Funds will provide travel grants to three American members of the Mid-Carboniferous Boundary Working Group of the Subcommission on Carboniferous Stratigraphy (SCCS) of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). These grants will allow participation in a geological field conference organized for the working group by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and the USSR National Geological Committee. The meeting will be held September 20-29, 1988, in Kiev and the Donets Basin (Donbass), eastern Ukrainia. The rock column in this part of the Donets Basin is a strong candidate to become the mid-Carboniferous boundary stratotype because it contains the appropriate boundary-defining fossils in a seemingly continuous depositional sequence. Members of the working group need first-hand observation to evaluate fully all stratotype candidates. American members also provide expertise on the important fossil groups involved in statotype evaluation, as well as significant leadership in working group activities. Participation by Americans in this working group meeting will facilitate acceptance and understanding of the bipartite division of the Carboniferous passed at Beijing, 1987, at a level compatible with its historical usage in North America.
