BIOS Reporter – Volume 6, No.3 – July 1982

When BIOS was founded, it was the intention that regular meetings of members would take place, usually in the form of day conferences. Not that these meetings were intended to be purely social: it was hoped that each event would have a theme, would give opportunity for discussion, and would have an educational object in mind. As things have worked out, we have held two or three day-conferences each year, and (with the exception of one year) an annual residential conference. We have tried to hold conferences in different parts of the country so as to attract a wide range of members – though as yet, we have not found our way to Scotland, Wales, or the the Home Counties (unless one counts several conferences in London). Inevitably, some conferences have been more successful than others, both in terms of content and support; in general, conferences in the ‘provinces’ (and residential conferences) have been slightly less well-attended than we had hoped, while London-based events have attracted more substantial support. On the whole we have avoided pure ‘organ crawls’: not that we haven’t listened to particular instruments – very few events have not included a recital or demonstration – but we have tried to set the instrument within the context of either the repertoire or its own historical period of organ building…