THE MERGER OF THE PHOTOGRAMMETRIC SOCIETY AND THE REMOTE SENSING SOCIETY

The attempts by A. S. Macdonald in the late 1980s and by J. A. Allan in the mid-1990s to integrate the UK societies and professional organisations within the spatial science field are described. The Photogrammetric Society, noting a long-term decline in its membership, set up an internal working group in 1997 to consider the future of the Society. A lengthy questionnaire to all individual members produced a 57% response and mandatory support for renewed action on greater inter-society cooperation.
A further effort to produce a wide amalgamation of bodies in the UK spatial science field on the Macdonald/Allan models failed for lack of support nationally. As a smaller step, perhaps to be extended later, a merger with the Remote Sensing Society was eventually agreed. The subsequent lengthy and delicate negotiations necessary to bring about a successful merger between these two mature, independently minded learned societies are described. The two societies were formally merged on 1st April 2001.
The author was a member of both the Photogrammetric and the Remote Sensing Societies and chaired the External Affairs Committee of the Photogrammetric Society preceding the merger.