The International Bone & Mineral Society was originally constituted in 1960 as the Parathyroid Conferences. These meetings, triennial events from 1960-1977, presented data and explored the biology related to parathyroid hormone and calcitonin. As the meeting grew and the interests of the participants widened to include osteoporosis, vitamin D and the cellular and molecular biology of bone, a more formal structure was incorporated in 1980 under the name of the International Conferences on Calcium Regulating Hormones (ICCRH). The bylaws of the organization included a mandate for international representation on the Board of Directors, making ICCRH the only truly international society in the bone field. To further stress this healthy evolution, at the 1995 meeting in Melbourne, the name of the organization was changed to the International Bone and Mineral Society (IBMS). An international focus was an early goal that was not served by local or regional societies. Furthermore, there were increasing numbers of participants at the successive conferences, including joint meetings, with the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (first joint meeting in 1989), the European Calcified Tissue Society (first joint meeting in 2001), the Japanese Bone and Mineral Society (first joint meeting in 2003) and the Australia and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society.