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Many IPY participants consider post-IPY activities and events. IPY Project Coordinators consider project data responsibilities, special publications, project summary meetings, and the possibilities to extend or renew research funding. National polar organizations and IPY National Committees consider celebratory events, ways to enhance their national programmes, and (we hope) data access and archiving. International groups consider IPY-wide conferences and events, scientific and political impacts, and the benefits, if any, of continuing the international IPY networks of young researchers, teachers, journalists, science centres, and so on.

The International Programme Office participates in all of this post-IPY planning. Many specific activities and events depend on coordinated international schedules. We support most of the current IPY networks. And, we have a responsibility to manage an orderly and efficient closure of the IPO.

To assist and guide these legacy planning activities, the IPO has produced a short document entitled "IPO Planning - 2008 and Beyond". In the document we attempt to identify the many components of IPY from our point of view, to briefly discuss the legacy issues for each component, and then to suggest possible partners, from existing organizations, for many aspects of the IPY legacy. The document suggests a continuing international coordination function, to overlap with the current IPO and to continue for an additional 3 to 5 years, and describes the probable schedule for closure of the current IPO.

We welcome all comments on the document itself. More important, we use the planning document as a basis and a start for discussions with and among all potential partners about all aspects of the IPY legacy! If you would like to comment on or discuss ideas in this document, please contact Dave Carslon ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).