the solution was to move one of the society's meetings outside london each year, terming them 'out of town' meetings. the first of these was held in edinburgh in 1948. the society was reluctant to move any of the regular eight meetings, which ran from october to may, so the 'out of town' meeting was held as an additional ninth meeting during the summer break in the academic year. they were held in the summer or early autumn in most years until 1966 when the ras council decided to stop asking groups to host them. the subsequent lack of meetings outside london was unpopular with fellows, so the 'out of town' meetings were reintroduced in 1976, but moved to april. they replaced the usual monthly ras meeting for that month and were usually held during universities' easter holidays.