Furthermore, after all my nagging and persisting, the newsletter is "beefed up w/ lot’s of stuff" — content that OBBA members have been saying should be there. Thanks to everyone for your diligence and dedication to OBBA regarding data and article submission. It makes a difference in the overall quality of the newsletter!

If you were unable to get data to me for this issue, you still have time. I still have a couple of articles and data files that I could not fit into this newsletter but will go into a future issue. Also, most of the content of each newsletter is added to the website once the next issue is published and I would like to include all data possible on the website.

The meeting will be hosted by Anne Smedley of OBBA who is a member of the research committee and a member-at-large. Thanks Anne for making the arrangements!

Specific information on other topics at the meeting will be available on our website as it becomes known.

Also at this meeting a handful of banders will be participating in the North American Banding Council Bander Certification process. This will keep them from participating in part of the meeting as they will be taking a 2 hour written exam which they must pass to move on to the second part of the process at the Fall OBBA meeting — the field test. Best of luck to you all! (The following are tentatively scheduled to take the test: Dave & Jill Russell, Chris Betrus, Jannette Jaskula, Sharon Pawlowski, Bob Placier, Myra Vick, Dave Hess) Brush up on the NABC guidelines, Pyle Guide (esp. Ageing/sexing at beginning, and molt limits before the section on passerines) and Bird Banding Manual Volume 1.

The research committee has been very active the past few months, via e-mail, and has had one meeting so far. Another meeting is planned sometime before the next OBBA meeting to finalize a few things to present to the membership. Our goal is to have a new plan, or at least a rough draft, or a decision to make no changes at all regarding research at the Spring Bandout, it’s possible usefulness, and how we plan to make the data more useful in the future. I am glad some of you have responded to some of Anne Smedley’s e-mails regarding research issues. The more input we have the better. The meeting, tentatively scheduled for sometime in February, is open to anyone — not just the committee members. Cheryl is heading up this committee, so if you have any questions beyond what was requested from Anne, feel free to contact Cheryl.

There has been much sparked interest in several areas of OBBA the past couple of years. One particular area is establishing a research project which would produce useable, perhaps publishable data. Data should be useful as a research tool, there is no disputing this fact. However, let us not forget our responsibility as an organization to fulfill our mission in all aspects of research. This includes training and education. Both are equally as important as research for without them, we would have no one to collect or "make sense" of the data. If you have strengths in creating quality research projects (not all of us do), share your input with the research committee as some of you have already. If your strengths are in teaching/training, involve yourself in areas where interaction with people may open the door for mentoring or inspiring a future bander/researcher. Many of us do this without realizing the impact we have on an individual or group. Keep up the good work!

There are many ways to make OBBA "useful" and effective in Avian research, training and education. For starters, we should keep doing what we have been doing. We have touched many lives through OBBA in many ways at meetings, bandouts, etc. Anything new that we do will only make us more effective!