The IPC has thus far held 20 ordinary sessions, as follows:
No. of Session Year Organising Country
International Week 1947 France
II 1948 Italy
III 1949 Belgium and Netherlands
IV 1950 Switzerland
V 1951 United Kingdom
VI 1952 Italy
VII 1953 Germany
VIII 1955 Spain
IX 1957 France
X 1959 Italy
XI 1962 Yugoslavia
XII 1965 Iran
XIII 1968 Canada
XIV 1971 Romania
XV 1975 FAO (Rome)
XVI 1980 Turkey
XVII 1984 Canada
XVIII 1988 China
XIX 1992 Spain
XX 1996 Hungary
Each session has included work in plenary when the participants have taken note of a general report on the activities of the national poplar commissions and of a special report which each member country is requested to submit on the theme of the session, as laid down by the Executive Committee. A rapporteur has usually been designated to sum up the information supplied by the member countries in this way.
Moreover, each session has afforded an opportunity for a meeting of the Executive Committee and of its Subcommittee on Nomenclature and Registration as well as for at least one meeting of each Working Party. For specialists this has always been an opportunity for presenting scientific or technical communications on their work. Each chairman of the subsidiary bodies has summed up the work and communications submitted. In this way, the sessions have taken stock of the development of poplar and willow cultivation and of solutions to problems related thereto and to the use of poplar and willow wood in the various member countries.
In addition, the sessions have included study tours which have enabled participants to familiarise themselves with the conditions of poplar and willow cultivation and use, and with the main lines of research in the organising country. Such tours have served to forge links among international specialists whose friendly bonds gain strength as the number of meetings have increased.
