[mou] MOU membership

Wed Aug 15 07:45:50 EDT 2007

Hi all,

I want to thank Steve for his answer to my question about why I (or anyone, for that matter) should join the MOU.

That being said, even though I consider myself to be a serious birder, I'm not sure if the MOU is an organization I would join, mostly for financial reasons.

At this time, all I really need from the MOU is access to its web site, which I can, and am doing, for free.  I don't have any bird projects that require grants (I would think that one wouldn't need to be a member of an organization to get grant money from it), nor do I agree with how data is collected per the records process (should one support a process that is done in a way they disagree with?), and the paper session, I could probably live without that (I'm more interested in my own papers that I have to write as well as those of others in my field).  One also need not be a member of the vehicle of a group in order to be able to associate with that group.  I've met quite a few birders on my outings and found them to be very nice; the fact that they or I are or were MOU members had nothing to do with our interaction.

I don't want it to sound like I am "dissing" the MOU, because I am not.  I'm just saying that at this time, my dollar is already stretch so thin that it's transparent, so I really need to justify what I put my money into, and at this time, I wouldn't be getting enough back on my investment if I was to join the MOU.

Someone wrote me last night and suggested that I "get better acquainted with the MOU Records Committee".  I'm curious as to why I should do that.  I'm sure that they probably wouldn't want to deal with me. knowing that I am not fully 100% behind the way that they do their "job".  It was also mentioned to me that "clearly you are not a biological scientist".  No, I'm not, but there is a process that a scientist goes through in the name of gathering data, which should be the same, whether one is a chemist, physicist or biologist, and that is, you gather the data, draw your conclusions, based on the data, and then publish to a "peer-reviewed" journal.  During this process, none of your data falls by the wayside, even if it's so bad that it doesn't fit your hypothesis.  

Shouldn't birding be like that?  As it stands now, there is a person that will look at the results of CBC's and will "throw out" observations that that person deems to have not happened; kind of like the times I used to report seeing Baltimore Orioles in San Antonio, TX during migration to ebird, and someone there would write back to me and tell me that I didn't see Baltimore Orioles, when in fact, we did.  This happened on several occasions.
This may not bother many (if any) of you, but to me there is something so wrong in all of this that, to me, it almost borders on scientific misconduct, the fact that one can do an "experiment", using us as data collectors, and throw out any of our observations, on nothing more than a whim. and say I didn't give them enough "evidence".  Heck, one gentleman that I know of submitted the pages from his notebook as part of his report and they said, "you didn't see that...".  Good grief.

But I digress...

Good birding,
Richard

Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
Hastings, MN
rwoodphd at yahoo.com

----- Original Message ----
From: Steve Weston <sweston2 at comcast.net>
To: mnbird <mnbird at lists.mnbird.net>; Mou-net <mou-net at moumn.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 12:09:26 AM
Subject: [mou] MOU membership

Recently the question came up on why should someone 
join the Minnesota Ornithologist's Union.  I joined after I became what I 
considered to be a serious birder.  Here are some of the reasons 
why I continue to be a member.

1)  It is the state organization of birders 
and as such, it is an group that I feel part of and want to associate 
with.

2)  I joined so I could start receiving "The 
Loon" publication, which I read as soon as it arrives.

3)  I enjoy the paper session in December 
which I attend every year.

4)  Look at the website: http://moumn.org/ .  There ain't nothing 
like it in any of the other states.  I especially like the occurrence maps 

(http://moumn.org/cgi-bin/occurrence.pl?group=ducks&season=all ).  When 
Tony Lau asked about Red-breasted Nuthatches in the summer in Wright County, I 
checked the maps.  He definitely is living on the edge of its range.  
I found it interesting that there is a breeding record for Dakota County, but no 
summer reports.  I use the maps all the time.  There is nothing 
like this on any other state organization website.

5)  Something that I appreciate is the support 
that MOU provides for Christmas Bird Counts.  I use the list every year to 
help plan my schedule.

6)  The MOU provides grants for bird 
projects.  I am interested in whether the nesting platforms for the Common 
Nighthawks will have an impact.

7)  They are the keepers of the data on what 
birds are being seen where in the state.

Yeah, you could report the birds you saw and use 
the website for free.  But, I prefer to support the website, 
and the data collection, and the publication of the Loon, and the grants, and 
the organization that puts them together.  Thank you MOU 
people.

Steve Weston

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