1.5 Organization and Implementation of IPY: 2005-2009

By early 2005, following the publication of the Framework document (Rapley et al., 2004) and the call for the ‘Expressions of Intent’ (EoI) for IPY projects (Chapter 1.3), a significant transition was apparent in the IPY process. An identifiable IPY community was emerging and becoming active in the evolving IPY network. At the same time, national committees and international organizations began to interact with the emerging IPY structure to ensure their role in the planning process. Though the core elements of IPY 2007–2008 were nominally in place since October-November 2004 — the Joint Committee, the International Programme Office, the Subcommittees of Data Management and Education, and the network of science teams behind emerging IPY projects — few were yet functioning. Many members of the newly appointed Joint Committee did not know each other and their regular communication with each other and with the Programme Office only started in January-February 2005. Their first face-to-face meeting did not take place until March 2005. During that ‘interregnum’ phase, the embryonic Programme Office, with Cynan Ellis-Evans serving as Interim Director, was inundated with enquiries from the science community, indicative of the early interest and enthusiasm associated with IPY. As IPY 2007–2008 unfolded, the elements of this emerging structure started functioning. The Joint Committee (JC) with its three Subcommittees on Observations, Data Management, and Education, Outreach and Communication; the International Programme Office (IPO); the national IPY Committees and their umbrella body called Heads of the Arctic and Antarctic Secretariats (HAIS – Chapter 1.7); numerous organizations and national funding agencies that advanced the IPY; and 230+ endorsed international projects augmented by dozens of “national” IPY initiatives – all of these eventually became active. Some have already produced reports on their activities during the IPY era, like the IPO (Chapter 1.6), the Subcommittee on Data Management (Parsons et al., 2010 – Chapter 3.11), the Subcommittee on Observations (Mohr et al., 2010 – Part 3, Introduction), the Subcommittee on Education and Outreach (Kaiser, 2010; Chapter 4.1). This chapter presents the story of IPY 2007–2008 from the perspective of the Joint Committee. It addresses the role of JC in the planning, implementation and completion of IPY, primarily covering the JC meetings and other major activities during 2005–2009.