Secretary Opening
The VSO’s Virginia Avian Records Committee (VARCOM) is actively seeking applicants for the important position of Secretary. We thank the current Secretary Chris Monahan as he moves out of Virginia to new opportunities.
Formed in 1989, VARCOM is a standing committee tasked with reviewing reports of rare birds in Virginia, archiving documentation related to these reports, and maintaining the Official State List of Virginia.
VARCOM’s records support other VSO publications, including Virginia’s Birdlife: An Annotated Checklist (the “Gold Book”) and the Field Checklist of the Birds of Virginia.
VARCOM maintains a Review List of species considered reviewable in each of Virginia’s physiographic regions (Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Mountains & Valleys).
VARCOM is a nine-person committee composed of seven Voting Members who review and vote on bird records, a Chairperson who supervises the committee’s work and represents VARCOM to the VSO Board, and the Secretary.
The Secretary has a number of important duties:
Receives, organizes, and archives bird records and associated data submitted to VARCOM.
Facilitates voting on submissions by compiling and circulating review packets to Voting Members, tracking submissions through up to three rounds of voting, and recording results.
Interfaces with the birding community to solicit reports of reviewable birds and documentation, and to let submitters know the disposition of records.
Handles requests from researchers for VARCOM data.
Updates the Official State List with additions based on VARCOM votes.
Maintains the Field Checklist and the VARCOM Review List.
Works with the VSO Webmaster to keep the VARCOM section of the VSO website up to date.
Attends the VARCOM annual meeting each spring and records meeting minutes.
Maintains a current copy of the VARCOM by-laws, which can be viewed here.
The Secretary is elected by VARCOM each year but may serve an unlimited number of consecutive terms. This officer is a voting member of VARCOM except for voting on bird records.
Please send questions and applications to varcom.records@gmail.com.
