The Scientific committee was formed by Caldwell, James and Glen.
Reception in the Exeter Guild Hall.
Luncheon was in a Marquee at Peter Caldwell’s home.
Dinner was in the Royal Clarence Hotel, Exeter
According to records 115 members joined the Continent Club, including 47 from UK, 21 from USA, 4 from Canada, 7 from each of Germany and the Netherlands, 5 from each of France, Sweden and Switzerland, 3 from Australia (Kennedy Burnside, David Kennedy, Alex Wood), 1 from NZ(Colin McRae), 3 from Scandinavia (Gammelgaard P, Palm L, Hald T), and 2 from Norway (Mathisen, Otnes) and 1 from each of Japan (Tsuchida), Austria (Madersbacher), Belgium (De Backer) and Spain (Ruiz) and 2 from Industry. This reflects a truly international membership right from the start. Amongst the UK delegates one was from the UK Department of Health and another from the National Research Development Corporation. This support demonstrated the high level of official recognition achieved by the fledgling organisation.
Finally 73 were actually able to register and attend the meeting, with Peter Caldwell nominated President, Shedden Alexander Vice-president and Eric Glen Organising Secretary. The meeting had been organised with the intention of bringing together those people actively engaged in this type of work. It was decided that the meeting should remain as informal as possible. All delegates were sent a number of papers in advance of the meeting to encourage general participation in the discussions. It was intended that this should be the policy for future meetings.
It was during the course of the business meeting that it was decided to change the name to the International Continence Society, the original title of “Continent Club” being considered to lack gravitas. An initial suggestion for a name had been “International Incontinence Society”. This was rejected overwhelmingly at the first General Meeting in 1971, reflecting the more positive approach of its members.
The purpose of the International Continence Society as stated in the minutes of the meeting is “to provide a link for the interchange of ideas and results for clinicians, physicists and biomedical engineers interested in urodynamic studies of the lower urinary tract and in the electrical stimulators employed in treating related disorders.”
Delegates came from Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Buckingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Hythe, London, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sheffield and Sunderland, with overseas participants from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Holland, Norway and Switzerland. There were two delegates from North America. Judging by the rapid increase in the number of North American members following the Exeter meeting, the small number attending was due to the speed of organising that meeting.
The Minutes of the meeting state that 55 attended from 9 countries. However subsequent papers have confirmed there were actually 73 delegates including 10 Industry representatives. Some members were accompanied by wives. The meeting and the social events were all held at the Clarence Hotel which provided the friendly informality which is the aim of the Society, and members continued discussion out with the Conference room.