In the article by Crabtree et al., published in Transactions IAU, Volume XXVIIIA there was an error in the list of authors. Pedro Russo was not included in the list of authors on the organizing committee. The editors apologise to Pedro Russo for this error. The correct authorship is published below:

• PRESIDENT: Dennis R. Crabtree

• VICE-PRESIDENT: Lars Lindberg Christensen

• PAST PRESIDENT: Ian Robson

• ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Oscar Alvarez Pomare, Augusto Damineli Neto, Richard T. Fienberg, Anne Green, Ajit K. Kembhavi, Pedro Russo, Kazuhiro Sekiguchi, Patricia Ann Whitelock, Jin Zhu

Commission 55 was approved at the IAU General Assembly in Prague following the great success of the Communicating Astronomy Working Group, which had been set up in 2003. It resides within Division XII and the mission statement of the Working Group has been incorporated into the Commission:

• • To encourage and enable a much larger fraction of the astronomical community to take an active role in explaining what we do (and why) to our fellow citizens.

• • To act as an international, impartial coordinating entity that furthers the recognition of outreach and public communication on all levels in astronomy.

• • To encourage international collaborations on outreach and public communication.

• • To endorse standards, best practices and requirements for public communication.

Since its formation at the XXVI General Assembly in Prague in 2006, amazing progress has been made by Commission 55, all due to the work of the key activists and enthusiasts. The web-page for the Commission contains a wealth of information and is one of the key foundations and tools for the Commission. The web address is http://www.communicatingastronomy.org

Astronomy was one of the sciences earmarked for major support by South Africa's first democratically elected government in 1994. This was a very remarkable decision for a country with serious challenges in poverty, health and unemployment, but shows something of the long term vision of the new government. In this paper I give one astronomer's perception of the reasons behind the decision and some of its consequences.

Commission 55 was approved at the IAU XXVI General Assembly in Prague, 2006, following the great success of the Working Group Communicating Astronomy, which had been set up in 2003.