The OR Society was created in April 1948 as the Operational Research Club, becoming the OR Society in 1953. It is the world's oldest-established learned society catering to the OR profession and one of the largest in the world, with members in 53 countries. A full history of the OR Society can be found on the OR Society website. Founding members of the OR society included: Charles F. Goodeve, Patrick Blackett, and Charles Tizard.
The management of the society is overseen by a General Council, consisting of up to 36 members. Its affairs are managed by a board, consisting of five officers elected by the membership, including the President, the immediate Past President or the President Elect, two vice presidents, an Honorary Treasurer, and up to six members of the General Council. The current president is John Hopes. Previous presidents have included Sir Owen Wansbrough-Jones, Maurice Kendall, John Giffard, 3rd Earl of Halsbury, George Alfred Barnard, and K. D. Tocher.
The OR Society organises a number of O.R. and Analytics based courses to allow O.R. professionals to gain appropriate skills for their careers. These courses cover O.R. methodology such as system dynamics, simulation, soft systems, web analytics, data-mining; other useful tools such as VBA and Excel; and consultancy skills. These are generally short courses, between 1 day and two weeks.
Conferences
The OR Society organises several conferences each year to promote the use of O.R. and for attendees to exchange ideas. These conferences include:
The "O.R. Conference" held annually, usually lasting for 3 days and covers all aspects of O.R.
The “New To O.R. Conference” held every two years, giving those with 10 or less years experience of working in O.R. an opportunity to meet, present on and discuss different O.R. disciplines. The conference lasts for 3 days and covers all topics in O.R.
Several one- to two-day conferences in more specialist areas including, Simulation workshop, Knowledge Management Conferences, Intelligent Management Systems in Operations, Analytics Conference. The newest of these is KIM2013, the "Knowledge and Information Management Conference".
The OR Society has a number of regional societies which enable members to promote O.R. and allow them to build contacts with other operational researchers working in their area and to expand their knowledge in O.R. The current regional societies include East Midlands, London & South East, Midland, North East, North West, Scotland, South Wales, Southern, Western, Yorkshire & Humberside. These regional societies organise meetings, works visits and other events.
Career Days
The OR Society organises an annual Career Day for employers to recruit graduates and those who are interested in work in O.R.
Interaction with other bodies
The OR Society works with a number of other bodies, to achieve common aims, including :
