ABSTRACT
Finding a suitable 'niche' for the future continued to be a major subject of discussion at Council and Executive Committee meetings; the prime object of the charity his torically was of course to organise postgraduate courses and arrange hospitality - especially for overseas visitors. Later, an important 'switch', i.e. to concentrate on the PM/, was taken {see Chapter 16). But clearly the FPM could not exist by promotion of the PMJ alone. Therefore a new role (or roles) must be discovered, a fact which was repeatedly emphasised by Paul Turner, during his presidency. The areas in which the FPM was involved, summarised in 1986, were i) production of the PMJ; ii) arranging lectures, demonstrations, discussions, and exhibitions; iii) making medical literature and information available both in the UK and to overseas (postgraduate) students; and iv) the awarding of grants. In addition, the Secretary (Singer) was keen to 'extend its role by organising meetings for European Research Fellows in or around London'.1 It was also felt in 1987, that 'relationship between Postgraduate Centres and General Practitioners was close', and that there might be opportunities for expansion there.2 Other suggestions, floated at the 25th AGM, held on 16 June 1987, were to work more closely with the European Medical Research Group (EMRG) (an initiative about which we shall hear more), and to invoke the Davidson Award to publish 'new work by young research workers'.3
