Arnold O. Benz reports that CESRA was initiated by a letter written in June 1970 by A.D. Fokker (Utrecht) with which he invited “many” solar radio astronomers to a meeting at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly in Brighton (August 18–27, 1970) (the letter was found by Arnold O. Benz. CESRA's initial purpose was to promote the development of a European instrument for solar radio observations, the Joint Interferometer Project (JIP). The organization's “statement of intentions and policy” was adopted at the 1972 meeting in Bordeaux. Initially the “CESRA” acronym meant “Committee of European Solar Radio Astronomers” and members were the representatives from each observatory. In that phase CESRA was chaired by A.D. Fokker. When JIP became unrealistic in 1978, it was decided not to dissolve the organization, but give it to a “caretaker” to do whatever needed. The caretaker was Arnold O. Benz until 1992. In 1992 at a meeting with Arnold O. Benz, M. Pick, G. Trottet, A. Magun and P. Zlobec, decided to transform CESRA to a more organized entity with a President, a Board and Statutes, changed “Committee” to “Community” and gave CESRA a democratic structure with statutes similar to today’s. Since 1992 the following scientists have served as CESRA presidents: Arnold O. Benz (Zürich ; 1992-1998), Karl-Ludwig Klein (Meudon ; 1998-2010), Silja Pohjolainen (Turku ; 2010-2016), and Eduard Kontar (Glasgow ; 2016-...).