Source: First distributed at the 42nd Annual Meeting 1999, under the title “Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC) — General Background Information,” together with a list of all 42 meetings up to that year. Then published for a wider audience in PIAC Newsletter No. 27, 2002, p. 2.
General Background Information to the PIAC
The PIAC is an informal gathering of scholars, old and young, interested in Altaic and Inner Asian studies. Specialists in many fields and disciplines are welcome as long as their work is relevant to the PIAC’s interests. The PIAC has no permanent membership, and although no endeavor is made to augment the number of participants at the conferences, all bona fide scholars interested in any aspect of Inner Asian studies are welcome. Deliberate efforts have been made to channel the PIAC away from the “great congress” syndrome and to maintain it on the level of a symposia where, in a relatively small circle of experts, problems of communal interest, both scientific and organizational, can be discussed. A much-prized feature of these meetings are the so-called “confessions” at which each participant in his turn informs the plenum of his work, projects, and future publications. The obvious usefulness of such exchanges of information is further increased by the participation of scholars who would not normally meet. Each meeting unites experts from between 15 and 20 countries. At one meeting or another participants from the following countries attended: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, People’s Republic of China, Republic of China, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany (both Democratic Republic and Federal Republic), Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea (South), Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, USSR, Uzbekistan and Yugoslavia.
As can be expected, over the thirty odd years of its existence the PIAC has acquired an international respectability of no small import. It has been received with pomp and circumstance in many countries and its influence on the development of Altaic studies, informal though it may be, has been considerable. Since 1966 the PIAC has issued a Newsletter which has a world-wide distribution of about 650 copies. Its pages have been used for communications originating in all parts of the world. Since 1962 the proceedings of most of the meetings of the PIAC have been published.
The administrative organization of the PIAC is skeletal. The burden of running it rests on the shoulders of the Secretary-General. The first to have this title was Professor Walther Heissig (Bonn, 1957–1960). In 1960 his place was taken by Professor Denis Sinor (Indiana University) several times reelected. Since 1963 the PIAC has had a president in the person of the scholar hosting the forthcoming meeting.
As mentioned before, the PIAC has no permanent membership and does not collect membership fees. Voting rights are limited to participants who have attended more than two meetings. Clerical help and ongoing administrative expenses are provided, principally, by Indiana University.
An international commission appointed on a yearly basis by the annual PIAC meeting has the responsibility of awarding the Indiana University Prize for Altaic Studies, established in 1962 to honor an outstanding scholar for his or her life’s work in the field. The recipients of the award, consisting of a gold medal, have come from a variety of countries.