Contents - IADR/AADR

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: HISTORY OF SECTIONS
A section of anything is obviously a part of the whole. In IADR parlance, a Section in the earliest days
meant the local body of members functioning somewhat independently in the several cities such as New York,
Boston, and Chicago. These three Sections were established within the same month of IADR organization,
namely December 1920. In the next few years the Section in Toronto and a few others were established. Later,
with the development of Divisions consisting of members residing at first in a nation and then on an entire
continent, the various Sections became parts of the respective Divisions rather than Sections of the Association
as originally defined in the Constitution.
New York City was the site of the first Section; available records, however, do not show just when or
where it was formally organized, but it can be deduced that at the meeting of organization of the IADR itself on
10 December since all the members were from New York, they coincidentally constituted a New York Section.
On 17 December the Boston Section was founded, and then on 30 December the Chicago Section.
WHAT CONSTITUTES A SECTION?
On this matter of Sections, the 1920 as well as the revised 1940 Constitution stated, "Members in any
geographical center, with the approval of the corresponding national Division, may organize a Section for the
local advancement of the objects of the Association." But the 1956 proposed Constitution and By-Laws, more
specifically, cites that "Each section shall consist of ten or more members of the Association. New Sections may
be organized only with the approval of the National Division." By 1930 the following cities contained Sections
of the IADR: New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Ann Arbor, San Francisco, Halifax, Minneapolis,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Vienna, Cleveland, New Haven, and Winnipeg. Records of the founding
dates of all the Sections were located with some effort. Sections in existence at the end of 1970 and their
founding dates follow.
Similarly to the listing on the IADR pages in the Journal of Dental Research, these Sections are grouped
respectively by Division: Australia-New Zealand, British, North American, Scandinavian-NOF, and Non-
Divisional. Dates given are usually the date when the Sections were formally recognized by the Association,
rather than preliminary organizational dates. A second date indicates reactivation.
Adelaide 1968 New Orleans 1937; 1967
Brisbane 1969 New York 1920
Melbourne 1969 North Carolina 1963
New Zealand 1963 Philadelphia 1928
Perth 1969 Pittsburgh 1928
Sydney 1969 Portland 1966
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR DENTAL RESEARCH (IADR) – THE FIRST FIFTY YEAR HISTORY PAGE 148