Minutes of the 33rd EBCC Executive Committee Meeting, Chiavenna, Italy,
17 April 2007, 10.00 a.m.- 18.00 p.m.
Attending: Richard Gregory (RG, chair), Anny Anselin (AA, BCN Editor), Hans-Günther Bauer (HGB, Secretary),
Ian Burfield (IB, Observer BirdLife Int.), Alena Pazderova (AP), Lorenzo Fornasari (LF, 2007 Conference
Organizer), Ruud Foppen (RF, Treasurer), Fréderic Jiguet (FJ), Åke Lindström (ÅL, Delegate Officer), David Noble
(DN, Observer BTO), Przemek Chylarecki (PC), Alexander Mischenko (AM), Petr Vorisek (PV, Coordinator
PECBM), Sylvia Barova (SB, Coordinator SEED Bird Indicator).
Apologies: Ward Hagemeijer (vice Chairman), Uygar Özesmi
1.
Chairman’s welcome
RG welcomes attendees to the 33rd Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting. Special thanks go to LF and the team for
hosting and arranging the meeting, and, of course, the EBCC conference in Chiavenna itself. Due to the tight
conference schedule, ExCo meeting will be much shorter than normal. ExCo would first discuss the conference
then move on to other business.
15.
17th EBCC Conference in Chiavenna
LF provided ExCo with an overview on the organisation of the EBCC conference. A very good turnout was
anticipated: 240 people attending, with 120 talks and 60 posters. LF presents financial plan and budget. The income
was some 90,000 € with predicted expenses slightly higher, the balance at present was short by about 2,000 €. The
income generated for the conference by Lorenzo’s team was excellent; it had been a great effort. Some 27 people
had paid an additional 20 €, which meant 34 attendees from low-income countries could be supported (30 partially,
4 completely). This sums up to costs of 4,125 €, 540 € of which to be covered by the 27 conference participants
paying extra, 2,000 € by EBCC funding (as agreed previously), and 1,585 € remaining, to be covered by the
conference revenues. RG congratulates LF and conference team for the high amounts accrued from sponsorship,
which are unprecedented, and the superb organisation.
ExCo discussed the publication of the conference proceedings. The decision stands that papers have to be handed
in within two months of the conference. The format of papers is outlined on website, but LF should inform
everybody of exact procedure during his introduction and remind speakers during the conference. The plan is to
publish short papers; around 6 pages with figures/tables included. Avocetta will be ready to publish a 240-pagevolume; most of the rest would be published in Bird Census News (BCN). There was also a short discussion of other
possibilities. One idea was publication as a joint symposium in an issue of Bird Conservation International
(BirdLife/Cambridge University Press), and publication in the RING, but these are still open depending on
submissions.
Currently, there was no list of participants in the conference packs and it was suggested that this could be put on
CD (with contact details) and included and sent with the Proceedings volume. There was also discussion about the
possibility of making people’s PowerPoint presentations for Chiavenna available somehow, perhaps on a CD.
Naturally, this would have to be done with everyone’s permission, but concerns about people using information
without permission, would be reduced using .pdf format or similar.
Board Meeting preparation. Point 5, relating to EBCC constitutional change, to be extended so that every Board
Meeting participant was absolutely clear that the constitution is being voted on in a resolution. RG will suggest to
the Board Meeting that the ExCo election should be taken as a single vote, rather than 10 individual votes. ÅL and
HGB to prepare a paper list for delegates and proxies, and others, to sign at beginning of Board Meeting, as a full
record of the Board Meeting. Those Delegates whose status was ratified by EBCC at the conference would be able
to vote following the current constitution. In the future, however, specific rules for ratifying delegates will have to
be laid down in the EBCC by-laws and strictly followed.
2.
Minutes of 32nd meeting
Minutes of last meeting adopted; no comments. No objections or additions to items listed for the current meeting.
3.
EBCC profile paper
As discussed previously, ExCo was keen for EBCC to do more to raise its profile and advertise to the outside world
the excellent work it was supporting and guiding. RF had already done some work on this and it was agreed that
this draft presentation should be given as a poster if possible. The latest version might also be put on website.
There was insufficient time to talk about EBCC profile raising here, but this should be an agenda item again at next
ExCo meeting.
4.
EBCC Constitution and Articles of Association
RG and RF had had final discussions in a meeting with the notaries in Netherlands. The finalized papers had been
circulated on two occasions by ÅL to ExCo and Delegates together with additional information on why the change
was needed, what this meant to delegates, and how to vote. The final decision on constitutional change would be
made by the Delegates at the Board Meeting on Thursday. In future, EBCC/ExCo will have to operate in a slightly
more formalized and professional fashion following the new procedures in the constitution and Dutch Law. The
new ExCo will have the task of taking this forward and translating the new articles into agreed and clear operating
procedures, using bye-laws for this purpose.
5.
Financial report
RF reports on the year 2006 (see appendix). Income from JRC so far not received (4,000 €), but data request contract
signed. Money to CSO for web site maintenance and development will be sent as soon as EBCC’s VAT-number
was available. The EBCC’s Brussels bank account is now closed and money transferred to Dutch account. No more
data requests with income received, so income therefore stagnating.
6.
Bird Census News
AA reports on current state of BCN. Issue 2006/2 has appeared recently. Work on Volume 20 progressing, with 30
pages already full; in addition, minutes of Chiavenna Board Meeting will appear. It was unclear whether further
articles were to be expected from Kayseri meeting? Claus Witt’s envisaged paper for BCN already published
elsewhere. Further suggestions from the last ExCo meeting concerning new papers will be followed up by AA.
The financial means for the production of BCN granted were again granted by AA’s institute for 2007. RG thanked
the Belgian Research Institute for Nature and Forest for their kind support for BCN. ExCo had discussed
previously revamping or re-launching BCN, although any such change would need careful consideration and
might have financial implications too. Note that colour versions of articles are already published on EBCC web
site, so parallel publication in the paper version of BCN is possible (noting the caveats above), and authors already
receive .pdf versions of their articles from AA.
7.
Proceedings of Kayseri Conference
UÖ unfortunately was unable to attend due to illness. RG reports that the plan was still that 14 or 15 papers were
to be published in the Turkish Journal of Zoology, approximately in September 2007, the remainder in BCN.
8.
Delegates’ list
ÅL had prepared an updated paper on the Delegates for distribution among ExCo members. There were now 73
confirmed Delegates on the list, with two Delegates each from 35 countries, one from 3 countries, and zero from a
further 8 countries. In some cases though, direct contact with the Delegates had not yet been established (for
example Andorra). RG thanks ÅL for his excellent work on improving and updating the EBCC’s Delegate list, and
his energy in creating a dialogue with Delegates. ÅL had prepared poster for Chiavenna with vital information for
the Delegates to consider and update during the conference. A “missing delegates” list would be circulated in
ExCo with the hope that some gaps might be filled in due course. In future, ExCo needed to encourage Delegates to
play a much more active role in EBCC’s work and see themselves as central players in how EBCC developed and
evolved. In that regard, Minutes of the ExCo meetings (without the appendices and action points) are routinely
posted on the EBCC website, and they are sent directly by ÅL to all Delegates. However, ExCo needed to find
ways to increase communication and exchange with Delegates.
9.
EBCC Website
DN reported on how the EBCC website had developed recently: Henk Sierdsema’s EBCC atlas maps are now
available; also “newish” Delegates list (but updated version to replace this soon); PECBMS updates including
species trends recently published; a new section on the SEED Bird Indicators project; and some 14 country reports
on the activities and status of atlas and monitoring projects included on the website. The hope is that these reports
will encourage other countries to add their own material more quickly. Currently, the web link for data requests
goes directly to RG, and this might be changed to be more useful. The guest book had been removed (because of
spam emails), instead, some statistics, e.g. the number of visits per month would be useful . Thanks go to DN for
his great work as web champion. Various updates, such as PECBMS indicators, ExCo and Board papers, the new
ExCo line-up, EBCC publications etc. could be anticipated following the Chiavenna conference. ExCo might
usefully look at updating and expanding the website when it next meets.
10.
Recent data requests
New requests for EBCC Atlas data:
 Frederic Jiguet wished to extend his previous work on thermal ranges and bird trends. Work on maximum
and minimum temperature and temperature range envelopes (Mar-Aug) of breeding species had been
used successfully to predict long-term trends of these species. The idea now is to extend the species set in
order to calculate community-based climate window (thermal specialization index). ExCo agreed
continued co-operation with Stuart Newson from BTO for access to data. Papers published so far to be
used more prominently on EBCC web site as well. FJ to send these papers to AP for inclusion on EBCC
web site (but .pdfs can only be presented with permission depending on individual journal procedures)
 Fabien Peter from Switzerland (through Verena Keller), had requested data for a water catchment project,
but this had been postponed because currently there was no funding available.
 Matthew Wood from Oxford University had requested data to work on hybrid zones of Icterine and
Melodious warbler, also no funding available, but ExCo agreed is was acceptable as a collaboration (Henk
Sierdsema suggested as possible EBCC contact and co-author on any published outputs)
A complete list of recent data requests was available in the Chairman’s report to the Board Meeting.
Finished projects
 Brian Huntley, Rhys Green, Steve Willis, Yvonne Collingham: work on climate change atlas to be
presented at the conference in a plenary by Steve Willis. The climate change atlas will appear in
autumn/winter 2007, probably in December.
After some discussion of the need for EBCC to improve how it dealt with data requests; from how they are agreed,
how they are serviced, to how they are tracked and reported upon, ExCo agreed on the need for dedicated effort
from someone to lead this area of work. Very kindly Fréderic Jiguet offered to help in this regard and so ExCo duly
elected FJ to the new position of EBCC Data Officer. The post holder would for example deal with and keep track
of running and finished projects, update a list of publications from EBCC data, etc. etc. in liaison with the
Chairman/Daily Management.
11.
EBCC data provision and co-authorship policy
FJ had developed a new draft document on EBCC data provision and co-authorship policies for discussion and
commenting by ExCo members – hopefully during the Chiavenna meeting. Main aspects are (1) Data provision
agreement with national data providers, and (2) a general co-authorship policy. This approach fitted perfectly with
what the PECMBS had envisaged and had wished to develop. PV would be happy to assist FJ in developing this
paper further so that it could be used generally with EBCC projects. FJ should use feedback on this draft document
to formalize a final draft for discussion and finalization. PV will gauge reactions and flush out any remaining
contentious issues by circulation of the final draft among the PECBMS network. This would, hopefully, allow a
general agreement to be put forward to cover other EBCC projects as well.
One of the main purposes of the paper was to remove current uncertainty about such policies in EBCC so that data
providers in particular were more aware of how their contributed information might be used and how they would
be involved and informed of this process. ExCo discussed the degree to which national trend information, as an
example, should be openly and freely available, as opposed to being tightly protected. After discussion, and
differences of opinion, the conclusion was that EBCC favoured making information more openly available;
although conscious of sensitivities and difficulty this might create for some national organisations.
12.
Scope of EBCC
With limited time available, this item was postponed to a future meeting.
13.
PECBMS
PV reported briefly on project progress. The third update of pan-European indicator species is being finalized, now
with 124 species. Species selection now finished (for the time being) because any more changes would have limited
acceptance and might impose major workload. The multi-species indicators have not been published; an official
release was planned soon. The individual European species indices were available on the EBCC web site from 18th
April. The European farmland bird indicator has been worked on and permission to supply Eurostat with national
versions has been requested from national partners. Since new Estonian data were not available, these were
computed from the old data. In general, as a consequence of missing data, the index for a particular year may well
change when real data become available later. This has to be communicated to Eurostat and EU (but is a general
problem of indices).
There are three PECBMS talks and one symposium during the Chiavenna conference, highlighting the importance
of the project to EBCC, and the need to provide feedback to the national data providers and others.
14.
SEED BI project
SB shortly reports on progress in the seven countries involved (Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Turkey, Macedonia,
Poland and Lithuania). Turkey, Macedonia, Belarus have just started work, with common bird monitoring
workshops and recruitment in progress. Lithuania and Romania started last year with workshops, now extending
work on recruitment. Bulgaria and Poland are more advanced with both having already started CBM schemes. All
seven countries should have representatives in Chiavenna and a SEED BI workshop is on the conference
programme. A special section on the SEED BI project is also now on the EBCC website. SB has provided a full
report on progress in the Chairman’s report, so see there - no appendix to these minutes.
17.
Next ExCo meeting
Provisional venue for next ExCo meeting will be the BTO Headquarters in Thetford. The exact date, time and
venue will be decided by the incoming ExCo.
18.
Next EBCC conference meeting
At present, we do not have a conference organiser or venue for the 18 th International Conference of EBCC in 2010.
There have been unconfirmed suggestions to meet in Spain, but other suggestions may be necessary and welcome.
The seasonal timing of the conference is important to avoid unnecessary clashes, for example, with the IOC (which
takes place in August 2010 in Brazil).
16.


Any other business
EBCC-endorsed best practice guide is on agenda of the PECMBS workshop at the conference and will be
taken forward.
AM reports on the new Russian Farmland CBM scheme. Additional forest bird monitoring project is now
being developed separately, but it is hoped that the two initiatives might be combined into a new breeding
bird survey
RG closes the meeting at 17.15 and thanks all participants for their contributions and fine work. Very special
thanks expressed to Przemek Chylarecki and Ward Hagemeijer, who will stand down from ExCo in Chiavenna,
both of whom have supported and actively promoted the work of EBCC in a very significant manner over a
number of years.
Chairman
Richard Gregory
Secretary
Hans-Günther Bauer
_____________________________________________________________________
APPENDIX
BCN short report to EBCC ExCo meeting 17.04.2007 Chiavenna
1.
BCN 19/2 (44 pgs): ready March. Pdf file of complete issue has been sent for the website, pdf-files of
individual articles have been forwarded to authors.
2.
Bird Census 20/1 (44 pages): deadline 31 May, mailing end of June
Proposed Contents:
author
Preface
G. Vermeersch & Marc Herremans
J. Elts
A. Mischenko
H. Heldbjerg
Book & reports
EBCC
EBCC
total
Anny Anselin
title
New common bird scheme in
Flanders
Atlas of Estonia
Corncrake (Kayseri abstract)
Monitoring in Denmark
various
Minutes of Board Meeting
Chiavenna
Name list of new ExCo
pages
1
6
total
1
7
Conf
5
8
6
6
5-6?
12
20
26
32
38
X
X
X
X
2
40
40
X
EBCC delegates - status report to the ExCo meeting 17 April 2007 in Chiavenna, Italy
Åke Lindström, EBCC Delegate’s Officer
A total of 46 European countries are currently identified and on the list (see below). New since April 2006 is
Montenegro. N means number of confirmed delegates per country.
Country
N
Albania
0
Andorra
2
Armenia
0
Austria
2
Azerbaijan
0
Belarus
0
Belgium
2
Bosnia & Herzegovina 2
Bulgaria
2
Croatia
0
Cyprus
2
Czech Republic
2
Denmark
2
Estonia
2
Finland
2
France
2
Country
FYRO Macedonia
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Norway
N
0
0
2
2
2
1
2
2
0
2
2
2
2
2
2
Country
Poland
Portugal
Republic of Ireland
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
The Netherlands
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
N
2
2
2
2
2
1
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
There are 73 confirmed delegates (60, one year ago), distributed as follows:
2 delegates
1 delegate
0 delegates
35 countries (27)
3 countries (6)
8 countries (12)
There is at least one delegate for 38 countries (33)
Some comments:
- The two Andorran delegates were presented to me through Richard Gregory but I never managed to establish
contact with either. One confirmed delegate from Moldova (Nov 2005) did not respond on the latest send-out. But
the other 70 should be ”aware and active”.
- There are a few more names on the list, but I did not have success with any of them.
- I hope and believe that recent send-outs made more delegates aware of their status and what they are suppossed
to do. Thus, general awareness level has probably risen since a year ago.
- Please find below a compact version of the delegate list.
Lund 3 April 2007
Åke Lindström
EBCC delegates status 3 April 2007
A date in the ”Contact” column means that the person has confirmed
Contact
20060601
20060601
20061212
20061212
20070129
20070201
20061212
20061212
20061220
20061220
20061208
20061211
20061220
20061220
20061207
20061207
20061212
20061207
20061208
20061210
20070109
20070320
20061207
20061214
20070115
20070109
20061218
20061218
20061207
20070109
20070301
20061212
20061221
Country
First name
Surname
Albania
Nikolla
Peja
Albania
Klodian
Ali
Andorra
Jordi
Dalmau
Andorra
Jordi
Nicolau
Armenia
Armenia
Austria
Michael
Dvorak
Austria
Norbert
Teufelbauer
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Michael
Nikiforov
Belarus
Lyubov
Vergeichik
Belgium
Koen
Devos
Belgium
Jean-Paul
Jacob
Bosnia & Herzegovina Dražen
Kotrošan
Bosnia & Herzegovina Branislav
Gašić
Bulgaria
Svetoslav
Spasov
Bulgaria
Nikolai
Petkov
Croatia
Tibor
Mikuska
Croatia
Goran
Sušic
Cyprus
Michael
Miltiadou
Cyprus
Nicos
Kassinis
Czech Republic
Jiri
Flousek
Czech Republic
Karel
Štastný
Denmark
Michael
Grell
Denmark
Henning
Heldbjerg
Estonia
Jaanus
Elts
Estonia
Agu
Leivits
Finland
Juha
Tiainen
Finland
Jari
Valkama
France
Frederic
Jiguet
France
Bernard
Deceuninck
FYRO Macedonia
FYRO Macedonia
Georgia
Georgia
Germany
Martin
Flade
Germany
Alexander
Mitschke
Greece
Costas
Papaconstantinou
Greece
Theodoros
Kominos
Hungary
Karoly
Nagy
Hungary
Tibor
Szep
Iceland
Kristinn H.
Skarphédinsson
Iceland
Gudmundur A.
Gudmundsson
Italy
Lorenzo
Fornasari
Italy
Toni
Mingozzi
Latvia
Ainars
Aunins
Latvia
Janis
Priednieks
20061221
20061208
20061207
20061207
20070109
20070201
20051117
20070104
20061206
20061206
20061213
20061220
20051220
20061220
20061215
20070110
20061220
20061208
20061207
20061207
20061213
20061211
20070104
20070109
20070109
20070131
20070126
20070129
20061207
20061207
20061207
20061207
20060406
20070109
20070122
20070221
20061215
20061212
20061207
20061214
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Malta
Malta
Moldova
Moldova
Montenegro
Montenegro
Norway
Norway
Poland
Poland
Portugal
Portugal
Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Romania
Romania
Russia
Russia
Serbia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Slovenia
Spain
Spain
Sweden
Sweden
Switzerland
Switzerland
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Turkey
Turkey
Ukraine
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Petras
Liutauras
Patric
Gilles
Denis
Andrè
Nicolai
Victoria
Darko
Andrej
Magne
Svein Håkon
Przemek
Cezary
Julia
Joao
Stephen
Olivia
Zoltan
Attila
Alexander
Mikhail
Marco
Kurlavicius
Raudonikis
Lorgé
Biver
Cachia
Raine
Zubcov
Nistreanu
Saveljić
Vizi
Husby
Lorentsen
Chylarecki
Mitrus
Almeida
Rabaca
Newton
Crowe
Szabo
Sandor
Mischenko
Kalyakin
Tucakov
Josef
Rudolf
Iztok
Davorin
Juan Carlos
Sergi
Åke
Sören
Verena
Hans
Ward
Frank
Ozge
Uygar
Igor
Valentin
Richard
David
Ridzon
Kropil
Geister
Tome
del Moral
Herrando
Lindström
Svensson
Keller
Schmid
Hagemeijer
Saris
Balkiz
Ozesmi
Gorban
Serebryakov
Gregory
Noble
__________________________________________________________________________________
Financial Report from Ruud Foppen
Assets
d.d. 10/01/2006
d.d. 04/15/2007 expected
REMARKS
cash money assets
210,00
0,00
bank check assets
76,38
153,68
GBP 104,55
Dutch bank account
12299,81
9124,36
12586,19
9278,04
Transactions Oct 1-Apr 15
Income
BCN 20 support IN
Total income
Costs
BCN 20 production
banking costs
Notary costs
Travel expenses ExCo meeting
Germany
Total costs
583,16
583,16
583,16
25,85
1785,00
1364,60
3758,61
Expected transactions
Expected income
JRC
4414
Total
4414
Expected costs
Data provision JRC to HSI
Data provision costs to WH
maintenance website EBCC by CSO
414 contract
mail
610 correspondence
invoice nr.
11/2006 and
1100 12/2006
2124