Minutes

K.O.S. Editorial and Records Sub Committee

Meeting:2nd September 2006 at Sandwich Bay

Present: Barry Wright (chair), Gordon Allison,  Jack Chantler, Martin Coath, Nigel Jarman, Don Taylor,John Tilbrook, Robin Mace, John Clements, Richard Jenkinson, Andy Mayo

Welcome to Andy Mayo as the SBBOT KOSE&RSC rep

1. Apologies for absence 

Received from Jon Braggs, Ian Hodgson, Ian Roberts, Derek Tutt, Geoff Burton, Tim Hodge

2.  Matters arising from Minutes of last meeting.

a) K.O.S. to link with S.O.S. web pages explaining record submissions. Robin has now added this link.

b) Booklet re writing of descriptions and reporting of sightings to K.O.S. A short discussion on what should be included. Also possibly a photo description as an example if it prints ok. Also in the booklet contacts in the KOS and which species require a description as is present in the back of the KBR. This will need to be discussed further at another meeting. The booklet should ideally be 8 to 10 pages to keep costs down and be concise.

c) Biographies not complete but are now on the website

d) Caspian Gull assessment has been passed over to John Tilbrook.

e) Ringer’s manual. Barry contacted the  B.T.O. and they indicated that those species requiring descriptions should be passed onto the relevant County committee or in the case of national rarities BBRC.

f) Newsletter articles. Jon Van der Dohl has written a piece on the OBT at SBBO. Committee members have been asked to write an article on their best/worst days birding preferably in Kent.

3. Notification of BBRC decisions 

(See Rarity Decisions)     

4. BB Rarities

The following have been, or will be, forwarded to BBRC for consideration:

5. KOS Rarities

(See Rarity Decisions)

6.  Website.

Discussion took place regarding who will now maintain the Rarity stats on the website, it was the role of the Secretary. Barry to ask Tim if he could take on this role? The website is still difficult to navigate at times and needs everyone to keep a look out to spot any errors eg. Email contact addresses or typos. Robin to look at the Kent rarity list to place Trumpeter Finch correctly as Barry is unable to do this!

 

Barry asked Andy if he could ascertain whether we could access certain slides from the SBBO archives for scanning onto the KOS photo archives. Barry to attempt to contact Rob Wilson to obtain a piccie of the Isabelline Wheatear at Church Hougham for the archive.

7.  Newsletter.

Ian Hodgson will be standing down as newsletter editor after the April 2007 issue. We therefore require a new editor though Ian said he is happy to carry on compiling the bird news for each issue to be passed onto the new editor.. There appeared to be no offers of taking up this role at present on the committee.

8.  Kent Bird Report.

2003

KBR 2003 has now been published. Any mistakes/discrepancies noted to be sent to Robin and Tim for correction in KBR 2004. There had been several emails and thanks for producing the KBR 2003. Jon and the team to be thanked for this.

 

2004

Robin expects publication by early Dec 2006. There are 115000 records so far with only ten species accounts left to write. The front cover was going to be a Hawfinch painting by Steve Message but as 2005 was a good year for Hawfinch it may be changed for another species. Robin to contact Steve. KBR 2005 should be finished by April 2007 in order to keep in line with expectations and get us back on track, therefore realistically Robin said that all records should be in by the end of Sept 2006!!    (in the absence of any migrants so far this autumn, that may be possible!!!)

 

9.  Outstanding Rarities update

In the absence of Tim this was held over to another meeting. Barry to continue to chase observers for descriptions of records targeting 2003 to 2006 at present!! In the case of 2006 records Barry emails the observers usually as soon as he sees the record mentioned on the website/kosnet.

10 Future E&RSC Secretary and their role.   

Firstly in his absence Ken Lodge was thanked for all his hard work over the years as Secretary, Barry has already chatted to Ken re this.

There were no willing volunteers within the committee, Barry to seek outside volunteers with the hope of taking on the role. The specific requirements of the Secretary now will be mainly to take the minutes of the meetings and to email them out to the committee members. Don also to look at the old constitution to see the role of each member. Members of the Exec have written job descriptions for the post they are in on order to help with future committee members and define what the roles are and that there isn’t any doubling up of responsibilities.

11 Future rarity panel members.

We will require two new rarity panel members in April 2007 when Nigel completes his 5-year stint and Gordon, 6 years.

12. AOB

Don had a contact for some fieldwork in Sinai (operation Wallacea) if anyone was interested in being involved? The closing date was 14th April.

13.  Date and Venue of the next meeting.