Hello Ontario Birders! The Ontario Bird Record Committee (“OBRC”) held a policy meeting in Peterborough on Jan 26, 2013; with the goal of improving how the OBRC (a committee of OFO) operates to better serve the Ontario birding community. Comments were solicited in various venues, with the majority coming from the 2012 OFO Convention and through responses from a request posted to Ontbirds. Many thanks to those who helped in this regard; your emails will receive a new direct response over the next two weeks with specific updates.
Provided below are some highlights on changes to OBRC policy that came in response to some common concerns we received. Many changes are not yet official, as we did not have time to officially draft new policy at the meeting (it went for several hours). However they will likely be updated in a few days at the OBRC annual meeting scheduled to take place on Apr 7, 2013. The highlights: - Work on a third "review area" for the province is being undertaken, the "Hudson Bay Lowlands" review area. This will split the existing "North" review area in two. The boundary for the "South" review area will stay the same for now. - The OBRC will solicit nominations from any member of the OFO to fill vacant positions, hopefully in the future via the Ontbirds listserv and potentially OFO News. Self-nominations are welcome. - While long discussed, work on updating the "online report form" is underway. - The terminology of "Not Accepted, Identification Uncertain" is changed to "Not Accepted, Insufficient Evidence" to better reflect the reason the vast majority of these records do not pass. - Letters to individuals whose records are deemed "insufficient evidence" will no longer be mailed the comments of voting members. However the Chair (who writes the letters) will be required to summarize every concern raised by each voting member in their response. - Greater communication from the secretary and the chair of the OBRC, to the birding community, is needed. - The OBRC will draft a document doing our best to explain the issues around some species that are often deemed "Questionable Origin" such as Barnacle Goose and Black-billed Magpie. This will include a wide array of species. - A policy for the position of "Assistant to the Secretary" was drafted. It boils down to the position being appointed by the current secretary on an annual and assists in many duties outlined by the guidelines for the secretary position. - A complete review of the OBRC database at the Royal Ontario Museum will be undertaken to determine its status. The next goal will be to create a digital database and backup of these files. The final goal will be to make the database available online for all to view. - Greater communication from the OBRC as a whole will be strived for. Various means are being investigated including a greater online presence. Some ideas include potentially having an OBRC specific website as well as an OBRC specific ebird account. Birding community outreach is now in the official duties of voting OBRC members. Once again, many thanks to those who took the time to send comments that greatly aided in our decision making process at the meeting. For those interested, a complete copy of the meeting minutes can be emailed to anyone interested, upon request, after they are formally reviewed and adopted at the meeting on Apr 7, 2013. Please feel free to send any additonal questions to myself at [email protected] Brandon Holden OBRC Chair _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
