Lectures and demonstrations on linguistic general interest topics are featured at every plenary meeting.
Some committee meetings are not open to general membership, due to coverage of certain topics of federal interest.
The origins of the ILR can be traced back to 1955, when the Foreign Service Institute's Howard Sollenberger, the CIA's Clyde Sargent, and James Frith of the Air Force Language Program, conversed regarding the need for communication and coordination between federal agencies in training, policies, and practices of foreign languages.
Subsequent meetings included attendance by members of the local academic community as well as Charles Ferguson, Director of the Center for Applied Linguistics.
The ILR was formally institutionalized in 1973, after a study conducted by the General Accounting Office demonstrated the value of the organization.