Greetings... I'm glad the OOS is announcing publicly the changes in
editorial control and ownership of The Ohio Cardinal. The new staff
alleviates some of my concerns over the journal coming under OOS
ownership. I'd like to take a moment to give Ed Pierce and Bill Whan,
as well as prior editors of the Cardinal such as Vic Fazio and Rob
Harlan to name just two, in addition to people who worked on the
layout--Troy Shively, most recently, and Joe Hammond prior to
that--thanks for the many years of work and the hours of effort that
have gone into editing, printing, publishing and mailing the journal.
It's a lot of work to put out a print journal. I'm sure there are a
lot of people who stuffed envelopes or labeled and stamped issues and
other mailings but whose names aren't more widely known. Thanks to
them, as well!

Some haven't always liked Bill's editorial approach, and that as much
as anything else is a big part of the reason for the changes (and
possibly the reason why we're not hearing this news from the OOS
leadership--this is after all, a seemingly important change in
structure for the organization), but the Cardinal was always
interesting and the seasonal reports and summaries detailed and
thorough under Bill's editorship.

I think it's also worth noting that in addition to creating and
maintaining The Ohio Cardinal, Ed Pierce as publisher and the
different editors over the years of The Ohio Cardinal are possibly the
main reason that the Ohio Ornithological Society even exists today.
The initial membership was created out of the existing Cardinal
subscriber base, and a lot of additional promotion and publicity went
out over the Ohio-birds list, created twelve years ago by Vic Fazio,
and which like The Cardinal, existed long before the OOS. In other
words, the OOS might "own" The Ohio Cardinal, but I think it truly
"belongs" to anyone interested in the status and distribution and
history of Ohio's birds, whether or not they're OOS members.

I hope The Ohio Cardinal will maintain its independence and continue
to serve Ohio's birders as it has for many years. Sometimes people
have disagreed with the positions of its editors or the content of the
articles, etc.--different controversies have popped up here and there
ever since the journal began--but current and prior editors have
always taken Ohio's birding community seriously and treated birders
with respect.

I look forward to The Ohio Cardinal under the new editors, and I'm
sure they'll do an excellent job, but I also think Bill Whan did an
excellent job on the journal during his time. I appreciate the hard
work that Bill put into the project, as well as that of the people who
went before him. I imagine the OOS will more thoroughly recognize such
contributions of current and past Cardinal staff at their annual
meeting or some such event, but I thought I'd go ahead and write this,
anyway.

Take care,
---Mike Busam
Butler County, OH

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]