Bureau Members and National Delegations helped bring the International Society of City and Regional Planners to this new stage

Members are indebted to all present and past Bureau Members for their role in building and strengthening the Society to the point where we can move into a new era.

Likewise, we acknowledge the essential role of the National Delegations in bringing the Society to its present global status.

Today, the International Society of City and Regional Planners has members in 85 countries; delivers the highly regarded World Planning Congress; is recognised by the United Nations, UNESCO, UN-Habitat and the Council of Europe; produces the world’s best publication on planning practice, the annual ISOCARP Review; publishes the encyclopaedic International Manual of Planning Practice; cannot keep up with the demand for more UPATs and YPP events; and has an energetic elected Board, keen to go further.

.
The Bureau was originally the governing Board, with one member from a small number of
neighbouring countries. That structure simply does not work when the Bureau has 85
members in 85 countries. At the General Meeting last October, the members agreed to a new workable structure of a representative Board and a small Executive Committee – both of them very similar in size and role to the original Bureau and Exco of the 1960s.
.
Together, the National Delegations made up the Council, limiting each country to five votes in elections, to ensure no one country could dominate. Last October, the members agreed that this is no longer a practical consideration with members in 85 countries, and that the principle of one-member-one-vote will now apply.
.

On behalf of all members, past amd present, the Board expresses its appreciation of the contributions over the years of Bureau Members and National Delegations, and thanks them for their service to the city and regional planners of the world. It is a measure of the success of the Society in the past half-century that it can now grow and change.

The Board is actively considering issues of representation and regionalisation, including national representatives, regional chapters and regional board representation. Please watch for the launch of a forum on the website and join the conversation.