchers
from all Western European countries within the framework of the
First European Conference on Operational Research.
The Belgian OR Society accepted the invitation to host this meeting
and the OR societies of Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Norway,
The Netherlands and Sweden agreed to finance the preparation by
offering loans as a supplement to funds already raised for that
purpose by the Belgian Society. IFORS also
offered to provide a loan if necessary. The meeting was scheduled for
January 1975 in Brussels, Belgium.
Normally 9 months would have been totally insufficient to prepare
for an international conference addressing the entire OR community
in Europe. The enthusiasm and involvement of all those who participated
in the preparatory work compensated for lack of time. Thus the
First European Conference on Operational Research (EURO I), was
opened on the morning of 27 January 1975 at the Sheraton Hotel
in Brussels. The meeting which managed to assemble no less than
506 participants was a remarkable success. Also the main objective,
to institutionalize closer cooperation among the European operational
researchers, was fully achieved: nine European OR societies gave
birth to EURO, The Association of European Operational Research
Societies within IFORS, by signing an agreement
in which the signatories resolved:
- To grant to any fully paid-up member of any signatory body
all rights and privileges which were offered by them to their
own members.
- To exchange all appropriate information, inform other signatories
of existing working groups and the dates and locations of the
meetings and open such working groups to individual members of
other signatories.
- To organize European Conferences on Operational Research and
European Working Groups.
- To encourage the formation of Operational Research Societies
in other European countries and to give such new bodies any possible
help they might require.
On 8 March 1976, in a circular letter to all European OR societies,
the Honourary Secretary could proudly announced: 'I hereby
declare that EURO, The Association of European Operational Research
Societies within IFORS, is now formally
constituted with effect from 5 March 1976 and the draft statutes
circulated on 29 June 1975 are effective'.
Considerable progress has been made since then, as is evidenced
by the subsequent pages of this Website. However, there is a
continuous need for enthusiastic and dedicated people to enable
EURO to maintain its present instruments and to carry out a wider
range of activities in support of its objectives.
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