The Joint Committee on general relativity for space-time reference systems and metrology has been created in 1997 by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It has been approved by the Comité International des Poids et Mesures (CIPM) at its 86^th meeting in September 1997 and by the IAU Resolution B3 (1997) at the Kyoto General Assembly in August 1997. For practical purposes the Committee is referred to as the Joint Committee on Relativity (JCR).

As specified in the IAU Resolution, the tasks of the Joint Committee are "to establish definitions and conventions to provide a coherent relativistic frame for all activities in space-time references and metrology at a sufficient level of uncertainty, to establish a uniform system of notations for quantities and units, and to develop the adopted definitions and conventions for practical application by the user". The IAU has also endorsed under its Division 1 (Fundamental Astronomy) the continuation of the Working Group on Relativity in celestial mechanics and astrometry (RCMA) and the two groups should work in close cooperation.

Dr Gérard Petit (BIPM, gpetit@bipm.org)

Dr Gérard Petit (BIPM, gpetit@bipm.org) has been nominated chairman of the Joint Committee. The membership has been established according to proposals by the CIPM and the IAU. The updated list of members can be accessed through the JCR membership.

The JCR issues Circulars as required by the amount of new work or information. Distribution is made to all members by e-mail. Contributions by members are directly redistributed to all members if the contributing member agrees to this. A list of the contributions is maintained and can be accessed through the JCR Scientific correspondence. In addition a list of preprints and papers related to the work of the JCR is being established.