AOU president-elect describes proposed new American ornithological society

Posted Thu, Oct 6 2011 10:25 AM by Matt Mendenhall

In August, we learned that the American Ornithologists’ Union and other ornithological societies in the Western Hemisphere may merge next year into a new group tentatively named the Society for Ornithology. The move “would result in a clean slate for designing new governance and new journals, as well as provide broad opportunities to promote the field of ornithology, ornithologists, and avian conservation,” says Susan Haig (right), president-elect of the AOU and a wildlife ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center.

The Auk and other ornithological journals would cease publication, and in their place would be as many as four new journals, “housed under a single editorial office,” she says.

Associate Editor Matt Mendenhall recently asked Haig about the proposed merger and its potential benefits. Here is what she had to say.

BirdWatching: How are plans progressing? Which other societies are on board?

Haig: We are just at the beginning stages of putting together a business plan that will pose various alternatives and their associated timelines and costs for issues such as journals, governance, membership, etc. We intend to have the draft business plan sent off to the AOU Council for review at the council meeting in Dallas in mid-February. After incorporating the council's comments, we will ask other interested societies for their comments. We will also provide an opportunity for members of the merging societies to weigh in on their thoughts and opinions. The AOU Council will vote on providing funding for the new society at the North American Ornithological Congress in Vancouver in August 2012. Other societies have not set their schedule for adopting the plan yet.

We will not ask any society, including the AOU, to sign on for sure until we have a business plan. We all need to know what we are getting ourselves into. That being said, the four major societies — AOU, Cooper, AFO, and Wilson — all have representatives helping draft the business plan.

BirdWatching: What benefits do you foresee from a merger?

Haig: The new society, tentatively called the Society for Ornithology (SFO), is designed to be more than a merger of societies. We are concerned about declining membership in all ornithological societies, as well as the decline in teaching organismal biology classes, such as ornithology, at the university level. Throw in serious conservation issues for birds worldwide, and we felt it was time for a serious look at where the future of ornithology could, would, and should be. Thus, we are working on behalf of ornithology and ornithologists to design a new unified society that is staffed professionally rather than being a club of distinguished scientists, and that will engage a broad spectrum of young avian biologists using the new social media and electronic publication tools now available to us. That is, we are changing from a club model to an NGO model.

The benefits will be tremendous:

• From a practical sense, we will combine efforts on tasks that are now duplicated across every society: membership, meetings, journals, governance, etc. This will result in a more efficient, effective, and financially sound approach to ornithology.

• We will design a clean slate for governance that will help many societies get out from the yoke of by-laws, etc. made in the 1800s.

• Our new journal publication strategy (produce four journals from one editorial office, including a new journal of Avian Conservation) will result in the highest caliber ornithological journals in the world.

• The combined membership will provide for unprecedented cooperation in research, training, and conservation.

• And as the largest ornithological society in the world, we would be able to accomplish goals on an unprecedented scale.

BirdWatching: You mention the decline in teaching organismal biology classes at the university level. Are students less interested in science education in general, or are they turning toward other types of science classes? Do you foresee a role for the SFO in generating more interest in ornithology courses?

Haig: It's not that students aren't interested because our organismal courses and those of colleagues are always full. I believe (my opinion) the decline is due to tremendous pressure from university administrators to build bigger molecular programs as they bring in bigger grants and more revenue to the university. Thus, when cuts are made, some of the more basic courses are chosen. However, it is difficult to train ecologists and conservation biologists if they do not have an understanding of the basic components that make up their systems.

I am hoping SFO will generate more interest in university administrators in either keeping current organismal courses or bringing them back.

BirdWatching: Would the SFO include groups from Central and South America?

Haig: We are starting with North America and will then extend the invitation to the other parts of the Americas when we have a more sure footing of exactly what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.

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