The title says it all except, for the number of languages involved! Good news, for persons like me with no knowledge of foreign languages, is  that all of its publications and correspondence are in English. This society was set up to disseminate milling knowledge (in all its forms) throughout the world and currently there are over five hundred members from twenty-five countries.

 TIMS holds a symposium every four years always in a different country.  The next in 2011 will be held in Denmark. The last one (in 2007) was held in the Netherlands and lasted 8 days with a pre-tour of 4 days to North-East Netherlands including Kinderdijk and a post-tour of  4 days to Flanders. 101 persons from 13 countries attended the Symposium with no limits on numbers attending. The Symposium is a mixture of  formal papers, informal presentations (mostly in the evenings), and a choice of mill visits. The pre and post tours are all mill visits. A volume of Transactions covering all of the proceedings is issued as soon as possible after the Symposium. The one covering the Netherlands is A4 sized and just over one inch thick. (It arrived in January and I haven't found time to read it all yet!)  Most of the Transactions are in the HMG library and are a useful guide if you are visiting a foreign country.

  A mid-term excursion to a different country lasting about a week is generally held in the interval between symposiums. Sometimes other tours are arranged by members. The mid-term excursions are more relaxed affairs mostly mill visits with only an occasional presentation to keep the participants in  the picture. The number of participants is usually limited to one coach load.

  Whilst I have only attended the Netherlands Symposium (the 12th), I have also enjoyed visits to Germany (Black Forest region) and Northern Switzerland, and South-West France. This year I will be going to the Czech Republic.

  All symposiums and excursions start in the host country so you can arrange extra time to visit other places there. It is a great opportunity to meet other “mill-nuts”, improve and share your knowledge and see how milling in all its aspects are done differently to this country.

  If you want to know more ask Dave Plunkett, Jeff & Mavis Hawksley, Mildred Cookson, Peter Hill, Peter Mobbs, Basil Hunt or myself. The annual subscription is £22.50 at present. For this you get an IM (International Molinology) twice a year (some are in the HMG library), generally A4 size of 40-45 pages containing articles about mills from all over the world. An E-Newsletter (Emailed newsletter) twice a year mostly containing news, events and articles. And of course the wonderful opportunity to attend the Symposium and the mid-term excursions and see all of the marvellous mills and meet like-minded people. Mildred Cookson is the UK representative.

Mick Edgeworth