International Planetarium Society
The International Planetarium Society (IPS) is the largest organization of professional planetarians in the world. It includes members from almost every continent and over twenty affiliate organizations. The IPS publishes a quarterly journal, The Planetarian, and holds a convention in even numbered years. The most recent conference, in July 2012, was held in Baton Rouge, USA. The next IPS conferences will be held in June 2014 in Beijing, China. Conference Proceedings are published on CD. While most affiliates are based upon a single nation, in the United States the country is divided into seven regional affiliates (including the Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society) and several areas with small numbers of planetariums have united several countries into a single affiliate, as in the Mediterranean and Scandinavian regions. The organization was founded in 1965 with the name International Society of Planetarium Educators. The name change in 1972 was to encourage non-educators such as the designers and manufacturers of planetariums to participate.