In December of 1954, under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a meeting of some seventy people was held in Berkeley to form a society for the exploration and development of the ideas that von Bertalanffy, Boulding, Rapoport, and Gerard had come together to discuss earlier that year in Palo Alto at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (the newly established Ford Foundation enterprise). The Society got off the ground, originally as the Society for the Advancement of General Systems Theory, was changed to the less pretentious Society for General Systems Research in the fall of 1955, to eventually become, by 1986, the International Society for General Systems Research, and finally, in 1988, the International Society for the Systems Sciences.
| 1954 | organizational meeting as chapter in AAAS | USA | Berkeley |
| 1956 | founding meeting as chapter in AAAS | USA | Atlanta |
2 Annual Meetings of the Society for General Systems Research
| 1957 | 1 | ? | ? |
| 1958 | 2 | ? | ? |
| 1959 | 3 | ? | ? |
| 1960 | 4 | ? | ? |
| 1961 | 5 | ? | ? |
| 1962 | 6 | ? | ? |
| 1963 | 7 | ? | ? |
| 1964 | 8 | ? | ? |
| 1965 | 9 | ? | ? |
| 1966 | 10 | ? | ? |
| 1967 | 11 | ? | ? |
| 1968 | 12 | USA | Dallas, TX |
| 1969 | 13 (December 27-30, with AAAS, states it is the 15th meeting | USA | Boston, MA |
| 1970 | 14 (December 26-31, with AAAS, states it is the 16th meeting | USA | Chicago, IL |
| 1971 | 15 (December 27-29, with AAAS | USA | Philadelphia, PA |
| 1972 | 16 with AAAS | USA | Washington, DC |
| 1973 | 17 | ? | ? |
| 1974 | 18 (February 25-March 2) with AAAS | USA | San Francisco, CA |
| 1975 | 19 (February 18-21) with AAAS | USA | Boston, MA |
| 1976 | 20 | USA | Boston, MA |
| 1977 | 21 (Feb 20-26) | USA | Denver, CO |
| 1978 | 22 Feb 13-15 with AAAS | USA | Washington, DC |
| 1979 | 23 23rd meeting held 3-8 Jan in Houston, TX with AAAS (and also the 25th Silver anniversary of the society's 1954 founding, in August) First International meeting | England | London |
| 1980 | 24 (Jan 7-10) | USA | San Francisco, CA |
| 1981 | 25 (Jan 6-10), not with AAAS now on | Canada | Toronto, ON |
| 1982 | 26 (Jan 5-9) | USA | Washington, DC |
| 1983 | 27 | USA | Detroit,MI |
| 1984 | 28 | USA | New York, NY |
| 1985 | 29 | USA | Los Angeles, CA |
3 Annual Meetings of the International Society for General Systems Research
| 1986 | 30 | USA | Philadelphia, PA |
| 1987 | 31 | Hungary | Budapest |
4 Annual Meetings of the International Society for the Systems Sciences
| 1988 | 32 | USA | St Louis, MO |
| 1989 | 33 | Scotland | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| 1990 | 34 | USA | Portland, OR |
| 1991 | 35 | Sweden | Ostersund |
| 1992 | 36 | USA | Denver, CO |
| 1993 | 37 | Australia | Hawkesbury, NSW |
| 1994 | 38 | USA | Asilomar (Pacific Grove, CA) |
| 1995 | 39 | Netherlands | Amsterdam |
| 1996 | 40 | USA and Hungary | Louisville, KY (July) and Budapest (Sept) |
| 1997 | 41 | Korea | Seoul |
| 1998 | 42 | USA | Atlanta, GA |
| 1999 | 43 | USA | Asilomar (Pacific Grove, CA) |
| 2000 | 44 | Canada | Toronto, ON |
| 2001 | 45 | USA | Asilomar (Pacific Grove, CA) |
| 2002 | 46 | China | Shanghai (PuDong) |
| 2003 | 47 | Greece | Crete (Hersonissos) |
| 2004 | 48 | USA | Asilomar (Pacific Grove, CA) |
| 2005 | 49 | Mexico | Cancun |
| 2006 | 50 | USA | Sonoma (Rohnert Park, CA) |
(This data was originally accumulated by Jennifer Wilby, and augmented with a contribution by Alexander Laszlo)
