Special Session 3: A New Classification Scheme for Double Stars was held on 18 
July 2003 during the XXVth General Assembly in Sydney, Australia. Members from 
6 supporting commissions participated and as a result the following C type IAU 
Resolution was drafted and adopted by Commissions 5 and 26, and also later 
ratified by Commissions 8, 42 and 45 and the Working Group on Interferometry.

The resolution reads as follows:
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IAU Resolution of C Type for Commissions 5 and 26

ON DESIGNATING COMPONENTS OF BINARY/MULTIPLE STAR SYSTEMS

Recognizing

a. the increasing synergy of techniques for the investigation of stellar
   companions blurring the traditional distinction between astrometric,
   spectroscopic, and photometric binary and multiple stars;
b. the detection of substellar (including planets) as well as stellar 
   components by these techniques and,
c. the need for a simple, unambiguous, flexible, and computer friendly 
   designation scheme for components of binary and multiple star systems,
   
Noting that future ground and space-based telescope projects have the 
potential to detect both substellar as well as stellar components in 
increasingly large numbers,

Recommends that 
a uniform designation scheme, based on expansion of the Washington
Multiplicity Catalog (WMC) system, be developed during the next 3 years 
to include all types of components 
and that this be reviewed in time for 
its adoption to be considered at 
General Assembly XXVI.
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About a year before IAU GA XXVI, the WMC team will present to the SOC
the all-sky WMC in preparation for a type B resolution to be presented
at the next GA in Prague.