The organization has a membership of 132 national ski associations, and is based in Oberhofen am Thunersee, Switzerland.

[14] This Congress then met every year or so to hear from the CIS and refine and adopt rule changes.

On February 2, 1924, in Chamonix as part of the "International Winter Sports Week", which was later to be recognized as the first Olympic Winter Games, 36 delegates from 14 countries (Great Britain, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Yugoslavia, Norway, Poland, Romania, US, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary and Italy) decided to found the FIS, which replaced the CIS.

This was upon a proposal by Great Britain, in which the British ski pioneer Arnold Lunn played a major role as co-founder of the Arlberg-Kandahar races.

[15] The first FIS Alpine World Ski Championships were held 19–23 February 1931 in Mürren, Switzerland.