Dear Ontbirds subscribers and OFO members, The Ontario Bird Records Committee (OBRC) will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Sunday, April 7. The OBRC meets in-person once per year at the AGM, where items up for discussion include the review and final voting on records submitted by the Ontario birding community, a review of the review lists previously identified by past committees (http://ofo.ca/site/Obrc), and the election of new OBRC members.
To provide clarity, I will explain the process determining how individuals are voted onto the OBRC. Any OFO member in good standing can nominate another OFO member, including themselves, to the committee. Each OFO member is allowed to nominate only one person. At the AGM all of the nominees are announced. Each currently serving member of the committee votes privately and ranks each of the nominees in the order that they think would best serve on the committee. The rankings are then tallied up based on everyone’s votes. Following the AGM, the Chair will contact the candidates regarding their willingness to serve, in order of ranking, until willing candidates for each vacancy have been obtained. The main criteria for selecting suitable candidates are that the individual demonstrates an expert knowledge of the field identification of birds, and is a member in good standing with OFO. The full process is noted in the OBRC Operating Guidelines, found at http://ofo.ca/site/Obrc. In the past, only currently serving OBRC members were permitted to nominate individuals; however this rule was changed five years ago. Now the nomination process has been opened up to any and all OFO members. It is up to the Ontario birding community to ensure that suitable candidates are put forward as nominees, since the committee members can only select the new members based on the pool of nominees that are provided. The OBRC looks to the Ontario birding community for comments, suggestions, and critique. The OBRC will be nominating 3 new members to 3 year terms, commencing this year. The OBRC at this time would welcome nominations from OFO members for people to serve on the OBRC. Nominees should be OFO members in good standing, be actively engaged in the Ontario birding community, and positively support the OBRC by submitting rare bird reports. Ideally, nominations will include a few sentences of text providing justification why they believe that this nominee is well suited to serve on the committee. Additionally, the OBRC would welcome any nominations for additions/deletions to the current OBRC review lists (for all zones and subspecies). In general, species are included the review list if they have fewer than 20 records in 5 years for that review zone. Nominations for OBRC members and additions/deletions to the review list are required by April 7, 2019. All communication should be directed to obrcsecretary at gmail.com. Kind regards, Josh Vandermeulen OBRC Chair joshvandermeulen at live.ca _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
