Give the government a piece of your mind! Ornithological societies to offer "curated" legislative alert system

The Ornithological Council (OC) is investigating an e-mail alert service that will generate notices about U.S. federal and state legislation to those who have signed up to receive those notices. On behalf of its member societies, the OC will research each legislative proposal to determine if it is likely to be of interest to ornithologists and if so, if the legislation has the potential to move through the legislative process (most bills never go past the first stage, much less all the steps in the legislative process).

In addition, the OC will research the merits of the legislation and provide an analysis of the pros and cons.

Participants will then be able to write to their elected officials directly from the website using text suggested by the OC or their own personal message or a combination of the two.

It is unlikely that there will be any legislation pertaining directly to ornithological research. The OC anticipates that most of the legislation that might be of interest to the members of ornithological societies will pertain to wild bird conservation and management or wild bird habitat.

To gauge the extent of interest in each topic, the OC has developed a short survey and we encourage you to respond to the survey even if you don't plan to participate in the legislative news alert system.

If you would like to participate, sign up HERE. Registration is free and we will never share your information with anyone.

Scott Lanyon, President

American Ornithologists' Union

Reed Bowman, President

Association of Field Ornithologists

Martin Raphael, President

Cooper Ornithological Society

Miguel Saggese, President

Raptor Research Foundation

Erica Nol, President

Waterbird Society

Sara Morris, President

Wilson Ornithological Society