The Informal Northern Thai Group's antecedent was the Northern Thai Society. The original idea for the foundation of the Northern Thai Society came from Roy Hudson, who has been a Chiang Mai resident since 1960. He realized that although he knew many residents socially, he knew nothing of the work any of them were engaged in. Major Hudson conceived the idea of forming a society in which its members, other residents, and visitors would give talks about their work and/or other topics of interest concerning Northern Thailand. On July 7th 1972, the inaugural meeting was held and a committee was nominated to draft the constitution for an association, albeit informal, similar to the Siam Society. The members of the original committee were: Col. Phoon Asanachinda, Chairman, Major Akhom Pattiya, Vice Chairman, Major Roy Hudson, Secretary, Dr. Tom Scovel, Treasurer, Dr. Nans Penth and Dr. Malcolm Shouls, Journal Editors, and Dr. Thaemsook Numnonda.

Once established, interest grew so rapidly that it was not long before the Society could boast a membership of 163 persons, comprising some twelve nationalities, all willing to pay Baht 200 annually for the privilege. In those days, the Society could accommodate a visiting speaker in the Amari Rincome Hotel, the best hostelry in Chiang Mai, for 198 baht a night, not including breakfast.

Detailed records of the Society's activities have long since been mislaid. The Secretary, however, does remember that some 20 talks were given, the topics of which included:

• Wat Phra Yuen in Lamphun by Alexander Griswold
• The Western Gate of Chiang Saen by Hans Penth
• House construction in a hilltribe village by Kraisri Nimmanaeminda
• Spirit Cave in Mae Hong Sorn by Chester Gorman
• The Lahu by Robert and Eugene Morse
• Three States stolen from Siam by Great Britain by Kachorn Sukhabanij
• Foreign words adopted into the Thai language by Tom Scovel
• Buddhism by the Venerable Phra Nyanyavachiro
• Meo New Year, a colour film presented by William Geddes
• Family Planning in a Mae Chaem village by Christine Dunster
• Blood-sucking moths by Hans Bänziger. This transpired to be the Northern Thai Society's final talk.

In 1975, as a result of lengthy procedures and difficulties in registration, the departure of some of the committee, and personal time constraints, the Northern Thai Society became inactive. With the knowledge and consent of the original NTS members who were still resident in Chiang Mai, it was agreed that the balance of the NTS funds, which had been languishing in a bank account accruing compound interest for a number of years, should be donated to the Informal Northern Thai Group. The donation, Baht 84,918.62, was made through the office of the then Honorary British Consul in Chiang Mai, John Shaw.

The Informal Northern Thai Group came into being on the evening of Saturday, December 15th 1984. On that auspicious date, eleven residents of Chiang Mai met, discussed its formation, and heard the first talk.

It was agreed at that first meeting that the amount of extraordinarily varied research being conducted in and around Northern Thailand provided an enormous resource of knowledge from which a programme of regular talks could be arranged. From the minutes of the first meeting it was noted that there was a wish to found "a small informal group, mainly of professionals i.e. anthropologists, sociologists, naturalists, etc., with interests in Northern Thai culture, with the aim of meeting to exchange information and ideas, attend and discuss talks, pool or make available materials concerned with matters of mutual interests centering on Northern Thailand but extending to Thailand as a whole and Southeast Asia."

Participants at that first meeting also agreed that the group's best chance of longevity lay in making its organisation flexible and informal.

As time passed, INTG 'membership' became open to anyone attending its meetings, and the scope of topics for talks broadened to include more general contemporary subjects deemed to be of pertinent interest to the members.

Meetings have usually been, and currently still are, held on the second Tuesday of each month at the Alliance Française on Charoen Prathet Road. However, being a flexible and informal organisation, in order to accommodate a potential speaker's itinerary talks have been held on other days, and there have occasionally been two talks in one month. Meetings start at 7.30 p.m., talks are in English and usually last for about an hour and a quarter, including a question and answer session. With the advent of modern technology, many talks are augmented with images presented via the Alliance' s LCD computerized projector system. Depending on the subject of the talk, and/or the fame/notoriety of the speaker, audiences can vary in size from 12 to 70. The minutes of talks, usually the full text of the talk if it is available, are distributed to members via e-mail and postal mailing at the end of each month.

First time meeting attendees are automatically added to our mailing list. However, if you can't attend a meeting and would like to be included on our mailing list send your address to Louis Gabaude at gabaudel@loxinfo.co.th

As there is no formal INTG membership, there is no membership fee. Expenses for the cost of room hire and postal mailing of the minutes are covered by a small donation, 20 baht, contributed by members of the audience at each talk.

The Group has always been run by a small committee of volunteers. With the exception of the Treasurer, who has held the position continuously since December 1984, the posts of Convenor and Secretary have been held by whoever could be persuaded to take them.

INTG offers talks that it believes will contribute to a better understanding of the region's cultural heritage and continuing development, and also talks on current issues of general interest. We warmly invite researchers and others with specialist knowledge wishing to speak at a meeting to contact our Convenor, Brian Hubbard at brihubb@loxinfo.co.th , or any other committee member.