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From: greg butcher[SMTP:gregb at aba.org]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 1997 7:05 AM
To: Alan Contreras
Subject: Message for Washington and Oregon online birders

To: OBOL and Tweeters
Fr: Alan Contreras

ABA's Greg Butcher asked me to post this statement to our groups.


June 23, 1997

TO: Oregon and Washington and BC Online Birders:

FROM: Greg Butcher, Executive Director of ABA, and the ABA Executive
Committee: Dan Williams, President; Gus Daniels, Vice President and
Publisher; Jerry Ziarno, Treasurer; and Sharon Bartels, Secretary

RE: ABA Policy Regarding Birding Magazine and Conservation

Rumors have swept through a number of online groups that ABA is planning
major changes in ABA policy and Birding magazine. Similar rumors cropped up
in late March and early April.

As a consequence of the first batch of rumors, the ABA board discussed the
issues in full and at length during its April meeting in Beaumont, Texas.
The result was the strongest possible reaffirmation of ABA's present course:
we do not plan any major policy changes for ABA or for Birding magazine.

ABA has a core constituency and that is the active, dedicated field birder.
ABA will center on serving our constituency. We believe that the field
birder is well served by Birding magazine with its focus on bird
identification, bird finding, and building birding skills. We also cover
bird conservation from the point of view of the field birder because we
believe that field birders have a unique role to play and a strong interest
in bird conservation. Bird conservation will not dominate either Birding
magazine or ABA. Other organizations are already focused on conservation.
We will not become a conservation advocacy organization.

Many writers are concerned that ABA will greatly change the technical level
of Birding magazine. To the contrary, we believe that our members want to
be challenged to learn more about how to identify birds and about how to be
a more effective birder. If anything, we mean to strengthen the technical
content of our articles.

We will be looking for a new editor for Birding magazine who will build on
our strengths and make the magazine everything that active field birders
want it to be. If you know of a person who could effectively fill that
position, please let us know.