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jmsheppar

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  1. Sue-- I was talking with Dick Banks the other day and he suggested that I review this running commentary when I had the opportunity. I have done so....although it did take me two days! Like others, I will hold a final opinion on whether to support or reject any plan that is offered up. I do have several observations or points to offer: 1) I am a Life Member of three of the OSNA societies. There are obviously many others in the same situation, as well as those with only one or two (or maybe 4 or more?) life memberships. I do not see you listing a 'subcommittee' that is reviewing membership structure, etc. AOU has it Fellows, EMs, etc. Some consideration in 'the plan' needs to be made on how memberships would be handled if there was a merger and eventually give us some outline of what the regular membership cost might be for an individual. I think I could see a great reduction in costs per person, esp. if the person currently belongs to several OSNA societies and would only pay one, smaller membership per year. 2) Dropping reference to this being an "AOU 20XX Annual Meeting Presentation.pdf" and similar attributes might lesson some from thinking this is solely an AOU idea. 3) I am no financial person--can only ballance my checkbook! How would some of those endowments be merged of the various societies? Are there any legal restrictions to such mergers--i.e., are some very specific as to use and who may use them? I hope Fitz is including those aspects in his Financial Management working group. Ricky, Dick, and John have made some very cogent points, as have others. I am still thinking this over and may have more comments later. Jay
  2. An indexed and searchable database of >80,000 citations of ornithological papers published around the globe since the early 1980s. Replaced the Recent Ornitholgical Literature supplements to the AUK, IBIS and EMU in the mid-1990s. Self Description: OWL is a compilation of citations and abstracts from the worldwide scientific literature that pertain to the science of ornithology. A major attraction is its coverage of the 'grey' literature, which are not abstracted by commercial databases such as Zoological Record or the Science Citation Index. OWL deals chiefly with serial publications such as periodicals but also announces new and renamed journals and provides abstracts of other serial publications, conference proceedings, reports, and doctoral dissertations. Papers dealing exclusively with domestic and pet birds and their husbandry are excluded unless they are applicable to non-domestic birds. OWL was previously known as the Recent Ornithological Literature (ROL) or as Recent Ornithological Literature Online (ROLO). The scope of OWL will be more than just the "recent" literature of ornithology. Eventually, the online database will go back 50 or more years to acquire citations to the serial literature. OWL will proceed well into this century with a database of the current worldwide literature that would be of interest to ornithologists. OWL is a joint effort between the American Ornithologists' Union and the British Ornithologists' Union and Birds Australia. The database is hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, based in Ithaca, New York, USA.
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