Washington birders -

We've had an amazing response for the upcoming conference of the Washington
Ornithological Society in Republic, WA, June 16-19, with over 120 people
signed up.

CONFIRMATIONS

I have processed all of the registrations, and I've sent email confirmations
out to everyone who has registered. If you registered, and have not
received an email from me, please let me know and I'll resend yours. If you
need one by regular mail, I can do that too.

MEALS

We have a few more days before final meal counts and choices need to be
finalized. If anyone wants to add or change their meal requests, please get
that information to me in the NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. After that, changes and
refunds for meals will not be possible. Remember that Saturday is the

FIELD TRIPS

Field trips filled up fast; fitting everyone in was a real challenge, and
one that I am still working on as a few cancellations come in. I did my
best to accommodate preferences and partnerships. The good news is that the
field trips should all be good; hopefully if you got stuck with a 5th or 6th
choice or whatever, you won't be disappointed. There are still several
spots available for MONDAY trips, so if anyone would like to add a Monday
trip, please let me know, and I'll see what we can do. This is a good way
to get on a trip that you really wanted but didn't get...

OWLING TRIPS

The owling trips were in especially short supply, and I'd like to explain
how people were assigned to those trips. There were only 36 owling slots
available. It was very clear that there would be many disappointed people.
To make things as fair as possible, here's what I did. First, only those
registrants who had postmarked their registrations by the initial February
13th date were eligible - some 50 people. Second, I limited each person to
only 1 owling trip, as it seemed really unfair to give one person both a
Friday and a Sunday trip. Third, I used a separate lottery for the owling
slots, and each of those 50 people was entered individually. Once
selected, I did try to place partnered people on the same trips where
possible (and things worked out quite fortuitously there), but being
partnered neither gave an advantage nor a disadvantage in getting a slot on
an owling trip.

I have a waiting list for all owling trips, so if you need to cancel or if
you find you cannot go on your owling trip, please let me know so that I can
arrange for the next person on the waiting list to take the slot.

REFUNDS

Because of the large number of owling trip requests that could not be
filled, nearly everyone who registered is owed a refund. If your refund is
ONLY for owling trips, your refund will be enclosed in your registration
packet that you will get when you check-in in Republic. If you are owed a
refund for other items, Joyce will be sending you a check when she returns
from Alaska.

If you have any questions or comments, email me, and if I can't answer the
question, I probably know someone who can.

See you all in three weeks - it's going to be great!

== Michael Hobbs
== Washington Ornithological Society registrar
== http://www.wos.org
== Conference at wos.org