BackgroundFollowing the recommendations of the IUGS Strategic Planning Committee (2000) and IUGS Strategic Action Plan (2001)to appoint Ad-hoc Review Committees (ARCs) to hold reviewsof all IUGS-funded scientific activities on a regular basis, theIUGS Executive Committee decided at its last meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania (March 2005) that an ARC should be convened toreview the IUGS Inteational Commission on. Stratigraphy(ICS). ICS has been part of IUGS since 1965, and the last reviewof ICS by the IUGS was in 1995.