International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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IPY 20 07–20 08
nations needed to be engaged. Significant effort was
devoted to outlining the contents of a letter designed
to be distributed widely to arouse and engage
potential participants and, especially, to encourage
nations to set up national committees or some other
mechanism to steer their national participation.
Outlining the letter, in fact, helped the Planning Group
articulate its vision concisely for the first time. The
group also recognized the need for flexibility, given
that different nations have different processes for
decision making and funding.
The first PG meeting included the start of
various discussions that would continue at its later
sessions; about how IPY would be communicated
and coordinated, on the future IPY logo, website,
secretariat, data management, etc., and about
creation of an IPY planning timeline. Planning Group
members all committed to finding opportunities to
talk about IPY in as many settings as possible, to build
momentum and to confirm that IPY was real and going
to happen. They made plans to hold a second meeting
in December 2003.
In hindsight, the first meeting of the Planning Group
was critical to IPY success (Fig. 1.3-1). It created a solid
rationale for why IPY should occur, outlined enough
detail about what it might accomplish to excite people
with the vision and set a tone of openness so that a
wide community could be engaged.
First Attempts at Coordination: Rosswall
Visits WMO Secretariat, September 2003
Unbeknownst to the PG members, Thomas Roswall,
Executive Director of ICSU, and Michel Jarraud, WMO
Secretary-General, met at the first Earth Observing
Summit in Washington, DC during the days of the PG
meeting (31 July – 1 August 2003). 2 The two parties
agreed to share information about their respective
work on the ‘third’ (WMO) and ‘fourth’ (ICSU) polar year.
In early September 2003, Rosswall paid a visit to
the WMO Secretariat in Geneva. Prior to that meeting,
ICSU expanded the size of the IPY Planning Group
and made its membership public 3 (Box 2). It also
posted a 5-page overview document about the vision,
general principles and some key characteristics of IPY
Box 1 Terms of Reference of the ICSU IPY 2007–2008 Planning Group
The role of the IPY-PG should be to formulate a concept for an IPY 2007-8 and to design the means of ICSU
leading such a program.
Specifically the Group’s tasks are:
(i) To gather, summarize and make widely available information on existing ideas for an IPY, serving as
a clearinghouse for ideas,
(ii) To stimulate, encourage and organize debate amongst a wide range of interested parties on the
objectives and possible content of an IPY,
(iii) To formulate a set of objectives for an IPY,
(iv) To develop an initial high level Science Plan for an IPY, which engages younger scientists throughout
the planning process,
(v) To develop a specific set of objectives targeted at formal and informal education as well as the general
public in the next IPY,
(vi) To develop a proposed mechanism for the design, development, guidance and oversight of an IPY,
(vii) To present a draft plan to the ICSU EB at their February 2004 meeting, and
(vii) To report to the ICSU 28th General Assembly in 2005 a plan for an IPY in 2007–2008 for final
endorsement.
(Approved February 2003)