About three weeks ago, I asked those denizens of our two
lists to e-mail me their comments about the current ABA
situation (with regard to publications) and their general
impression of ABA. This was to help me decide whether I
wanted to re-join after about a ten-year absence from the
group. I wanted to thank everyone who sent me a
response--these were helpful and positive.

I decided, however, to purchase BirdBrain 3.01 for assembling
my records rather than join ABA at this time. In doing so, I
decided I could make more of a contribution to local
birding. In joining ABA, my only desire was to access
_Birding_ magazine. Since the entire controversy was about
this magazine and its future, I have decided to wait to
re-join until the magazine's situation is settled (until a
new editor is appointed and until some sample of his/her work
is seen). I can access ABA Sales and _Winging IT_ via the
ABA website, so as _Birding_ is the only non-accessible
commodity, it becomes the focal point of my desire to rejoin.

The controversy is still ongoing though it has generally
moved off of most of the main-line groups. I'd note that
several members of our groups have had very insightful things
to say on CalBird, BirdChat and other locales.

If you have a Mac, and are looking for a program to use for
bird records, i HIGHLY recommend BirdBrain. The tutorials
and the manuals are well written, and the program was sent
priority mail, so I got it in 2 days without paying an
outlandish shipping fee. I'm concurrently entering my
records from recent sightings and my archival records (note
pages falling out of a notebook) and can enter records with
great rapidity and ease. The lists produce are easy to read
and well organized.

My best advice if you are in ABA is to stay--but given my
particular and limited interest, I'm waiting (and I checked
into simply subscribing--it's $5 more than joining). I also
recommend that people support their state and local
organizations fervently--for most of us, this is the level at
which we can make the greatest contribution.
RK

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Korpi "In sports [today], we ignore the decent and the
Hm: Portland, OR admirable; basically, we don't have time for these
Wk: Clark College any more." --Frank DeFord, NPR, 7/16/97
Vancouver, WA
rkorpi at clark.edu "Just in sports?" --RK, 7/16/97