The ulti­mate author­i­ty in each of the three IARU region­al orga­ni­za­tions is the Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence or Gen­er­al Assem­bly. Region­al con­fer­ences are held on a three-year, rotat­ing sched­ule so there is one held every year. Their role is to decide region­al pol­i­cy, to set the region­al work agen­da and bud­get, and to elect an exec­u­tive com­mit­tee to man­age the affairs of the region for the fol­low­ing three years.

Each mem­ber-soci­ety that has met its finan­cial oblig­a­tion to the region has the right to attend and to vote at the region­al con­fer­ence, or to assign its proxy to anoth­er mem­ber-soci­ety if it is unable to attend.