This thread has lots of potential so I'd like to keep it going....

David Buckley wrote:

> Perhaps a preliminary step in this process would be to have a group of
> people brainstorm on general guidelines for the "subcommittees."

There's nothing quite like a committee to kill enthusiasm. Echo earlier
comments by Nate and Dennis I think it is up to interested people to get
together and organise themselves on as much an informal or formal basis as is
felt necessary. Each person will likely have their own main area of interest.
>From there, co-operation is a good motivator for exchange of information,
ideas, fieldwork. For a lot of species there are a few well defined questions
for example "Where are all the crow roosts in Seattle ?" This gets everybody
involved and from there more detailed questions can be asked.

Special interest groups are more like a federation rather than a democracy.
Autocracies also work rather well, as long as the people involved are getting
benefits as opposed to the 'you give, I'll take model' (which in my opinion
can happen all to often).

I'm assuming that the aims of special interest groups is oriented towards
research. However this may not be a 'starchy' as it seems. Pooling data from
birding trips, first date of arrival of spring migrants, first nesting date,
etc, etc are all basic birding info but it contributes a great deal to our
understanding of species in the northwest and therefore contributes to the
national picture.

For my work on sanderling for example, I'd be interested in sightings of
sanderling along the Washington coast, particularly around Grays harbor. The
fact that the information is recorded in the field then pooled provides a
great resource both directly for the people involved but also for people 5,
10, 50 years from now.

> If we are going to do this across several species and therefore several groups
> of people, it seems that consistency across subjects would be necessary.

I think there is so much diversity in the way species behave and the areas of
interest that it would be difficult to establish a common baseline. However
for common questions such as breeding bird surveys, nest records etc. it would
be prudent to establish some common criteria which would enable comparative
analysis.


Perhaps a first step would be to air a list of worthy causes, then guage the
level of interest. Publishing the info in some form would at least enable
birders to be aware of what is or might be going on in the area.

That's enough ranting....

Stuart
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